The National Bike Challenge. You should join it. It’s for people who like riding their bike. It favors people who like riding their bike over people who like riding a zillion miles or really fast. Get on the bike every day and you will do well.
It runs all summer. You can start partway through. It’s totally cool to do that. It’s the ride that matters.
1: Register at https://www.endomondo.com/signup
The hardest part about doing the National Bike Challenge is using the Endomondo software. Wow is this stuff screwed up. But it’s part of the fun. Like biking in the rain.
Go to the Endomondo signup page which I’ve linked here because you might never find it otherwise.
1) Give them an email address. 2) Give them a password. 3) Give them a name (this is what people will see when they look for you). 4) Click Sign up.
OR
5) Use Facebook. I didn’t use FB so I have no idea what happens if you click that.
2: Skip the "find more friends" step
You can do this later. If you get bogged down in this now you will never get rolling on the challenge.
3: You are registered on Endomondo, you are one third done already!
4: Go to National Bike Challenge dot org and click "Join"
Go to http://nationalbikechallenge.org and you will see a big "Join" button. Click it.
5: Fill out all the registration stuff.
This info is used to determine what leaderboards you will be on. Pick the zip code of the area you are competing (05401 if you are in Burlington, for example). Give the name of your company if you want to be on your automatic company team. Enter in some number on your typical one-way commute. Take a good guess. Don’t get bogged down in measuring this.
6: You are registered for the National Bike Challenge. Two thirds there!
You can stop here if you like. But if you really want to be a badass or have more fun, you should consider joining a team.
I strongly suggest that the team you join be the BTV Digirati team.
7: Join the BTV Digirati National Bike Challenge team
That’s it! Now you just gotta log your rides: the second hardest part of the National Bike Challenge.
The best way I’ve found to log my rides is to use their free iPhone app (which is not surprisingly obnoxious–it asks you to upgrade all the time, and it will work because sooner or later I just won’t be able to take it anymore and I’ll pay the 3 bucks or whatever).
Forget to log a ride? You can enter it manually.
Click the "new workout" button and then select "New workout with no route" and just enter your miles and estimated time. Time doesn’t matter for the challenge so don’t sweat that part.
If you’re an eager beaver then go ahead and draw your route and calculate exact feet etc.