Thursday, September 30, 2010

Personal milestones

September '10 was my fifth consecutive 600+ mile month. Not too bad for an old fat guy. Roughly half of those are "transportation" miles; the rest are exercise/recreation miles.

Just out of curiosity, I've decided to keep track of my "car" miles for awhile. I rode in a car 7 times total in September. Two trips driving to fetch firewood, 2 trips as driver with passengers, 3 trips as a passenger with somebody else.

This month also marks the 13th anniversary of not driving a car to work - even once. (In those 13 years, I have ridden my motorcycle to work, although not for many years. And the bus on occasion. Also as a matter of clarification - September 1997 was not when I took up bike transportation; I've ridden at least 90% of my commute trips since 1986.)

In September 2004, I arrived at 100,000 miles. At the time the notion of riding 200K miles seemed remote. Now I'm closing in on 136,000 miles... there might be some distant light at the end of that 200,000 mile tunnel. We'll see...

2 comments:

Josh said...

Wow. You're a great inspiration.
I've been riding more than driving to work for a few years, and last year rode through the winter for the first time. I'm inspired by your accomplishments, and healthier for it.
Thanks!

Bikeboy said...

Your kind words are appreciated, Josh.

I always have mixed emotions about "beating my drum." Nobody likes a braggart! (Exception: I've always loved Muhammad Ali.)

But there's no denying my long track record of transportation-cycling distinguishes me from the rest of the herd. (Early on, the missus used to dismiss it as a "passing fad," but I haven't heard that for awhile.)