“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx
Work, meetings, and 90-degree afternoons turned Days 5 through 9 of my National Bike Month Ride-Every-Day-in-May personal challenge into a test of creativity. After all, who wants to ride the exact same route at the exact same time every single day? Not me. But, I also didn’t want to drive a car to get to a decent place to ride my bike everyday. So, the challenge was how to mix it up around the neighborhood, find safe places to ride, and keep it interesting.
Enter Google Earth… Zoom in on the neighborhood, find interesting looking landmarks and features, and start drawing potential routes. Bingo! Strap on the helmet and go.
Days 5, 6, and 7: New neighborhood routes – New streets, new people, new things to see, hear, and wonder about. A 12-miler, a 6-miler, and a 13-miler.
Day 8: Sunset Ride – Yep, change up the time. Ride at sunset. We put on the flashy head and tail lights, got out the cruiser/mountain bikes, and set out on an easy evening ride while watching the sun go down and waving to the neighbors.
Day 9: Beach ride at sunset: Yep, needed to get out and about after a long week. So we ditched the neighborhood and headed to the beach for a sunset ride, dinner, live music by Hide Tide (at Times Square and a special song by an 8-year old girl on her birthday!!), plus ice cream on the pier. Can’t beat that for a Friday night! Ah….
Always open to other suggestions for ways to keep the riding interesting. What keeps your everyday local rides fun?
Endless Seeker 