Myrna CG Mibus - Idyllwild

The last three years, the month of September has brought a bonus round of 30 Days of Biking to all who want to participate and ride their bikes every day. This year, I didn't hear anything about the bonus round in the days leading up to September so I messaged 30 Days co-founder, Patrick, to ask him if it was happening this year. He replied saying there was no official September round this year but I was welcome to do it on my own. So I did. I got out on my bike every day except for two - I was sick in bed one day and totally forgot the other. But, other than those two days, I was out riding. I took part in a couple of organized rides with my family, the Jesse James Bike Tour and the Saint Paul Classic . Other than those rides, I mostly rode my fatbike around the neighborhood I usually keep track of my rides and make big milage goals for 30 Days of Biking. I didn't do that this time around. In fact, I hardly tracked my rides at all. Instead of thinking about dis...

Owen will be a little embarrassed that I am writing this blog entry about him. But, well, he's taking a nap and won't know I am doing this until it's too late to stop me so here I go... I just thought you should know that Owen rode the Jesse James Bike Tour's century ride today. That's 100 miles of bicycling in a whole lotta heat. Owen's been wanting to do a century ride for a long time now. He's been talking about ever since we started riding about four years ago. But, honestly, I think he's been wanting to do this for years longer. Maybe even decades. Owen last rode a century ride about 4 decades ago (he probably doesn't want me to tell you that) when he was in his late teens. I believe he did five century rides back then. We've talked about doing a century together but I knew that a century wasn't in the cards for me this year. So, we decided I would take the kids on the 10 mile Jesse James Bike Tour route today and Owen would find som...

September brought, along with gorgeous weather all month, another round of 30 Days of Biking . I've done every round of 30 Days of Biking since it started in April 2010 but really wasn't sure about doing the fall "bonus round" this time. I'm in a musical so I'm in rehearsals four evenings a week plus I'm tackling a huge project for work -  finding time to ride my bike every day, I knew, would be nearly impossible. But I decided to take on the challenge anyway. And I finished it. And I'm glad I stuck with it. It wasn't easy. Well, 30 Days of Biking never is easy - it's a challenge, after all - but this time I struggled more than before with just finding the time to get on my bike. Most of my rides were short, a mile or so around the neighborhood, a quick hop with the kids after school before I headed to rehearsal. On weekends I would get a longer ride in with Owen, 20 miles or more and we did one epic ride - 63 miles for the Jesse James ...

It's Monday and normally I'd be getting ready to head off to Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra rehearsal tonight but I won't be doing that for a few months. Why? Well, I did something sort of crazy, I auditioned for a Merlin Players theater production and I got a part. I'll be playing Sister Robert Anne in a Nunsense musical directed by Julianna Skluzacek -  Meshuggah Nuns . Meshuggah, by the way, is a Yiddish word meaning crazy . Huh? Yiddish words in a musical about nuns? Well, yes - because the Nunsense Sisters are on a "Faith of all Nations" cruise where they were to see Fiddler on the Roof but the cast, save the man who plays Tevye, all get sick.  So the Sisters and Tevye put on a musical review complete with Fiddler on the Roof type songs. Sounds crazy? Yeah - but most of all it sounds fun! We started rehearsals two weeks ago then, thankfully, had last week off which was a great relief because last week was the craziest week of the year - the first wee...

Well, Round 4 of 30 Days of Biking came to a close last Friday - just in time for me to get sick with a terrible cold. Ugh. I'm not happy about the cold but am happy I finished 30 Days of Biking for the fourth time. The weather for Round 4 was almost perfect. I didn't have to bike in the snow like I did last April or in the pouring rain like last September . Instead, save for some light drizzle here and there and some killer winds, the weather was great. Completing Round 4 of 30 Days of Biking -  though still a challenge - was not too hard this time around. Looking on my Dailymile history it looks like I logged more miles on my bikes during this month than I ever have before. So, in light of that accomplishment I'm going to share some highlights of Round 4 of 30 Days of Biking. Here they are (in no particular order): •I biked 317 miles during September •Owen did the 30 Days of Biking challenge with me again. This was his third round •Two other friends of mine ...

Road bike or gravel riding? How about both? How about two of the best rides I've ever had in less than a week? Yep. I'll take that. I think I'll call them Big Ride 1 and Big Ride 2. I'm going to start with Big Ride 2 because I just got back from riding it. Ever since I started riding gravel (I've probably ridden it only ten times since last fall)  I have wanted to ride what I call "the big hill." Today I set out with a goal of riding 5 miles of gravel and took off and hit just about every gravel road and dirt path near my house. I rode five miles and kept going. At about 7 miles I was ready to head home but the big hill was there. I decided to go for it. The big hill is actually two big hills - a big one down into a valley then a big one back up the other side. Then of course I have to ride back down and up again to get home. I thought the first "up" was going to be a challenge but I managed it pretty well. Then I turned around to head ...

Both kids are in camp this week. Rose is gone from 9:15 to 2:00 each day at Young Peoples Theater Workshop - a wonderful theater camp put on by the Northfield Arts Guild. Ryan is at Science camp this week from 9:00 until noon. While it appears the camp schedule allows me some time to work, reality is that I spend a lot of time driving to and from town to get the kids. Today, though, I have the morning at home and some time to myself before I head back to town to get Ryan. I thought I was going to have the morning free to work but we have people coming over for dinner so I need to at least clean off the kitchen counters and wipe off the patio table. I'd also like to prepare some food, fold the laundry and, oh yes, do some work in my office. Did I mention that I only have an hour and fifteen minutes to do all this (and take a shower) before I need to head back into town? I wonder why I set impossible goals for myself. Perhaps I need to slow down or set different kinds of goals - ...

When I bought my road bike this year I worried that I would find the tiny saddle, forward position and drop handlebars uncomfortable and that I wouldn't want to ride because of it. Much to my surprise, my Giant Avail is very comfortable and my bike of choice when I want to go out for a ride. I discovered, however, that there are two big disadvantages to riding my Avail on family rides like the one we just took on the Cannon Valley Trail . My road bike is way faster than everyone else's bike. This isn't too much of a problem when Ryan is on the Trail-a-Bike but will be more of an issue when he wants to ride on his own. My hard soled biking shoes with SPD cleats are not good for hiking when Rose and Ryan decide to check out things along the trail. We're planning another family ride for this weekend, this time around the beautiful Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. Ryan is going to ride his own bike this time so I expect even more starting and stopping on this ride and a s...

To finish off my 30 Days of Biking challenge in fine style, Owen and I are heading down to Lanesboro, Minnesota, to ride the Root River Bike Trail and celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. At the moment, though, we are sitting in Tires Plus waiting to get two new tires on my van. That's not so fun, but it's giving me a chance to update you on my 30 Days of Biking experience and tell you a bit about Loving the Bike . One unexpected side benefit to my 30 Days of Biking experience is that I've been "meeting" all sorts of super bicycling people. I say meeting in quotes because I'm not actually meeting these people in person (though I expect I may at some point in time). Instead, I'm getting to know people via social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. I've started following the tweets of 30 Day founders, Patrick and Zachariah (aka @patiomensch and @zachamon) and, much to my surprise, they are following mine. Another person I've met is ...

So I decided to ask if I could participate in the 30 Days of Biking challenge even though I was starting two days late. I figured out how to tweet Patrick, one of the guys in charge of getting people on the 30 Days of Biking list, and he said I could do it. Yay! I'm in! I just got back from a very quick ride around the neighborhood on my hybrid. The kids are home from school today, their last day of Spring Break, and I looked at our schedule and realized that if I was going to ride my bike today I had better jump on my bike and do it now. So, even though I had already showered and was dressed in real clothes, I stuck my helmet on my head, rolled up my jeans, grabbed my Specialized hybrid and took off. I have not ridden my hybrid since last fall. Now that I've been riding my new Giant Avail road bike the hybrid feels really strange. Very upright and much harder to pedal. Now I'm  kind of amazed I did the 30 mile Jesse James Bike Tour on a hybrid. As for my first two da...

I picked up my new road bike last night. The nice young man at Valley Bike and Ski taught me how to clip in to my Shimano SPD pedals. It took me awhile to figure it out but I got the hang of it enough to feel like I could practice more at home and do fine. And, since I know just about nothing about riding a road bike, he then showed me how to shift my Shimano 105s, the gear shift things on my handlebars. He answered more questions for me, helped me pick out a bike bag, filled my tires and helped me load my new bike and Owen's in my van. To say I was excited is an understatement. Excited and nervous and also wondering a bit of what I've gotten myself into. Remember, I only started riding bike for real last summer when I bought a helmet and decided to ride the 30 mile Jesse James Bike Tour in September ( you can read about this adventure if you click here ). I rode regularly for a month to prepare for the ride on my old Specialized hybrid bike and finished the ride averaging a...