Rt # 555 - End of An Era - Doing the Math

Today is the final roundtrip day.

Having drove the Lizard to work today, I was already awake and got hit with a dose of sentimentality about my Manhattan bike path and figured it'd be a swell idea to take my vid camera with me to document what the normal ride is like. Since today is in the 40s I lucked out.

Let's do the math -- say roundtrip it's 250 calories. 130 in the morning b/c it's longer and 120 on the way back, maybe, b/c it's more intense (though shorter). And we'll include carrying it up and down steps.

555 x 250 = 138,750 calories / 3500 (1lb) -- that's 39.6 pounds I kept off by sticking to this regiment. Granted, my vacation time has increased since this began and in the past couple of months I've shortened a few rides by leaving from Bklyn. There were a handful of days where the return ride, while ultimately to Penn, had detours at Baruch. Still, the thought that I could conceivably be almost 200 pounds is thankfully just that. A thought.

555 x 7 = 3885 miles. Let's cut us the slack of having to re-map everything for brooklyn's sake. From what I understand, I've biked the equivalent of to Florida and back.

Money is a tougher one. In order to get a minimum for what I've "not spent" there's a couple of equations. The easiest is to assume that I did 100 RTs at $4 per RT (the price of a roundtrip increased by 50cents in 2009) + 450 at $4.50.

100 x $4 = $400
450 x 4.50= $2025
$2,425 not spent, on a per-ride basis since aug 08.

Then there's the idea that I never would've bought the monthly unlimited anyway.

$2,425 -- minus maybe 300 bucks for repairs and maintenance, the purchase of a 250 dollar POS bike, and a $450 new bike, and that's $1425 (a close guesstimation) not spent. I never once bought an unlimited monthly.

Then there are other reasons for avoiding the subway.
1. It's gross.
2. I have a lot of energy in the morning. I don't want to merely stand.
3. I feel for the cold and destitute out here, I truly do. And when appropriate, I give them food and some change. But I don't want that in my face every morning.
4. Get the cobwebs out of my head.
5. Break in new music. Break out old stuff.
6. Take in the view.
7. That high-pitch frequency combined with the sound of the trains' brakes are more damaging to my ears than the quality of "Death Magnetic."
8. If it breaks down, I'm stuck underground.
9. Someone's almost always looking for a fight.
10. People spill their stuff all over you.

So there you have it.

A cop didn't like that I was taking video. He asked where I was from. I told him the answer, but really, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? I know what he was getting at, though, and honestly, who cares?

There are parts of the area I will miss and I will miss the satisfaction of using this all to my advantage but I am adaptable, so I will make my new situation work out. It's good that I'm already signed up for the triathlon so I will force myself to keep in shape once my body realizes it's not getting the normal cardio.

I will have to come up with another theme for a new blog.

Thank you for reading.