May Cycling Challenge 2018

[jordanread]

The cycling challenge for May 2018 is up and ready for you to start (or continue) riding!!
If you logged miles last month, and selected "Remember Me" on the form, you have been added to this month's sheet already.

If you didn't log miles last month, or are a new participant
Click here to fill out the form.
You can access the sheet directly at this link.
I can manually grab your historical data too, so if it's off, just let me know.  If they aren't there within a day, or you have any other issues with the sheet, hit me up via email, Google+ Hangouts, PM, or just comment on this thread.
You can also join the MMM Strava Group for additional metrics and motivation. Happy Biking.

[meghan88]

bump to first page

[jordanread]

bump to first page

Thanks!! I think one thing I'm changing up is that I will ask for what the question should be for the next month.

What think you all?

[hadabeardonce]

"How was your commute today?" would keep the thread up.

Physical conditioning questions/topics would be informative and frugal. When I started bike commuting I thought I would be able to adapt faster to riding everyday, but every other day has been more doable over the past few months. Last week I rode 4 out of 5 days (40 miles) and I was still feeling sore this morning when I pedaled off. I haven't lost a noticeable amount of weight either... shouldn't it fall off while I'm riding? Maybe I need to aim for pot holes or bike upside down...

Combining this thread and the "newbie cycling questions thread" in this same sub-forum would also keep you on the first page. Perhaps leaving the challenge a long running thread instead of creating a new thread each month would keep more notifications going to those who've posted in it.

Increase cycling, reduce donut intake *sigh*, gradually meet long term goals...

[TrMama]

You know what makes biking easier? Doing 10 million squats.

I've spent the past 3 days, plus one evening painting the exterior of my house. Among other sore muscles, my quads felt shredded from the repetitive motion of "paint up high, squat to paint down low".

However, this morning, when I biked to work I seemed to have developed another gear going uphill :-)

[Morning Glory]

The other day I personally reduced the number of cars on the road between my house and work by 1/3. Who says one person can't make a difference? Ok, I left the house at 0430, so not many people out; I only saw 2 moving cars between my house and work.


 I am up to 56 commute miles this month, plus a couple extra because I sometimes take a longer but nicer route home. I think the early morning is my favorite time to bike because there is no traffic. Coming home at 5 pm, the traffic is a pain but it would be just as bad in a car.

[evensjw]

Physical conditioning questions/topics would be informative and frugal. When I started bike commuting I thought I would be able to adapt faster to riding everyday, but every other day has been more doable over the past few months. Last week I rode 4 out of 5 days (40 miles) and I was still feeling sore this morning when I pedaled off. I haven't lost a noticeable amount of weight either... shouldn't it fall off while I'm riding? Maybe I need to aim for pot holes or bike upside down...

Increase cycling, reduce donut intake *sigh*, gradually meet long term goals...

I definitely found that cycling to work just made me hungry, and I felt justified to eat a lot since I was riding 12 miles a day.  I recently tried keto which is the first thing that has actually caused a weight loss (I suspect in part by drastically reducing beer intake, although the science of becoming a fat burner instead of a sugar burner is fascinating).

You know what makes biking easier? Doing 10 million squats.

I've spent the past 3 days, plus one evening painting the exterior of my house. Among other sore muscles, my quads felt shredded from the repetitive motion of "paint up high, squat to paint down low".

However, this morning, when I biked to work I seemed to have developed another gear going uphill :-)

I also agree that biking a lot doesn't necessarily seem to help you bike better.  Strength training, especially of core muscles, is vital.  A short time of isometric training (like holding a squat or lunge just over halfway down) is meant to be the way to go.

[jordanread]

I am done with administering this challenge.

[Kmp2]

😢 I will miss you challenges Jordan, and much thanks for the many months of bike tracking!

[spoonchucker]

I am done with administering this challenge.

Noooooo.....
That's unfortunate, it certainly helped push me to keep riding, when I didn't feel like it.

Thanks for taking the time to administer the challenge for so long.
It is much appreciated.

[J'Oden]

Hey all. I'm back on the forums in an extremely limited capacity. I still will not be administering this challenge anymore. That being said, I have a lot of historical data, and a fair amount of code to somewhat automate it each month. PM me if you are interested in taking the torch. As is probably obvious, this is all done via Google Drive, so if you have a gmail account, you have everything you need.

I should have done this before I left, but there was a sense of almost desperation for me, and I apologize for that.