Have you ridden every day in September so far, or worked on getting ready to ride?

In my quest to do a better job of 30 Days of Biking in September than I did in April (which got too complicated with travel for me to make it) I’ve assigned myself a weekly accountability post (Week One here). You’re keeping me on track, just like my advice to people considering bike commuting to enlist a friend.

Thursday, Sept. 8: What a great day! Rode first to an early-morning workshop on social media use in health care held at Deaconess Health & Education Center. From there I stopped at LaunchPad in downtown, then at Main Market Co-op for (you guessed it) an iced Roast House Coffee toddy, then got to campus.

Midday: Back on the road for a meeting of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council board, of which I’m currently a voting member. They let me take my bike right into the office to park when I attend meetings, which is awesome. Back to campus for more meetings and work, then home.

But wait–there’s more! After I got home and unloaded I changed my clothes and headed to the South Perry Farmers’ Market for peaches, two kinds of tomatoes, chard, spinach, lettuce, and rhubarb. Russ Nobbs of Rings & Things saw my rhubarb, asked if I wanted more, and I got to follow him home and score a big bunch. So big, in fact, that we couldn’t fit it into any of my numerous bags (we’re talking honking huge stalks three feet long, with a bit of the leaf left on so they’ll keep in water), so Russ bungeed them onto his bike rack and rode home with me–recumbent-delivered rhubarb. Miles: 10.57

Friday, Sept. 9: Another great day. Outfit: Gray skirt, black & white striped tank with black bead trim, a tangerine jacket, and my white high-heeled sandals.

I was on deck as a panelist at the monthly meeting for Greater Spokane Incorporated so I headed to the Doubletree by the Convention Center and parked at the rack in the parking garage. After the meeting I took the Centennial Trail along the river–simply gorgeous!–to another round of shoulder/back therapy, then back to my building for the day.

At the end of the day I changed clothes (a rare occurrence) so I could ride hard to get to a yoga class up the hill at Spokane Yoga Shala. After class I coasted home down the hill–earned acceleration all the way, baby. Miles: 7.41

Saturday, Sept. 10: Spokane has long, late, lovely fall weather and the trend continues. Rode to Chairs Coffee (which pours the delish Roast House Coffee I love) to meet up with my monthly girl gang for treats and talk (we meet on Second Saturdays because I started the group and am a sucker for alliteration), then to REI to staff the Belles and Baskets info table with Betsy (both of us rockin’ the Nuu-Muu/Ruu-Muu scene, of course). On to the Main Avenue Street Fair, home to my sweetie who spent part of the day on a 60-mile ride with the guys from his riding/racing club Spokane Rocket Velo, then to South Perry Pizza for dinner and four huge glasses of Arnold Palmer to offset the temps in the 90s. Miles: A very warm 8.28

Sunday, Sept. 11: SpokeFest! So of course I spent part of the day driving to take the Bike Style goods down to our vendor booth. (Well, actually, I served as passenger so Second Daughter could get in more time for her learner’s permit requirements. She’s a good driver.)

At the end of the day, though, Sweet Hubs and I hopped on our bikes in search of a little nosh. Frozen yogurt seemed like just the thing to end a really hot day (95 or so) so we headed uphill to Blu Berry Frozen Yogurt.

I managed to drop my chain on the outside of the big ring and jam it around the pedal in trying to do the trick where you shift and pedal it back onto the ring so we made one brief stop to fix it, but no biggie. We saw SpokeFest founder Bill Bender and his wife Berdine at the yogurt shop and had the chance to say thank you for another great event. Miles: 7.74

Monday, Sept. 12: I’m betting that for some people the workday miles are the tricky ones to get in. For me these are the easy choice for getting to work; I sometimes have to plan to get some weekend miles.

Outfit: White skirt, white tank, turquoise cotton blazer, white platform sandals. Work, downtown for coffee with Betsy and a couple of quick errands (easy on the bike: stop at the bank, pick up contacts from Cozza Optical), then back to the office and home at the end of the day. Miles: 7.67

Tuesday, Sept. 13: Does it get monotonous if I keep telling you what beautiful fall days I’m riding through? The riding isn’t monotonous–it’s perfect.

Stops along the way today: More therapy for my back/shoulder aches and pains (New York Times pegged the cause exactly), a meeting at the office, the Spokane County Commute Trip Reduction monthly lunch where I was recognized as August Commuter of the Month (woot!) back to work, then home.

Outfit: Tan capris, apricot sleeveless blouse with ruffled front, tan blazer, scarf from Finders Keepers II in cream/apricot/brown, and apricot kitten-heel pumps. Miles: 8.22

Wednesday, Sept. 14: Yep, gorgeous day. Temperatures are dropping from last week’s mid-90s to much more temperate 70s-80s with a light breeze.

Destinations: Therapy for that back/shoulder thing. Annual meeting of Greater Spokane Incorporated (so I needed to dress up a bit), with a great keynote address by Mark David Milliron of the Gates Foundation on the future of education. Walking tour of campus with some visitors from McKinstry. Wedding venue planning meeting (looking for a different venue for an event? Try the Spokesman-Review Tower Pavilion/Patio). Atticus for iced coffee from Roast House. Next door to Steelhead Bar & Grille to get in some more chat time with the future newlyweds before riding home.

Outfit: Dressy dress in white/turquoise/black and silk turquoise jacket, both from a splurge at Nordstrom’s. Black leather pumps (also Nordstrom’s, now that I think about it, but older). English adorableness in the form of my new white crocheted bike gloves with the blue bows from Ana Nichoola, which I just got in as the newest Bike Style product. (My English maternal grandmother would have approved.) Miles: 8.00

Things I notice about the week:

• The adaptations I’ve made to my wardrobe over the years have really paid off. I can dress for whatever weather conditions or work requirements come along and ride in comfort. When I splurged on that dress at Nordstrom’s, I bought it knowing I could ride in that skirt.
• Much higher mileage is easy to rack up: 57.89 this week compared with 36.12 last week. But it didn’t feel like any more work. Much of this mileage comes in bits of 1-2 miles and I don’t break a sweat.
• Making a commitment to 30 Days of Biking mattered. Sunday, despite the irony abounding in that I didn’t ride SpokeFest because I worked the event instead, I could easily have skipped getting in some miles. Because I had made the commitment and was determined to keep it, I got out of the house with my sweetheart for a date instead of subsiding gracefully onto the sofa.

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Posts in our 30 Days of Biking Blogging Inspiration & How-to Series for Sept. 2011 30 Days of Biking

1. 30 Days of Bike Commuting: You Can Do It!
2. Why We Ride/Resolve to Ride–A Blogspedition
3. Preparing to Commute by Bike: Get the Worry out of the Way
4. Buying a Bike for Commuting: Some Questions and a Blogspedition
5. How to Bike Commute: Getting the Gear Together
6. Bike Commuting 101: Carrying Stuff
7. On a Roll with Wilma Flanagan
8. 30 Days of Biking: Week One Report
9. Ride with your Community: SpokeFest Rocks!
10. There and Back Again: How to Pick your Bike Commute Route
11. Intro to Bike Commuting: Route Selection Part 2
12. More Bike Commuting Route Selection Tips: Part 3
13. Thinking Like a Driver vs. Thinking Like a Bicyclist
14. Biking as Downtime and other Musings on Overproductivity
15. 30 Days of Biking: Week Two Report
16. On a Roll with Katherine Widing
17. I Shouldn’t Assume
18. Falling Down on Your Bike. It Happens. To Grown-Ups.
19. Pretty Handy, Gloves. The Blogspedition Assumes You’ll Get ‘Em.
20. What to Wear for Your Bike Commute? Clothes.
21. How to Get a Dropped Bike Chain Back On, Grease-Free
22. 30 Days of Biking: Week Three!
23. It’s All in the Attitude
24. Things I Now Do on My Bike Without Having to Think About It
25. Mental Essentials for Bike Commuting: Risk and Trust
26. More Mental Essentials for Bike Commuting: Friendliness and Openness
27. Even More Mental Essentials for Bike Commuting: Tolerance, Humor, and Persistence
28. Bicycling Rites of Passage, Spokane Style
29. Dear Reader, I Chicked Him
30. 30 Days of Biking: Final Report!

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