A pretty decent bike-to-drive ratio

Some of my readers might recall my month-long goal in April to bike/run more miles than I drove in my car. You also might remember that I accomplished the goal, with cardio disciplines totaling 625 miles versus 576 miles driving.

I haven't written about it much since then, but my bike-powered commuting hasn't let up. I still use my bike to get EVERYWHERE in town, whether it's going to the movies, doctors appointments, or trips out to Land of Memories Park to play some disc golf. Heck, I even did another round of grocery shopping on the ol' bike recently (though my load this time was considerably lighter than the one I wrote about in April).

Somewhere along the line, it occurred to me that bike transportation isn't just a blog gimmick to gain a few readers; it's a legitimate way to save some money, get some exercise and -- if you want to take the environmentalist approach on it -- cut down on pollution.

I'm not actively trying to out-distance my car anymore, but I still keep track of biking miles on a regular basis (old triathlon training habits die hard) and I recently remembered that I wrote down the mileage on my car at the beginning of April for the run/bike vs. drive challenge. Out of sheer curiosity, I totaled up my driving mileage since then and I compared it to my biking miles.

Here is what it totals out to (updated from my Facebook post a couple days ago, as the mileage has changed since then):

Driving - 2,687 miles

Biking - 2,294 miles

As you can see, my car has taken a substantial lead on my

bike for mileage. It will be taking a larger lead this weekend too, as I'm driving up to Hastings on Sunday to compete in the Warrior Dash.

However, you have to admit that's a pretty decent bike-to-drive ratio.

*****Note: Out of boredom recently, I took a screen shot of Google Maps and played with it on Adobe Photoshop to create a map the towns I've biked to from Mankato. It doesn't cover EVERY town I've been to (too small of scale to include the St. Clairs and Ellendales of southern Minnesota), but I still think it's pretty cool to look at. The towns are circled in green: