Bike the Drive is awesomely simple: Lake Shore Drive is closed down for a whole Sunday morning and you can ride your bike up and down. It's not a race -- there's not even a single start time or place. I think everyone in Chicago should do it once. But after you've done it that once, it's not the most exciting of events. I haven't done the BTD in years.

But this year I realized that the BTD is a great biking training opportunity. It's 30 miles of open road with no cars or joggers or rollerbladers or strollers or etc.s careening across your path. Erica was a little nervous about the bike leg of the Chicago Triathlon, which is also on LSD, and so I persuaded her that this would be a good trial run with a lot less pressure. I also persuaded her to do the whole shebang — 15 miles down to the Museum of Science and Industry and then all the way back. (Fortunately we're close to the top of the Drive and so a starting point of the ride.) I have to say that I'm really proud of Erica. Those 31 miles were the longest she's ever biked ever -- her previous max was 18 miles in one day, with many hours between two 9 mile legs.