So, last month I posted about trying to cut back on the amount of driving I do starting with my average over the previous 10 months, and shaving about 10 percent off of that per month until I get down to roughly 50% of what I’d been averaging the year before.

It’s a noble plan, to be sure, but kind of a useless one if I don’t actually put it into effect. So, have I?

Sadly, the answer is, “not so much”. In the month from Dec 13, 2009 to Jan 12, 2010, I put 562 miles on my car, a slight increase over my monthly average (sadly I wasn’t keeping records until February 2009, so I don’t know how it compares to the same time period last year.

Now I’ve got a few reasons why I did so poorly in my first month. Some are just excuses, but there are a couple of valid ones in there as well. Two trips to the airport and back added 124 miles to the tally; that’s 22% of my total. And recovery from an illness lead to a full week of driving, rather than riding into work, adding another 70 miles (12.5%) to the total. Each of those items added more to my tally than I was hoping to cut off.

Of course, while the illness was unexpected, the trips to the airport weren’t, and I really could have planned around them a bit better. I’ll just toss that one into the lessons learned category.

Anyway, sitting where I am now, I’m adjusting my goals that will take me into February. Instead of shaving 10% off of my total this month, I’m looking to shave off 15, to get me closer to being back on track to my year-long goal. That means I’m looking to put on no more than 468 miles this month. Can I do it? Well, 10 days into the month, I’ve got just 130 miles on the car, and that includes three days of driving commutes and two side trips that really could have been avoided (or at least shortened). So I’m well ahead of my nominal pace,  and even ahead of my original goal of 440 miles in the month. In other words, so far, so good.