Cycling to work – is it the greatest thing ever? Can it really save you money and make you a healthier person? Well, it’s what I’ve been doing for the last 2 years and 8 months (which is basically 376 days of cycling to work – you can find out how I reached that number at the bottom of this post) and here’s what I’ve lost, gained and learned along the way.
Burned over 250,000 calories
My commute is 11km each way (that’s 6.8 miles) and takes a smidge under 40 minutes. Even at that slow pace I’m burning 670 calories a day, which is 254,000 calories since I started cycling. That’s around 454 slices of cake… which coincidentally is about how many slices of cake I’ve eaten in the last 2 years and 8 months.
Saved money, but also spent it
A return public transport ticket from my home to my office would be £3.40. Multiplied by 376 that’s around £1,300 I’ve saved by cycling to work. But I’m also down £750 for a dry cleaning service that I would not need without the cycling to work. So I’m saving around £550, which just about covers my bike maintenance over 2 years and 8 months (and not even close to covering the cake bill). So no #kerching for me.
Other forms of exercise still needed
What’s worse for your hamstrings than sitting at a desk all day? Loads of cycling then sitting at a desk all day. Blast. So while I don’t have gym membership (probably more for gym-hating reasons than cycling to work-reasons) I do regular yoga to try and cancel out the hamstrings thing.
Complications and simplicity
What if the weather is great when you cycled in, but bad when you need to cycle home? What if someone suggests a spontaneous post-work pub visit? What if you forgot your bike lights? Cycling to work results in a few extra thought processes to run every now and then, but probably makes up for this when London’s tube drivers are on strike and you don’t even care.
And then there’s the little things like learning something new about your city when you take a different route, seeing the baby swans of Regent’s Canal grow up and then start having baby swans of their own, and so on.
*I got to the 376 days number with a bit of maths. This isn’t a doctoral thesis so please forgive any generalisations. After vacation weeks, I work around 47 weeks a year. Take out time spent away on business trips, or when I take the tube if it is raining extremely heavily, or when I work from home, and I can probably say I cycle 3 out of 5 days each week. I’ve been doing this for 2 years and 8 months. So… 3 x 47 x 2 = 282. 3 x 47 / 12 x 8 = 94. 282+94= 376 days of cycling.
Photo: Davidson Luna
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