2007: The Year in Numbers

I completed my biking mileage totals for 2007. I logged 286 trips. Some were separate trips on the same day, but in all I spent some time on my bike about 78% of the days in the past year. Total miles pedaled: 6,731. Using an estimate of calories burned per mile ridden (55 cal -- gleened from a website somewhere), I figure I burned about 370,205 calories riding in 2007. I like to examine data from different perspectives, so I converted that to number of Big Macs I could have eaten as riding fuel. The yellow-arch-encrusted fast food giant reports its Big Mac to contain 540 cal. I could have consumed 686 of McD's signature sandwich -- nearly 2.5 for every day that I rode. I don't eat fast food much at all, but April was quick to remind me that one of my primary sources of calories is beer. Thanks, honey.

That basically means if I stop riding my bike I better get ready to go shopping for some bigger pants ... or quit drinking beer. Hmmm, more incentive to keep my resolution to ride to work everyday. And good food for thought -- how much trimmer might you (the rhetorical "you") be, or how many more indulgences could you justify, if you got out on your bike more often?