MoveForMyCarbon

'MoveForMyCarbon' is a personal challenge to attempt to run/ cycle etc. the equivalent distance that I fly during the course of my lifetime. On this webpage I will try to keep a (fairly) up to date estimate of air miles (in km since that's how I normally think for running!) and also the km I have run, cycled, hiked, walked or rollerbladed. The aim is to be net neutral (at least in this aspect of my life...!) over the course of my lifetime and to hopefully still be enjoying the mental, social and physical benefits of running etc. late into my life! This started as a thought experiment on 24/04/2019 (during a pub discussion, as is often the way these things start...) but after doing the maths, it seems like this may actually be plausible if I change my behaviour RIGHT NOW (and remain reasonably injury free!).

Disclaimer: This personal challenge is not intended to make people feel guilty for experiencing the world. For a start, it’s hard to care about something that you don’t know. This is also certainly not intended to isolate people who don’t enjoy activities like running or cycling. Since I already use Apps to track my sports, for me this challenge was a way to help me to shift my priorities away from quick, cheap, more polluting flights towards slower and probably more expensive train journeys that are less polluting AND will not take me 1000 km further away from my running goal! Or, reconsidering if I really need to be making that journey at all. I share my challenge as a thought experiment that may be of interest to other fans of travel and endurance sports!

Slightly boring details

Sport distance tracking: Since I used to use the sport tracking App 'Endomondo' and since some activities are less easy to track the cumulative total of with Strava (the App I currently use), I'll split my total km into two categories. The 'static' and 'dynamic' totals. The static total will be distances from past activities recorded with Endomondo (including: running, cycling, hiking and walking) and the activities I usually cover less distance with on Strava and are less easy to find my cumulative total for (hiking, walking, rollerblading). The dynamic total will therefore just include the cumulative total of running and cycling activities I record with Strava from now on (today being 25/04/2019).
Flight distance tracking: To get my air mile estimates, I used websites for calculating the air miles for any flights I have taken in my 'adult life', which I count as being over 18 years old.

Distance statistics updates

03/01/2020: It's not easy being green... when there's a grève!

Unfortunately, I undid the majority of this segment's running/ cycling miles by taking a flight to the UK over Christmas during la gréve nationale when pretty much all trains were cancelled last minute. With a lot of time constraints between finishing work and then social arrangements with friends and family, any alternatives were not fast enough (certainly not cycling this time!). It's a shame, but sometimes these things are necessary and I just have to accept that. Gotta balance life with greenness!

15/09/2019: Two weddings, a wine tasting marathon... and a bit of cycling in between!

For the main event during this entry, I had some weddings to attend across the UK. To avoid taking flights, and to sneak in some more cycling miles whilst sight-seeing, I took my bike on the train from Grenoble to London and then cycled from London to wedding number 1 in Bath, then cycled along the Lon Las Cymru route (NCN8) from Cardiff Bay to Machynlleth for attending wedding number 2 in North Wales. The trip ended with a wine tasting marathon in Bordeaux before returning to Grenoble, so all in all, a decent amount of mileage (and a fair bit of wine!) during this trip. This entry also included a bike trip from Grenoble to Geneva (over 2 days each way) in July. So no flights for these trips and cycling a fair amount of it takes me to... ~2% closer to meeting my airmiles target in ~4 months. Cycle tourism does seem like a nice way to go for high-quality sight-seeing with minimal carbon footprint. The only downside really is how much more expensive trains tend to be than flights! Maybe it's time for a carbon tax on flights...?

05/05/2019: Commuting counts!

Second entry... realised I was missing a lot by not counting any cycle commuting! Just added an estimate from the time I lived in London since this was probably the longest cycle commute I had. This was added to the 'static cumulative total'. No more flights, but more cycling takes me from ~8% air miles made up to ~13%!

25/04/2019: First entry!

Combining old 'static' data from Endomondo and 'dynamic' data from Strava and calculating air miles from all flights taken as an adult.