MFP Biking Challenge July 6

Another week for the MFP Biker Gang!

What is everyone's pledge/goal for riding for the coming week?

I'd love to say 100 miles for myself but it's supposed to be raining for like the next 4 days :grumble:, so I'm not sure I'll get in 100 miles.

I will set a goal though of upping my distance by 10% again-that means doing one 45 mile ride sometime this week.

So, that's my pledge--increase my distance by 10% to 45 miles.

Anyone been watching the Tour de France? I'm inspired!

Here's some GREAT quotes I found, too, on the 'net that can give us inspiration for meeting our goals for the coming week!

The first one is my favorite!

Pedal On!

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"The bicycle is just as good as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community."

- Ann Strong "Borrowed" from the website of Intown Bicycles. Thanks Mike.

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race."

- H.G. Wells

"Cycling satisfies so many needs. If you're in a gregarious mood, you can go out with a group. OR you can go alone- solo. If you're in an aggressive mood, you can go fast, or if you're tired and want to unwind you can go slow. A bicycle doesn't discriminate in age, either."

- Georgena Terry

"Just as the ideal of classic Greek culture was the most perfect harmony of mind and body, so a human and a bicycle are the perfect synthesis of body and machine."

- Richard Ballantine

"Bicycles are social catalysts that attract a superior category of people."

- Chip Brown, "A Bike and a Prayer"

"Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity."

- Lord Charles Beresford Miscellaneous

"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. It's passenger is its engine."

- John Howard, U.S. Olympic cyclist

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel... the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."

- Susan B. Anthony

"Those who wish to control their own lives and move beyond existence as mere clients and consumers- those people ride a bike."

- Wolfgang Sachs, For the Love of the Automobile

"The bicycle should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets."

- Christopher Morley, novelist, and writer

"Bicycle riding as little as three miles a day will improve your sex life."

- Dr. Franco Antonini

"Cyclists are open-minded. Cyclists are egalitarian. Cyclists share a fellowhip of the wheel that can overcome all political, social, racial and economic barriers. Except for recumbents."

- Ted Costantino, cycling journalist

"Let our people travel light and free on their bicycles."

- Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

"Don't buy upgrades; ride up grades."

- Eddy Merckx

"Government must help to eliminate cars so that bicycles can help to eliminate government."

- Advocacy slogan in Holland

"Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There is something wrong with a society that drives a car to work out in a gym."

- Bill Nye, scientist and producer of public TV science programs

"The bicycle enables us to escape many other machines: We use it for transportation, sport, recreation, and make it a way of life."

- Jobst Brandt, famous wheel builder, and author of The Bicycle Wheel

"Bicycling is human scale- a living, breathing alternative to the city's domination by motor vehicles. There is magic in blending with traffic, feeling the wind in one's face, the sheer fact of traversing the city under one's own power."

- Charles Komanoff, cycling advocate

"For city bicycling to catch on we need a revolution in our society's infrastructure. Right now a city rider needs to be a road warrior, and the bike needs to be cheap and ugly so it won't get stolen. That's not a bike friendly culture."

- Gary Fisher, founder and CEO of Fisher Bicycles Riding

"City riding is a continual lesson in feminine principles, in particular the art of being vulnerable. A confrontational, macho aesthetic spells calamity. You must learn to yield, to dodge, to seek harmony. You are obliged to mind the web of interrelations, that complicated mesh of interestes, conflicts, and intentions."

- Chip Brown, essayist, and author of "A Bike and a Prayer"

"A road rider who is unpracticed is merely an athlete on a bike, half-educated, a pedaler- not a complete cyclist."

- Maynard Hershon, cycling journalist (visit our Effective Cycling web pages!)

"Nobody ever died from not knowing how to play flag football. Yet we spend tax money teaching kids its nuances in gym classes, while bicycle safety is still foreign to most school curriculums. That isn't right."

- Don Cuerdon, cycling journalist who uses the pen name "Captain Dondo"

Weather turned out great today after all--so I rode to the gym, did some weights, and rode home.

That gives me 16.5 miles for today and a good start on the week.

Got in 15 miles this morning. But boy, was it a push! Yesterday and today my rides were just torture for some reason. I really felt like I was pushing through mud--just no energy at all. Coupled with the no weight loss in the last week, and I'm not happy!

I'm starting to wonder if I need a break. I've been riding pretty much 4-6 days a week now for since April 1, with only the occasional day or two off, so I'm wondering if a week's break would be in order? Maybe my body just needs some time to regroup??