I originally posted about the Summer Games 2 contest on the Grease Rag blog here. I am blogging about my participation in Let's Go Ride a Bike's Summer Games 2. Check out my first posts on "Social Cycling" or "Learning Experiences."  I hope they inspire you to try something new!

The third and final set of challenges involve "New Territory." From June 28- July 18 the challenges were to:

• Ride a greenway
• Have a bicycle picnic
• If you don't normally ride to work, commute by bike or by bike/train or bike/ bus
• If you do commute, take the long way home:  add distance to your usual ride
• Explore a new part of town by bike

Cop-out/ disclaimer:  I have been having an issue with my knee, and have been taking it easy on the bike the past few weeks.  Luckily I was able to complete a few challenges before my injury started acting up, but this segment of the contest was a little bit of a fail.

Ride a greenway

I am so lucky to live in Minneapolis, where we have the Midtown 29th St. Greenway.  I ride it every day because I live two blocks north and one block east of the Bryant Ave. entrance and it is a nice east-west corridor without much vehicular cross-traffic or stops.  It can get congested with trail users on weekends and during rush hour, but how can you complain about TOO MANY people using bicycle and pedestrian facilities?!

After Grease Rag the other night I rode with my good friend Sarah down the Greenway, but it was too dark for a photo.  So here's a random photo of some WTFs and I riding the Greenway on our last camping trip.

If you are interested in volunteering to do a community watch over the Greenway (on your bike, of course!), contact trailwatch@midtowngreenway.org, or call 612-879-0106.  There is also a Women on Wednesdays Trail Watch ride, organized by Grease Rag friend Susan.

Have a bicycle picnic

Last weekend I wanted to ride the Gateway Trail, another beautiful greenway/ rails to trails project in our cities.  It was a hot day and I was dehydrated so I was really happy to stop, throw off my shoes, socks, hat, helmet, and gloves and dig into a mozzarella and salami sandwich with a nice thermos of lemonade.  Side story- on the way to the Gateway Trail, along Wheelock Parkway, I had the opportunity to support a local micro-economy!  I bought some lemonade from two entrepreneurial young ladies for 25 cents.  For an extra quarter they offered free refills.  Love it.

If you don't normally ride to work, commute by bike or by bike/train or bike/ bus

I normally ride to work three days a week*, but because of a little knee pain, I've been taking it easy and doing the multi-modal thing.  I bike two miles to my bus stop downtown, load my bike on the handy Metro Transit bike racks*, and then get off in St. Paul and ride a half mile to my building.  On the way home I've been getting off the bus at Midway and riding the rest of the way home (5 miles?) down Marshall Ave.  I still get about 8 miles in on the bike, but I'm not stressing my knee too much.  Brilliant!

This photo is of a coworker and me riding into work during Women's Wednesday of Bike Walk Week.

*Watch for upcoming Grease Rag posts about bike commuting and also an instructional on how to use the Metro Transit bike racks!!

If you do commute, take the long way home:  add distance to your usual ride

I have been a little bored with my commute route lately and wish that I could have taken this opportunity to add some fun detours, but the knee said, "No."

Explore a new part of town by bike

Group rides are awesome for exploring new places.  I am a total newb when it comes to the trails and neighborhoods in the Cities, even though I've lived here long where I don't have any excuses for not knowing my way around.  My favorite rides are the Sober Ride, the Wednesday Hump Day Ride, and Saturday Night Ride.  Nice snappy paces with beautiful scenery and a cool mix of riders.  Just wish there were more WTFs that came out...

Thank you for reading along as I completed the Let's Go Ride a Bike's Summer Games 2 challenges.  I had fun participating!  Stay tuned for a short reflection about the contest.