How Far?

I found a fun new tool. Okay, I didn't totally find it on my own. My friend, Chris, showed it to me this summer, but I remembered and searched for it, so that counts, right?

At any rate, it's a running map which you can use to chart your run/walk/ride/whatever. Not having a bike computer, this is a handy tool for me to figure out how many miles I've done by bike to keep track of my resolution.

As an aside, I did modify my resolution just a wee bit. The main thing is that going to pick Davan up from gymnastics is a freebie. It's late and dark. Perhaps in the summer I'll reevaluate that, but for now, it seems reasonable that I just get to do that in the van for both our sakes.

Also, my bike/walk vs van has to tally on a monthly basis. Okay, back to the cool tool.

There are several offerings out there. I checked out three of them. My favorite is Map my Run. It was the most intuitive to use and the fastest, once it loaded up.

I found out that I was over estimating my miles, having gotten myself up to 20.5 after yesterday, when, in fact, 19.7 is the accurate count. So, it wasn't too far off, but I did make the adjustment on my tally. So far, it's walk/bike: 19.7; van: 0. That will change today, as I'll have an extra kid going to swimming and a different extra kid coming back from swimming, so we'll be driving and that will count as a local trip, even though there is a good reason to drive.

As an aside, I'll be going to pick up extra kid #1 from her house shortly. If it were less than 3 miles away, I'd have to count that against myself, as well, but, she's just over 3 miles away, so it's all good.

I've been realizing that I could have made my limit 2.5 miles and not had any appreciable change. Every place I go nearby is 2.5 or less. If it's more than that, it's usually quite a bit more - a trip to Costco or to Do Jump or the like, all of which are more like 10 miles away. Well, Costco may only be about 7 or so. I'm really not sure and I'm feeling too lazy to look it up.

Yesterday I chose to ride to book group (4.8 miles round trip) and to take Davan to gymnastics (4.5 miles round trip) even though the weather wasn't wonderful. It wasn't truly horrendous, either, but it was windy and drizzling. However, I knew I was going to be driving today and I also wanted to keep my options open for being able to drive another day if the weather was truly nasty - heavy rain, for example. So, the resolution is working for getting me on the bike and out of the car so far.

Of course, it's working for getting Davan on the bike, too, like it or not. Yesterday she commented that this resolution really effected her, too, ya know. I said, "Sure, but in a good way, honey," and smiled.

Right now, I'm not sure she agrees. Other times, though, she's told me we should never take the car, but it is hard in the winter. She'll adjust, though. We haven't been late anywhere yet and, as that's one of her anxiety points, the more we're not late, the more she'll probably relax about taking the bike.

How are your resolutions coming, if you've made any?