Bike to Work Month: Victory
Starting in 2014, my company has had a "bike to work" contest in one summer month of each year. The first year they had prizes for "Most total bike commutes" and "most miles covered in one bike commute". Since 2015, they've also had "most miles via bike commute over the month." I won that category in the first time around when I set my July record of 232.7 total miles over 13 commutes.
July 2016 and July 2017 didn't go as well, mostly because I had substantial vacations in July both of those years. Missing even a few days of work can really cut into the available days to ride.
As it happens, this year they moved the content to June to correspond with a local initiative. I didn't take any vacation in June, and I consciously decided to not worry about missing my (recently moved to 6:30) CrossFit class, so only a few bad weather days (or at least threatened bad weather days) and one or two conflicts kept me from riding. As a result, I knocked out 14 rides for 250.6 miles. This marked the third time I had ridden that distance in a single month, broke my old June record (June 2017, 189.2 miles, 11 commutes) and handily won the contest at work. The next highest total was not even at 200 miles. I apparently have won a gift card to a local bike shop, which I'm sure will go into new pedals.
Naturally, I didn't come close to the "most total commutes" because I've got competition that lives half a mile from work, but still, I've won the "most miles" category 2 of the 4 years it has existed, which I can't complain about.
Oh yes, and as I ride across Arda I take my total of 3762.7 miles from 2015 to 2017 and the 483.3 I've ridden this year, and I'm at 4246 total miles. For those crossing Arda, that has me finishing the eight leg with Aragorn to Minas Tirith. With decent numbers for the rest of 2018 I should be able to get everybody else to Minas Tirith (through leg 11) and maybe even start them home. Of course, last week I drove nearly ~2500 miles in about 3.5 days so clearly it's all relative.
July 2016 and July 2017 didn't go as well, mostly because I had substantial vacations in July both of those years. Missing even a few days of work can really cut into the available days to ride.
As it happens, this year they moved the content to June to correspond with a local initiative. I didn't take any vacation in June, and I consciously decided to not worry about missing my (recently moved to 6:30) CrossFit class, so only a few bad weather days (or at least threatened bad weather days) and one or two conflicts kept me from riding. As a result, I knocked out 14 rides for 250.6 miles. This marked the third time I had ridden that distance in a single month, broke my old June record (June 2017, 189.2 miles, 11 commutes) and handily won the contest at work. The next highest total was not even at 200 miles. I apparently have won a gift card to a local bike shop, which I'm sure will go into new pedals.
Naturally, I didn't come close to the "most total commutes" because I've got competition that lives half a mile from work, but still, I've won the "most miles" category 2 of the 4 years it has existed, which I can't complain about.
Oh yes, and as I ride across Arda I take my total of 3762.7 miles from 2015 to 2017 and the 483.3 I've ridden this year, and I'm at 4246 total miles. For those crossing Arda, that has me finishing the eight leg with Aragorn to Minas Tirith. With decent numbers for the rest of 2018 I should be able to get everybody else to Minas Tirith (through leg 11) and maybe even start them home. Of course, last week I drove nearly ~2500 miles in about 3.5 days so clearly it's all relative.