The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/OiXSpoJ On last Tuesday, June 30th, I finished my June climbing challenge with a total of 7,652 meters. The highest mountain in the world is Chomolungma (Mt Everest) at 8,848 meters. Looking at the tallest peaks of each continent, South America comes in 2nd with Aconcagua at 6,962 meters. Exceeding 8848 meters is a challenge called “Everesting”. I didn’t quite make that. But I did do a bit more than “Aconcagua-ing”, which feels pretty good. Having a challenge makes training fun, so moving on to July I’ve signed up for the 800 km distance challenge. I’m actually shooting for 1000 miles which is a little over 1600 km. This requires a bit over 2 hours of riding on average at 15 mph (24 kph) or more, which seems doable. In the first 4 days I’m ahead of schedule with just over 111 miles so far. I’m enjoying this one more than the climbing one because speed on the flats is my recumbent’s forte a lot more than clim...

https://ift.tt/TfJx2iy This is about a delightful YouTube video I just watched. The host of “active towns” interviews Tatiana in Carmel, Indiana. She had a bad fall on a bike as a child and was afraid of bikes as an adult. Since her husband was an avid cyclist, she wanted to give it another try. The video shows her progress, from timidly riding in a parking lot, to being a confident cyclist who uses an electric assist cargo bike for all her errands and travel. Since her husband also bikes everywhere, she says they have not driven their car in months (which is why I said “nearly” car-free). They lived in Minneapolis at the start of this adventure, which is a bike friendly city by North American standards. They then had a stint in the Netherlands experiencing biking there, so when they came back they decided to move to Carmel, Indiana, a town of a bit over 100,000 that is about 20 miles (32 km) north of Indianapolis. Carmel is one of the most bike friendly c...