First ride back after high siding my road bike last week. Thigh still tender, but back on it. And the sun's out in the UK!

I'm in Winona, MN this weekend and planning to ride the Cannon Valley paved bike trail tomorrow from the trailhead in Red Wing. It's 20 miles and very scenic along the Cannon River. That will give me a 40 mile ride round trip: http://www.exploreminnesota.com/things-to-do/2263/cannon-valley-trail/details.aspx

@Paul - Children are allowed and encouraged. They are our future. The only issue is that you have to set-up an email address for each of them, if they don't already have one. If they are too young to have one, then you set it up, control it, and don't tell them about it. So then, logging off, and relogging under a different email address would be a bit of a hassle. To make that easier, keep track of their rides on a sheet of paper or spreadsheet, then once a week (but before the end of a month), log their rides all at once.

So what are the status of children re the NBC? I have a colleague who rides with her children to school. Can the children sign up for the challenge and log their miles? I vaguely remember that there were some issues about this last year but don't remember the resolution. Thanks in advance for any clarification.

Nyla, I totally agree with you. This is about getting as many people to ride as you can and have people in cars see more cyclists on the road and get used to seeing this. I have been asking people on a daily basis to go for a ride even if it is only 1 mile or ask them to try to ride for 60 minutes with no distance in mind. All of us started out this way at some point. I now ride bike more than drive my car. No more drive-thru fast food for me either.

@Tammie Possible that you ran out of fuel on the ride. Make sure you have a snack before you set out. Try not to ride on a completely empty stomach. Get some rest, and ease back into it with some gentle miles. Keep at it! Unless there's a medical reason not to push, keep pushing and you will keep getting stronger. Pick up some Clif Shots and Clif bars. One other thing for a novice that might help... try not to count the miles, count the time on the bike instead. So set out for an hour or 90 minutes or whatever, and then notice what mileage you did when you finish.