![\"National](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/HeaderGraphic.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The National Bicycle Challenge in the U.S. began on May 1 and ends September 30. \u00a0The idea\u00a0is to ride your bike more miles and the challenge offers a commitment device<\/a> to help you do it.\u00a0 To get committed to your bicycling goals, hop on over to nationalbikechallenge.org<\/a> and create an account with your email address. Then, \u00a0you can log your miles manually or sync with one of these three apps:<\/p>\n While it’s a logging contest to see how many miles you and your competitors can pile up, it is also a community of people that just want to share their love of bicycling. \u00a0The Challenge aims to unite 100,000 riders to pedal 75 million miles from May 1, 2016 until September 30, 2016. Now in its fifth year, the Challenge is organized by\u00a0PeopleForBikes<\/a> with sponsorship from\u00a0Kimberly-Clark\u2019s Cottonelle Brand this year.<\/p>\n To make logging your miles easy, \u00a0you may\u00a0want to get one of the three apps mentioned above. \u00a0I chose the Endomondo app (“Running and Walking with Endomondo”) for my iPhone because it has a five-star rating and more reviewers than the other apps. \u00a0Like the other apps it uses the phone’s geographic positioning technology to track information about your rides. \u00a0It requires you to initially set up an account either using your Facebook credentials or your email address and a new password. \u00a0Next you choose the sport you are involved in and click “Go.” \u00a0Take your ride, with your phone of course, and click “End” when you are done. You can then see where you went on a map (you can also follow along on the map during your ride). \u00a0That’s the “Basic Workout.” Before your ride you can also:<\/p>\n The app will then help you carry out your plan. \u00a0The free version of the app will bug you with advertisements. \u00a0If you want to get rid of them and add some motivational features, \u00a0you can upgrade to your voice of a variety of\u00a0\u00a0premium\u00a0accounts for a fee.<\/p>\n Once you log into your account with the app, \u00a0you will be asked if you want to share your information with the National Bike Challenge. \u00a0Agree to do that and your ride\u00a0data\u00a0will be automatically transferred from Endomondo to the National Bike Challenge.<\/p>\n If you choose not to use an app, or like to record your rides with an app that is not supported by the National Bike Challenge, you will need to enter your miles manually. PeopleForBikes began in 1999 as Bikes Belong. \u00a0The organization advocates for bicycling on a national level, offers a strategic center to ensure collaboration between each piece in the bicycling movement, and has the ability to support local efforts through financial, community and communication resources.<\/p>\n Their vision\u00a0is: \u00a0“a place where one bike lane leads to the next. Where trails, bridges, and underpasses lead safely to exactly where you want to go. And regardless of your bicycling experience and fitness, you can pedal smoothly across town.”<\/p>\n Toward that vision they have developed some goals:<\/p>\n “By 2025, we want the total number of annual bike rides<\/strong> that Americans make to grow from 4 billion (the current figure) to 20 billion. That\u2019s 5X<\/strong>. Better bike infrastructure and safer, more appealing riding conditions will make this happen.<\/p>\n “By 2025, we want the number of protected bike lanes<\/strong> in U.S. cities to total 1,000 or more. As of today, about 200 of these lanes have been built, and most are well used and appreciated by riders of all ages and levels of experience.<\/p>\n “We envision five times the mileage of singletrack<\/strong> riding to be available and a 5X<\/strong> leap in the number of bike parks<\/strong> that provide dirt riding options for kids and kids-at-heart.<\/p>\n “We are focused on getting 5X the number of Americans<\/strong> to stand tall on behalf of bicycling. PeopleForBikes recently passed 1 million supporters, so we\u2019re talking about 4 million. That\u2019s a major movement with major political clout!”<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n If you are the kind of person that needs a little competition to motivate yourself, \u00a0the National Bike Challenge is perfect for you. \u00a0Sign up now, get out there and start riding!<\/p>\n If you don’t have a bicycle, \u00a0head down to your local bike shop and get one. \u00a0We don’t recommend getting a bike from a big box store, because they are typically not well built and will cause you problems. \u00a0Don’t have a local bike shop? \u00a0Look for quality bikes online at places like REI<\/a>, Nashbar<\/a>, Backcountry<\/a>\u00a0or even GearTrade<\/a>.<\/p>\n The National Bicycle Challenge in the U.S. began on May 1 and ends September 30. \u00a0The idea\u00a0is to ride your bike more miles and the challenge offers a commitment device to help you do it.\u00a0 To get committed to your bicycling goals, hop on over to nationalbikechallenge.org and create an account with your email address. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,29,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities","category-apps","category-motivation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2459,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions\/2459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![\"Desert](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/desertride-300x199.jpg\")
As you log your miles and earn points, you can see where you stack up on the leaderboards with other participants across the country.\u00a0You can also enter as a team, \u00a0workplace or school to encourage your friends and co-workers to get involved as well.<\/p>\nGetting an App<\/h1>\n
\n
Connecting the App to the Challenge<\/h1>\n
![\"cyclists\"](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/cyclists-199x300.jpg\")
To use your app to provide your ride information to the National Bike Challenge, log into your account on the challenge website. \u00a0Click “Manage Settings” in the left side menu then scroll down the page to find a list that includes the three apps. \u00a0Click the “Authorize” link next to the app you want to use. \u00a0You will go to the app’s website.<\/p>\n
\n\n\t\t\t\t\tPeopleForBikes<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h1>\n
Please Share<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"