Friday I re-enrolled in college at the young spritely age of 47. Now that's not particularly remarkable but you generally don't see 47 yo women in my area using a bike to commute 50 miles round trip. Actually, I didn't ride the entire distance. Only around 12 miles. The rest was by commuter train which allows bikes on board. I'm used to riding my bike up and down A1A which isn't the same as riding from the beach into the urban areas of town. It took some getting accustomed to and some parts of it were pretty scary, especially crossing on and off ramps to the I95 freeway with those big trucks getting on and off. It took about an hour each way which wasn't too bad. If the powers that be accept me into the nursing program down the road and I have to do clinicals and attend class, eventually I'm going to have to get motorized again. I had to give up my car because I couldn't afford responsible car ownership. I'll get to that bridge when I come to it.

The advantage is that my exercise is built into my regular routine except that I can't do the all-out pedaling I would do on a Sunday morning ride down the beach highway. Do you find that because you commute, you're not particularly interested in recreational riding?

Another thing I noticed was that my bike was the only nice bike around. All the others were in the Huffy category and pretty beat up. It's going to get beat up in no time and it's time for a U lock.