Commencing Commuting

I like to commute for a few reasons: first of all, it takes just as much time to ride down the block as it does to walk to my jeep, drive to work, park in the back of the lot and walk in. Second, I fill up my tank less. Sometimes my Jeep sits in the same spot for a few days. I know it’ll be that many more days I can drive without filling up the tank. Lastly, and regrettably the least of my worries, my carbon footprint.

I realize I should be more concerned about the earth than I am. I bring my own bags to the store, I drink my h2o out of a Camelbak water bottle… But I don’t think about recycling as much as I should, I don’t have a separate bin for my cans and bottles and I toss the plastic cups after I’m done with my chai.

So when I read this little stat in my Women’s Health mag, I was most excited about a little cash-ola in my pocket…

“Biking Benefits: Swapping four wheels for two can shrink your waistline and your carbon footprint. To see how much, go to youcanbikethere.com and plug in your numbers and the site will crunch them. A 144-Pound woman who bikes seven miles at 10 to 12 miles per hour burns 224 calories, saves around $3 in fuel, and spares the earth 6.8 pounds of toxic emissions.”

Now, I plugged in my stats on youcanbikethere.com, knowing full well I lived about .06 miles from work… Actually, .32 to be exact. But I was pleasantly surprised with the results of my round-trip commute.

“You have burned 33.92 calories. You have saved $0.43 by not driving. You have saved the earth 0.8 lbs of toxic emissions.”

My 5k 2-way commute to the Y was downright astounding!

“You have burned 166.95 calories (not to mention the cals blasted AT the gym). You have saved $2.10 by not driving (and $0.50 by not parking in the lot). You have saved the earth 3.8 lbs of toxic emissions."

Now, I hate it when people do the whole- you can save $1.2 billion over the course of 360 years! But, (stay with me here) if I biked to the gym 3 days a week for the fairly reliable warm Iowa months of June, July and August, AND biked to work on those same three days, I’d save $100 this summer! And save the earth 180 lbs of toxic emissions. Now I don’t know how they weigh emissions… but that sounds like quite a bit of emissions!

All that said, the number one reason I like to hop on the bike and ride wherever I can manage, is that my rear end needs to get used to this saddle if I’m going to have any hope of finishing RAGBRAI with a smile. The more time you can sit on your bike, the better you are. Padded bike shorts work wonders, but after a full day on a bike, those who have put in the time are hitting the beer tents, not searching for a bag of peas in the frozen section at Hy-Vee.