Give me a Challenge... however small

WOW... my last post on this blog was June 1st. I knew it was a while ago, but not that long. Sadly, there is not much "bike" news that I can pass on. I have been neglecting my bikes, and it shows. It has been too hot over the summer... I have been too busy at work.... I stayed up to late to do homework... and the list of excuses goes on and on. All of them just that... excuses and justifications (in my own mind) to not ride.

On Friday I was reading Mike's blog and came across a word that I had never heard before. "Coffeeneuring". Well, I clicked on the Coffeeneuring Challenge link on his blog and found the rules for a challenge that MG (a DC Rand rider) had created. "Coffeeneuring Challenge" rules as spelled out quite clearly on her blog, and it sounded like just what I needed, a challenge, to get my fat toucas back on the bike.

In a nutshell, I have to ride to 7 different coffee shops (of my choosing) by the end of October. The coffee shops have to be more than a 2 mile ride, the rides can only be done on Saturday and Sundays and you can only visit 1 coffee shop per day. Well, you can visit as many as you want, but only 1 will count towards the challenge.

The prize... the fun and exercise that you get doing the weekend rides is your prize. I am not looking at what I can get, I am REALLY looking at what I can lose. Maybe a couple lb's.

I made my list of coffee shops and made a plan. Saturday morning came around and I got the bike ready to go. Air in the tires, lube on the chain, wiped off all the cobwebs and I was off. I actually put the bike in the car and drove to the B&A trail and rode to Java Diva's. Information about Java Diva's can be found at their website Java Diva's . It ended up being a 16 mile ride at an incredible slow pace. On the way back to the car, I stopped at the Farmer's Market to meet Bev and get some good fall vegetables. It was a great ride, great weather and a great way to start the challenge.

Sunday morning was the true test. Would I get up and ride again? The coffee shop on the list today was City Dock coffee in Annapolis. This would require me to ride over some mountains (OK, just a bit of a stretch, but after being off the bike for so long, I knew they would feel like mountains). I pulled myself out of bed and downstairs to check the temperature to see how to dress. 46 degrees. I had complained all summer that it was too hot to ride, I could use the excuse that it was too cold to ride. I dressed appropriately and off I went. This time from the house I rode to City Dock coffee and then back home. I have not seen the Garmin statistics for that ride yet, but it was 17 miles at a slow pace.

Two down, 5 more to go. Next weekend I will knock out two more coffee shops and get a little bit more of my fitness back in the process.

Thanks for reading and I am going to try to carve out just a little bit of time every couple days to do an entry here.