30 Days of Biking Day 30: 30 & 300 Miles!

Good evening on the final day of 30 Days of Biking 2022! Today was a microcosm of this month, which means it ended better than it began. Some early morning rain kept me inside doing household chores, but the afternoon weather was great for a distance ride into downtown Columbus:

Some clouds and a little wind not withstanding, the rain held off long enough to get in a solid 30 miles. I didn't stop for many pics along the way as a result, but here are a couple:

Really liking that sculpture. It's only a couple blocks from Land Grant Brewing and/or Brewdog Franklinton. I can envision many a drunken picture taken in this spot. Ha...

On the way home, I stopped by my friends at Heritage Cycles in Grove City to pick up some new tires for My Therapist:

They're definitely needed, and this will be a good project for a future rainy day. I probably could have done it today, but I had a bunch of other household things to get done. On top of that, the girl is going to require some serious cleaning after today:

I gave her a quick hose down before putting her in the garage for the evening, but I'm going to need to get the real deep cleaning tools out once I take the tires off. So, it actually works out perfectly. Sort of.

With that, this wraps up my 7th completed 30 Days of Biking challenge. This has been the weirdest, and dare I say most challenging, I've experienced so far. It rained or snowed and temperatures barely got above 50 on just about every day for the first two weeks of the month. In hindsight, it's no surprise that I didn't commute via bicycle until the 20th, that I logged just 30 miles in the first week, and 36 in the 2nd week. It's also kinda crazy that I sneaked in 65 miles in one day on the 16th, just about doubling my monthly mileage:

Still, the challenges extended beyond weather. With our child deciding to participate in track this Spring, our schedules were all much busier every afternoon. The family didn't really desire to participate in rides in part due to the weather but also due to hectic scheduling. That hurdle was a little tough for me to overcome, because I always enjoy getting others involved, and especially my family. On one random occasion, I did run into my Heritage friends on my way for coffee:

This was another welcome sign that things were going better to close out the month, and as I sit here having just barely gotten to 300 miles for the month, I can say that yes, April did finish on a good note. I'm hopeful that four consecutive bicycle commutes in the final week is a harbinger for late Spring:

I'm sure the family rides will come once the school year ends and Summer vacation is in full swing, and the miles don't really matter except for me competing with my own self. Now the real challenge is to keep it going beyond 30 Days of Biking. I hope you've been inspired to ride this month, and hopefully to ride more this Summer!