Sounds like you're getting good advice. I'm not sure what bike you ride or if your goal is to get in shape or just get to work. Or a combination of the two. I'm what I would consider as less serious cyclist. I ride a 3 speed Raleigh Sports wearing normal clothes most of the time. My commute is 4.1 miles and takes me 15-20 minutes. A few decent hills and I ride fairly leisurely but not extremely slow. Only having 3 speeds kind of forces me to change my cadence more than most people but it's not a big deal to me. Like others have said, just start doing it and keep doing it and you'll be laughing at what you used to think was hard in no time.