Total for this year: 193.7 miles
According to the Federal Highway Administration: "For household-based travel, short trips account for the vast majority of trips" (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/pubs/pl08021/fig4_5.cfm). And consequently lots of environmentalists will tell you that if you're running errands around town, consider doing them by bike to reduce pollution. Today I did my bit for Mother Earth.
I don't know if a 26-mile round trip is considered "short" but the weather was nice (at least at the beginning of the ride) and I didn't have anything else to do, so I decided to take the Trek on my little errand to pick up international electrical outlet adapters at the AAA up in Penfield.
I made pretty good time on the outbound leg, averaging over 15 mph with a max speed of 35. But as shown by the GPS data (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/88612060) my destination was at the lowest elevation of the ride, so I was generally climbing on the way home, although with a 250-ft difference between my lowest and highest elevations, I can't really complain. Still, the fact that I was climbing, coupled with a slight headwind, definitely slowed me down on the return leg.
A couple of items to note about this ride:
1. It had been 16 days since my previous ride. Way too long, but with crummy weather, graduation, and travel I just haven't been able to get out there.
2. I almost left my helmet at the AAA. You can see in the pic below that when I went in I set it on top of an electrical box. When I came out I unlocked the bike and rode off with it still sitting there. Fortunately I hadn't even left the parking lot when I realized what had happened.
3. It's still May and I'm already over 450 miles behind the pace I set last year. Definitely no mileage records in 2011...
You'll still have a good year...even if you are miles behind. No worries.
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