Ride #491 The ancient Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” was insightful. Maybe that’s why it’s a proverb and Lao Tzu is quoted so often. A huge or daunting task starts with a small action and as progress become consistent it leads to results over time. It’s hard to believe that today is #499 and I’ll open the door to the 500s tomorrow. Now going from Day 1 to 365, a year is far more that going from 400 to 500, but still there were probably more obstacles in the 400 to 500 that the first year. I can’t really calculate why beyond the basic fact that I traveled more to other places this year versus the first year of my challenge. Loaner from my cousin. The last 100 days, even the last 25 days required infinitely more thought and intention that I expected. Being so close to 500 consecutive days of cycling made it more important that ever to get to that milestone. The weather has been a huge factor. If I wrote a book about it, the weather would be a prominent character. You know the type. It’s been like a pesky, persnickity, grump of a character that reminds you of its presence but offers no help or consul. I thought I’d wrap it at 365, even a leap year, 366. But I just kept pedaling and some of it was to just see if I could keep it up. Bundled up for my Divvy ride in Chicago. Then 400 and a perfect number to stop. But why not one more day. And another. It’s worse than a bag of chips. Yet, it’s not. It’s good for me and it makes me happy and I’m out in the world and taking it all in and that’s good. There may be a few regrets I have in my life. Some choices that I rethink, but biking is not one of them. Every day I can physically bike, I will. 500 is a good number, but so is 501. Bike the Lights. An Events at PIR, Portland International Raceway Get out there and ride! Bike Goddess

I’m still streaking. I’m closing in on 500 consecutive days of cycling, and lately the obstacles and challenges have been… interesting. I thought I’d check in today—Day 495—because this has been one of the most unusual things I’ve ever done on a bike. This feels like a real tortoise moment, and I kind of live by that story. Here are some photos of the last few weeks and rides. Details to come and more about the complexity of a streak few understand. Recap. August 8th was a year. 365 days in a row or cycling.

Have Brompton G-Line and will travel. The risk in talking about a streak is that somehow you will jinx it. You will attract some sort of mischief that will kill the streak. Better to just hunker down and do the thing and not draw any attention to it. I’ve been reflecting on this streak and happy to keep spinning and reviewing some of the days. Recently Day 260 proved to be very complicated because I was traveling and wasn’t quite sure if I could ride a bike through the aisles on an Amtrak.

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Today will mark 164 consecutive days of riding my bike. On Thursday, August 8th of 2024 I started the streak. I would have more but I missed a week recovering from surgery on my left foot to remove a cyst on my heel. I was bummed, but that's how it goes. Streaks are interesting in that you don't always consciously know you're in a streak until you think about it or someone points out that you're consistently doing something. While it did start in August, I was inspired by a cyclist I saw on Threads…