Living Car Free - challenging yourself

Every year, the Tour de France rolls around. And in the handspinning community, there's a newish tradition of the Tour de Fleece. Spin every day, and challenge yourself to achieve something you think is truly hard. A new spinner might just work on making yarn every day. An experienced spinner might challenge themselves to spin a mile of yarn in a day, or to spin the yarn for a project and finish the project during the Tour.

And well... I usually add on a biking goal to my Tour challenge. I usually don't ride my bike every day, and am a lot more likely to walk than bike, if I can. I didn't achieve my bike goals last year. So... I'm going to try to bike every day during the Tour this year. No mileage goals (I'll save that for the yarn) just work on getting over the hurdle of the damn basement stairs.

(and maybe I can get back on the no AC bandwagon...)

I have a permanent daily goal to exercise more than one hour. (Like Torrilin, I find time rather than miles to be a better goal.) Sometimes I have training goals in addition. I might spend a month working on a goal to increase cranking cadence, for example, or boosting average speed, or climbing more hills.

I'll never make it to the TdF, of course, but if I don't challenge myself, I feel like I'm just standing still.

As much as I am sick of seeing Tour de ANYTHING, I think Tour de Fleece is brilliant. I chuckled while reading this and think it is great.

I used to track bicycle miles, but eventually gave it up.

I don't track time on the bicycle, either, because I refuse to wear a watch or even a cyclocomputer. I prefer if bike rides are somewhat "timeless" or at least not timed.

However, I have a personal goal of travelling wherever I need to by bicycle. Sometimes, this seems more than I physically can do, so I have to be very creative about what I want to do and what I can do.

I have a permanent daily goal to exercise more than one hour. (Like Torrilin, I find time rather than miles to be a better goal.) Sometimes I have training goals in addition. I might spend a month working on a goal to increase cranking cadence, for example, or boosting average speed, or climbing more hills.

I'll never make it to the TdF, of course, but if I don't challenge myself, I feel like I'm just standing still.

Do you consider commuting time as exercise? One of the reasons I am attempting to increase bike commuting time is so that I don't have to "exercise". I figure the more time on the bike riding to where I have to go (work, library, grocery, entertainment etc.) the less time I have ride, swim, run, lift (I realize that is different) to "exercise. Today this has a way to go in practice. Someday (because I'm riding and walking so much) other than perhaps some weight lifting I hope to never have to exercise again.

Do you consider commuting time as exercise? One of the reasons I am attempting to increase bike commuting time is so that I don't have to "exercise". I figure the more time on the bike riding to where I have to go (work, library, grocery, entertainment etc.) the less time I have ride, swim, run, lift (I realize that is different) to "exercise. Today this has a way to go in practice. Someday (because I'm riding and walking so much) other than perhaps some weight lifting I hope to never have to exercise again.
Absolutely, all time spent riding is exercise time if you are challenging your body. If you're just coasting along at 10 mph, not so much. (Unless you're new and 10 mph is challenging to you.)

If you want to spend 60 minutes a day exercising, and you have a 60 minute bike commute, your actual commute time is only 0 minutes.