The Commute

I live right in Edinburgh and veterinary school is about 6.5 miles outside of the city center. This means we have a commute! Some students live out in the countryside closer to school but I wanted to live right in town for the first few years at least since I have never really lived in a big city. When I got here I wanted to commit to commuting to school as much as possible. The weather has been insanely nice since I got here so it really hasn't been so bad. After riding my Scott tri bike out there one day though I knew i needed to get a commuter bike with slightly beefier tires and a rack for my backpack.

I really like the idea of commuting to school as well because it makes good use of the time: getting a work out in and getting to school all at once!

A few times I have been able to run to school in the morning, which I actually prefer to biking because it is almost uphill THE WHOLE WAY. Biking uphill super slowly while cars and buses are whizzing past isn't that much fun...Below is the route from when I ran one morning. 


Untitled by ahs486 at Garmin Connect - Details


The only issue with running is I have to pack my clothes up the day before and bring them out to school so I have something clean to wear the next day. The school is very conducive to commuting as there are lockers and showers in all of the school buildings. 

So I got onto the craig's list equivalent over here, GumTree, and bought myself a cheap commuter bike (pictures to follow) from a girl moving to Chile. It is a Trek and nice and sturdy. I was pumped to ride it to school the next day. The tires were a little flat but I hadn't gotten my pump in the mail yet so I decided I would be fine. Well, about .5 miles in my bike gets all wonky. Flat rear tire.....with 6 mils to go to school, basically uphill. I had none of my gear to change it with me. I was so tempted to just lock it up and grab a bus but was too stubborn to and didn't want to stand around waiting and be late to class. So about 45 minutes later I got to school with 5 minutes to spare before class started...I felt like the biggest nerd, like going so slow with my helmet, sweating like a hog and through like my backpack and shirt and just awful. I had to sit through 2 classes like that till I got to take a shower during our break...needless to say I sat in the back away from my classmates because I don't want to turn into "that girl".

To make it worse, after getting the wheel back to town and fixed up, I went to ride my bike from school on Monday and again like 1 mile in ppssssttttttttttt....flat rear tire....ridic. No bikes on buses so I locked that sucker up and dejectedly brought my wheel back to my dorm sans bike AGAIN. I don't think I make a very good commuter...so my bike is currently locked up outside of ASDA (a Target equivalent over here) about 6 miles from my dorm.