30 Days of Biking Eve, With Apologies

You know that feeling you had as a kid the night before you knew you were leaving on a big family vacation? Since 2016, that's what March 31st has felt like to me. The eve of what has become my favourite month of the year, which is not my birth month, but rather the month of 30 Days of Biking. If you're unfamiliar, it's pretty simple: it's a pledge to ride a bike every day in April, and share on social media with the hashtag #30DaysofBiking. No mileage goal, no other goals except riding a bike every day. If you've been following me before today, you know that this is no longer that much of a challenge.

Somewhat sadly, I don't have that same feeling this year, and of course there are some reasons. I'm not going to blame the somewhat sentient being that is "The Pandemic," but last year left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled. I also feel like the idea of the challenge has lost some of its lustre - if you want the most literal representation, read how much more enthusiastic I was about this day 5 years ago when I first attempted the challenge. I attribute at least some of that to my decision to move to the suburbs in Ohio, which are quite boring after you've been here for awhile (I promise no more potshots directed at Ohio for the remainder of this blog post. One dig is enough).

Still, I am looking forward to 30DoB for a few reasons. One, it will give me a push to write on here much more, and to write more in general. My personal tradition has been to post every day on here, no matter how brief the post, and this has always been rewarding. And two, it seems like things are returning to the "old" normal slowly but surely, as evidenced by the willingness of friends (and girlfriend) to take rides together on the last couple weekends:

This is your reminder that biking is one of the best socially-distant exercise activities. Mask worn for good measure to prove that it's not a big deal to wear a damn mask. Anyway...a brief aside to show a few more pics from a nice 10-mile Saturday last weekend:

I apologize for the overall "Eeyore-esque" nature of the first part of this post. It's not my usual M.O. If you're a regular reader of this blogspace, I bet you didn't expect it. But that brings me to my final reason to look forward to 30DoB, and that is, I never know what's going to come of it. I like that aspect of it. Every year is a little bit different.

I know better than to expect to bike 700 miles this month, something that may never happen again. I know better than to expect anything, other than some form of enjoyment from riding a bike even if only for a few minutes a day. That's really what it's all about - the ultimate goal.

Speaking of, I do set extra goals for myself during 30DoB every year, and they don't usually involve mileage, though it becomes a quest of sorts to see "how far I can go" and so on. I'm keeping it extra simple this year: visit AT LEAST one new park each week, meaning a park I have never been to, either here in Columbus or otherwise. This might not sound like a daunting task considering that Columbus has 19 Metro Parks, but by my count I've visited 12 of these and most of them are relatively close to where I live, so it's going to require some adventuring. So, I guess I'll see how far I can go?

Of course, my real deep down hope in all of this is that I'll post these things and inspire you to do amazing things on your bike, or with your running or hiking shoes, or your rollerblades or even roller skates if you own said things. It's Spring time. It's time to start being outside again. Time to appreciate the thing that makes me happiest of all. Let's ride.

"Happy" Anniversary!

Today is March 22nd, 2021. One year ago today, I started a streak of daily bike riding that continues to this day (yesterday was actually the 365th day - more info on why later). Of course, I celebrated by taking to the trails with my girlfriend on an absolutely gorgeous 2nd day of Spring:

We opted to check out the Alum Creek trail on the east side of Columbus with hopes of also doing some food foraging. The second idea didn't prove to be fruitful due to the recent weather, but the day was still as enjoyable as there wasn't much wind to speak of, and plenty of sunshine:

So, we stuck mostly to the bikes and did a nice even 10 miles out and back. Not bad for her first real ride of the year. And of course, no celebration would be truly complete without a celebratory beer, this one complements of 2 Tones Brewing:

And in a weird coincidence, a detour led us to decide to round out the adventure by stopping by Pierogi Mountain for some dinner:

It's a weird coincidence because I have a loose tradition of eating pierogi on or about March 18th, dating back to 2014. This was totally unplanned, but that's usually how the best adventures work out.

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So, why exactly did I decide to ride a bike every day for a year, and why did I decide to start on March 22nd, 2020? Well you see, for those of you who have been living in a cave, there's been some sort of global crisis going on for the last year-plus. I decided on the day that it truly affected me that I had to do something...

But wait - hasn't everyone been referring to March 11th as the day everything in the US got shut down? Yes, but looking back, that's what makes this whole thing so bizarre - everything wasn't shut down on that day. The NBA and NHL decided to suspend their seasons on that day. For 11 days after that, my work schedule was unaffected. Other than restaurants and bars being banned from dine-in service, my life really didn't change all that much. I lived in this weird gray area where it seemed like life was going to be minorly inconvenienced for a few weeks, maybe a month.

Until the Ohio governor decided to close just about everything on March 22nd. It was a day just like most other Sunday afternoons. I was home, working on removing carpet and re-painting a room that would become the office, when I got a text from my boss telling me to tune in to the governor's address. For the purposes of this blog, I'll gloss over a lot of the rest of the details, but that was the moment when I thought, "Oh wow. This is pretty serious." My natural reaction was to take a bike ride to clear my head, and that began the streak.

We were told to shelter in place for the time being, and my employer graciously gave us a week of paid leave while they figured things out. I know damn well I was quite fortunate. In the next few days, I started to turn that into an opportunity as much as I could, and a daily ride became a quest of sorts.

I wrote at the time, "If we can all find some positivity, do a thing (or things) we love at least once a day, and above all else be supportive of one another, I do believe that we will all be OK." Not to toot my own horn, but that's the best way to sum up why I did what I did, and I firmly believe riding a bike even if only for a few minutes a day is the single most important thing that's helped keep me sane through all of this. Friends and family are great, but we also need something we ourselves can rely on, too. Out of a very bleak set of circumstances for all of humanity, I'm thankful that I did find that one thing within myself to keep me moving (literally) every day.

The months passed, the seasons changed, tempers flared, tensions escalated, life got worse, life got better, life got worse again, the holidays passed, the calendar changed, I swore off alcohol for a month, life might be getting better again, and every day in there was a ride of some sort. And a lot of comma splices.

It goes without saying that those bike rides and many of those days were not peaches and cream. In fact, some of them were downright miserable, and many of them were boring. Spending the majority of the last year in Grove City, OH, I've learned more about the streets, roads, and trails around this small town than I care to admit, and I'm not surprised by much around here anymore. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to find a new adventure, because seeking it seems natural to me. On that note, I have no plans on ending the streak any time soon. 30 Days of Biking is on the horizon, after all. I'm sure there will come a day when the schedule or circumstances don't allow (after the end of April, of course), and now that I've finally done a full 365, I'll be cool with it.

One final thing I'd like to add is that even though I spent most of those rides alone, I certainly couldn't have done this alone. I had help from my girlfriend, Mom, Stepdad, Dad, Rachel's sister, the CitiBike Bikeshare system, I'm sure someone I'm forgetting (it's been a year - give me a little slack), and of course, all of you who sent inspirational messages and the few who were able to join in rides together. I hope I brought a little inspiration into your lives as well along the way.

So let's keep riding for another 365, shall we? I don't need a global pandemic to inspire me this time.

She Took Him to the Lake

I haven't updated here in a bit, but I assure you I have been riding. There's just not much to write about when you bike laps around the same boring small town every day. At least the worst of Winter is hopefully over and my daily biking streak has somehow survived. Update over. Ha...

Spring is just a couple weeks away, but there have been plenty of relatively nice days to be outside over the last couple months. Despite the cold, I was able to take advantage of one of those days this past Saturday when my family visited my girlfriend's family near Cleveland. They were all busy working or crafting during the early part of the day, so I borrowed her sister's bike to take a brisk ride:

I had a chance to explore the area surrounding their home back in November, which did include the Liberty Row Oaks living monument seen above. I kept to many of the same trails I visited a few months back and ended up going a few steps further. In some cases, onto different terrain:

A local saw me snapping pics of the sign and asked why. My honest answer: it looks funny to me. I'm not sure why. In any case, I moved through that area to the Lake-to-Lakes, which leads to the urban Harrison Dillard Bikeway just east of Midtown Cleveland:

This trail eventually leads to the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway:

This was my intended destination, and I arrived there 8+ miles after departure in about 45 minutes. I assure you, I was not warm, even with appropriate attire. It was worth it for some unique Winter views:

I've been to Lake Erie probably a dozen times or so (which seems like a lot for a guy who grew up in Eastern PA), but I'd never seen it partially iced over. It was neat to see, but I didn't want to stay too long due to the biting cold wind - SINGLE DIGIT WIND CHILL FACTOR WOOHOO!

Anywho, I decided not to backtrack on the return trip, and instead took a detour thru some of the lesser traveled areas in Midtown Cleveland, full of blighted abandoned buildings like this one:

I have no idea why, but I find old buildings fascinating. In fact, I once did a blog series that largely centered around exploring these kinds of areas via bicycle. I kind miss it, to be honest. Perhaps a return is in order...

I paused briefly to get a cup of coffee and a snack at Cafe Phix Midtown (not pictured) which featured this Nice Rack outside:

 Hey, I used to do a blog series on those too.

Anywho...after that, I began the somewhat arduous return trek to Shaker Heights. The nice thing about riding towards the lake was that it was literally all downhill. The return trip was the opposite (of course), but I did luck out in that I received a boost from a pretty significant tail wind. I did feel like I could ride a little more after I got back, but it was nearing noon and the family would be gathering for lunch soon. This was the only major cycling adventure of the weekend, but the first of hopefully many to come this year.

Thanks again to Jackie for letting me borrow her bike again. It was really nice to escape riding around the same 4 trails for at least one morning...