National Bike Challenge 2014

[Rod Smith]

You can sign up now! https://nationalbikechallenge.org You can use Mapmyride or Moves this year if you don’t like Endomondo.

1) Do we want to try for win in the large team category or coast to easy victory in the mid-size?

I think we should go big or go home but it’s going to be hard to beast Gainesville.

2) To that end should we name the team Washington Area All-Stars or something to that effect in order to be more inclusive and get more DC and Maryland riders onboard? Team name suggestions?

We need to recruit more riders if we want to have a chance. I’d like to keep it restricted to people who live within two hours from DC. Two hours by bike or course!

3) Who wants to be captain?

It’s an easy job and I’d like to let someone else do it this year. I nominate DBB.

Topic

[consularrider]

I’ve got to stop slacking off, Omaha has passed us on the leaderboard!

[cvcalhoun]

Whew! They finally posted the winners! I was thinking they weren’t going to get around to posting the June winners until sometime in August at this rate.

@PeteD 89631 wrote:

Looks like there were a couple of All Stars prize winners for June…

[Emm]

*sigh* Didn’t win again. I won something in the Bike Arlington post-bike-to-work-day raffle though, so that will comfort me until August…

[DCLiz]

I was surprised that a few people from Nebraska won, while not a single person from DC won. I thought, “Surely DC must have more riders than Nebraska. INJUSTICE!” But when I checked, Nebraska has over 2100 riders–more than Colorado with bike-friendly Denver–and is 2nd on the state leaderboards. Who knew Nebraska had a big cycling community?

[PeteD]

If you really want your mind blown, look at Wisconsin.

–Pete

[PotomacCyclist]

To celebrate (my not-winning anything), I’m taking my first rest day. Actually, I think it hasn’t been a good thing to ride every day. My hip flexors/upper quads have been sore for a week or so, because of some run hill workouts. Even my easy 3-mile rides have been enough to irritate the muscles and prevent them from healing completely.

I think I’ll try to take at least one full rest day each month for the rest of the challenge. I also take it easy on other days (easy effort, shorter rides — 20-30 min.). I thought that was enough to keep my legs feeling good. Maybe it would have been, if not for the run hill workouts. At least I plan to scale back from doing those for the remainder of the summer. So I might be a little less prepared for hill running. But the key is being fresh and healthy enough to ride (and run) consistently. The irritated hip flexors are starting to hamper my training. Not good.

[cvcalhoun]

Alas, I lost my perfect attendance record in this competition yesterday! In my defense, my bicycle was completely destroyed on Thursday, I wasn’t able to buy a new one until today, and I don’t live anywhere near a CaBi station. The good news is, I got in 14 miles bringing the new one (a 2012 Trek 7300, which I bought from Bike and Roll) home.

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[PotomacCyclist]

I ended up taking 3 or 4 days off in a row. Now I think that the quad problem is the result of long hours at work. All that sitting just kills my legs. I’m focusing more on getting some mini-breaks, with leg swings and basic leg drills (running drills but while walking in place). That seems to help.

Today is the halfway point of the Challenge. (It also happens to be the halfway mark of the Tour de France.)

[cyclingfool]

@PotomacCyclist 90319 wrote:

I ended up taking 3 or 4 days off in a row. Now I think that the quad problem is the result of long hours at work. All that sitting just kills my legs. I’m focusing more on getting some mini-breaks, with leg swings and basic leg drills (running drills but while walking in place). That seems to help.

Today is the halfway point of the Challenge. (It also happens to be the halfway mark of the Tour de France.)

Each is a national bike challenge, in its own particular way.

[dasgeh]

@cvcalhoun 90143 wrote:

Alas, I lost my perfect attendance record in this competition yesterday! In my defense, my bicycle was completely destroyed on Thursday, I wasn’t able to buy a new one until today, and I don’t live anywhere near a CaBi station. The good news is, I got in 14 miles bringing the new one (a 2012 Trek 7300, which I bought from Bike and Roll) home.

Nice new bike! But what happened to the old one? So sad to hear of the demise of a trusty steed

[KayakCyndi]

@PotomacCyclist 90319 wrote:

I ended up taking 3 or 4 days off in a row. Now I think that the quad problem is the result of long hours at work. All that sitting just kills my legs. I’m focusing more on getting some mini-breaks, with leg swings and basic leg drills (running drills but while walking in place). That seems to help.

Today is the halfway point of the Challenge. (It also happens to be the halfway mark of the Tour de France.)

I highly recommend a standing desk. After I pulled my hamstring, sitting was killing me. I decided it was time to stand. Made the Ikea-hack standing desk. That was January and I’m still standing. So much better overall.

Here is the link: http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Ikea-Standing-desk-for-22-dollars.html.

[cvcalhoun]

I had biked from Bethesda to Hyattsville (in the rain) for a rehearsal last Thursday. My wife figured I should be spared the rainy trip home, so she came and picked me up, and we put the bike on a rack on the back of the car.

Unfortunately, the rack (which was quite old) sort of disintegrated at the first bump in the road. The bike fell so hard the rear wheel got seriously bent.

Under normal circumstances, I’d just have replaced the wheel. But I’d recently been told that the bike was approaching the end of its useful life anyway — that the cost to fix it up was so much that I’d be better off getting a new one. So it seemed silly to get a new wheel for a dying bike.

The problem was that both my wife and I were having openings of plays we are in over the weekend, and there were several times we needed to be in different places at the same time. And we have only one car. So I was frantically searching for a bike in my size (which is not easy to find — I’m 5’9″) that was available immediately. And money was tight.

Fortunately, Bike and Roll came to the rescue. It turned out they had ONE bike in my size left over from last year. It had a broken front derailleur. But recognizing the urgency, they swapped out the derailleur from another bike the same day, so I could have a bike I could use. I bought it, then rode it the 14 miles home.

@dasgeh 90344 wrote:

Nice new bike! But what happened to the old one? So sad to hear of the demise of a trusty steed

[americancyclo]

just got this in the inbox the other day, for those that loved tapiriik.

[h=1]Endomondo is back![/h] Sorry for the fact that it took nearly 8 months. But, things are back on the rails and ready to go. You’ll need to reconnect your Endomondo account on tapiriik.com to get up and running again.

[cyclingfool]

I see several local folks, including some forum folks among the winners of this month’s prizes at NBC. Congrats, but I still feel cheated… only two months left to get my hands on some sweet toilet paper swag.

[ronwalf]

More forum members among the winners – Steve Offutt (bike shorts – gold!) and Brandon Jones (PB bike lights – bronze). Three years, and nuttin’! Three years! Don’t they realize I only bike to work for the tantalizing chance at lip balm, bottle openers, and toilet paper?

[Author]

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