Cycling for Fun

I have enjoyed cycling since I first learned at age five when I was living in Berkeley. The enjoyment came from the sense of speed from my own effort as well as the extension of the radius I could reach without public transportation or parental involvement. When I was in high school in Victoria, cycling in to school let me avoid the toxic dynamic at the local stop for the school bus. It became both exercise and my main means of transportation. It was a shared passion with my ex-wife and cycling together was part of our courtship. When I was working in Germany between MSc and Phd, cycling became a weekend activity with long trips on rural roads in the Pfalz with a friend, Utz Weber. Coming to work at UBC, cycling has become a main option for commuting to work. There were a few years in there with a break from active cycling: while I was a PhD student in NYC; my year in Toronto at the Fields Institute early in my career; about six years after an accident when my son was a baby. At that last one, I injured my arm and was unable to properly take care of my son at that age. It was a wake up call to my parental responsibilities. When I went back to cycling, it was almost exclusively for commuting and it has been that way for the last twenty years. I should say that its utility did not diminish the joy it brought me. In these "interesting" times, I have been working at home for the last few months. I have taken to cycling as a break and to get some exercise. Even if it is intended to improve my fitness (mental and physical), it is still fun!