The thing is, if you set a lofty goal for yourself and you meet it, then what? Raise it for next year? Where does it all end? At some point, you become a slave to your self-imposed goals. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to fall a bit short. It'll be a reminder that these types of goals are ultimately meaningless. If anything, you can be a little proud for having the sense to not let them get in the way of your real life.

You could call it slave, but think of statistics worship as another form of stamp collection. It's harmless, and if it gives the person some kind of joy, why begrudge him (or me)?

as someone else said, i think it just comes down to different personality types.

i ride my bike. A LOT. i haven't owned a car in 14 years. my bikes are my car. none of my bikes have speedometers, odometers or ometers of any kind. i don't ride for sport or recreation; i ride simply to get myself around town, so such numbers are meaningless to me.

i have a relative who's a big-time recreational cyclist. she's always setting lofty mileage goals for all of her recreational riding, but will still hop in her car to drive over to the supermarket to pick up a loaf of bread.

we both dearly love cycling in our own ways, but our mindsets in how we approach the activity could not be more dissimilar. when i see her at family functions, she'll say things like "i'm right on target to hit 8,500 miles this year, where are you at right now?" to which i can only reply "uh, i don't really know, maybe several thousand? as you know, i don't really keep track of that stuff". for her, cycling is a very goal-oriented activity in which she's constantly chasing a number. for me, i couldn't care less about the numbers, i just ride my bike cuz it's the easiest way to get around town and because it's so damn fun!

neither perspective is wrong, but i do have a hard time understanding the obsession with number chasing because my brain just works so very differently. it's hard for me to understand how something so ultimately meaningless could matter so much to some people, but it apparently does, and as long as they ain't hurting anyone in the process, no harm/no foul. besides, there's probably a lot of things that i care about that others would look at and say "how can you care about that stuff? it's meaningless".

LOL, that means on those weekend recreational rides when I've stopped at my (closed) workplace to fill my water bottles, I can count those as commuting distances (and rides too I guess).

Because I ride (commuting, utility and recreational) for fitness, I am more interested in total distance than commuting distance although I log them separately in MapMyRide.com. For commuting purposes, I am more interested in the human-powered commuting days (bike or walk) than distance.

However, I have a similar dilemma in that once a year, our Green Team asks us to participate in a green commuting challenge in which we try to take a green commuting method and log the type of commuting method used to determine the amount of carbon saved (human-powered saves the most whereas car-pooling or transit saves less). The shortest route to work is 8km RT whereas I generally bike 32-46km so I actually burn more carbon than I need to. The online-log asks us our commuting distance and the method of commuting to determine the carbon saved. To be fair, I should record 8km but my Green Team leader wants us to win the challenge over other departments so I'm asked to put in the actual distance I ride because it produces a bigger "carbon saved" number compared with driving a car alone for those distances.

It's probably just OCD on my part. Fun to keep track of things. Perhaps in time I'll lose interest, too.

That's not so bad. Princeton University was once caught buying old newspapers so it could increase its statistics of how much paper they recycled!

Why do some cyclists have a bunch of bikes and some just one? Why do some have brand new carbon monoxide and unobtanium bikes and some old ratty steel? Why ask why? Why do I count miles and some others don't. Because... so there... who cares what others do? One of my favorite expressions, "what other people think of me is none of my business." emoticon with tongue sticking out

FWIW, I know a few riders who care about hours and kilojoules rather than miles.

But... my commute isn't replacing the car. If I drive it's replacing the bike.

Stop worrying. Do what the group wants you to do. It's no skin off anyone's nose.

My favorite:
"Why does Rice play Texas?"

DAMYOU. I've been trying to shut out how pathetic public speaking has gotten in this country. Now you had to go and post this link showing the speed of decline over the last 50 years (or hours in JFK time).

The definition of commute is a bit wider than travel between home and work. It relates to any regular travel between any two places. For instance, if I ride every Tuesday and Thursday evening to and from the local polka emporium then that would be a commute. Houwever, as tsl says I am more proud of the number of days per year I commute on work days. Unfortunately, I am compelled to drive to work 3 times per year: Twice to get my 2 cars inspected and once for a training course in a neighboring city.

I don't count the weekend days I ride to work because they are not work days (I still count the mileage though). Occasionally I will work from home on a work day, but then ride into my office after hours - does that count?

Actually, I have found that stressing about mileage or trips takes some of the fun out of just riding.

Oooo. I like that one.

I think folks are being a little hard on the OP.

I know people who only seem to be able to run on a regular basis when they are training for a race. I also know people who are much more successful losing weight when they have a target weight in mind.

Personally, I work better if I have some sort of deadline to meet, - even if it's self imposed.

Goals are a time honored way of accomplishing things. So there is nothing wrong with or unusual about having a goal for commuting miles. Whether you give up some vacation to meet those goals is another question, but like I said before, it depends how important the goal is to you and what it is you'd really be giving up.

I've been working at my current company for quite a few years and I earn vacation at a respectable rate. I end up taking a few vacation days a year just to catch up on some work around the house. If I ended up giving up those days to meet a major goal of mine, I'd consider it well worth it.

To help decide, you can assign value to your commuting miles goal and vacation days. If each day of work is worth $300, and you have to work 4 vacation days to achieve your commuting goal, the dollar cost of achieving your goal was $1200. Will it be worth $1200 to you to double your mileage this year and achieve the goal? Cost obviously varies with the number of days needed for success. Would it cost you more or less to fail this year and achieve it next year? That is one way to look at it, if you believe your time has a value.

I've heard wild rumors of cyclists who only own one bicycle.... I remain suspicious. We all share the love of the act of cycling.... but there are more enjoyable side-activities than I can recognize... let alone count.

Being retired... the only "commuter miles" I can count/log are trips that replace what would have normally been done in a car. Like trips to the store, bank, or post office.

I don't think that really works.

My time doesn't have a dollar value so much as what I do with it. Someone might pay me to mow their lawn. They probably aren't going to pay me to watch my television.

His choice is to either take those vacation days or ride his bike and forfeit it. It makes no difference to his income either way unless he was going to spend his vacation mowing lawns.

That's pretty much the whole story right there. You're not doing this to impress me, or any of us here inside the computer, so don't worry about what we think. If it feels to you like you're not meeting your goal, well, then you need to ride more.

Thank you both! Not only are goals a time honored way of accomplishing things they seem to have lost value. And rhm you're exactly right, and if we all (myself included) focused on answering questions asked versus lecturing on our opinions, forums (and maybe real life) might be much more civil!

Sometimes "we" can and should answer our own questions about our personal goals rather than ask a bunch of Internet strangers to provide a consensus solution supporting our already established "answer".

Touche!

i agree with this. YOu might be crazy if you let riding to work override being off work and with your family.

this works for me


IMO you made the goal you can make the rules.