kmac27

I wake up at four and work from 5:30 to 9:30 then I have to go to school and class starts at 11:00 which is a 10 mile commute. Then a 7 mile commute home. I will be getting 20 miles a day while going to pre med school. Is it possible? How do you get your commuting in, do you take the bus when time is a crunch?

robinthehippie

Sounds like you wouldn't have a whole lot of time to goof off in between work and class, but 10 miles in an hour (giving you 15 minutes on each side to get settled) is very doable at a relaxed pace. 20 miles a day is quite a bit, but from my experience it's possible, my 16 miles a day working 12+ hour shifts has worked out very well for me.

I used to take the bus when I was short on time, sometimes I'd load my bike on the bus, sometimes not. After a while riding, though, I got to where riding my bike was always faster than taking the bus. I still take the bus occasionally when I'm extremely tired or coming down with a cold or something.

buzzman

I am a full time teacher (artist in residence) at a college and often working 6 nights a week at my art the rest of the time. I manage to commute in every day- 10.3 miles in and 10.3 miles home. Plus use the bike for most of my other transportation. The bus I take is an express bus, which I take only when the weather is really awful- (usually a blizzard). From the moment I leave my house, walk to the bus and then take the bus and then walk from the bus to my office is almost exactly the same as biking. No real time savings.

During the school year I average about 120 miles/week on the bike. If it's a nice day and I have it off- I go for a bike ride.

crazybikerchick

Have you timed the bus commute vs bike commute? Unless the bus is an express one you'll almost certainly be faster riding.

uke

Depends on your route. The farther you are from car traffic, the faster you'll go. I'd rather ride 10 miles on an MUP than 5 on a road with lots of cars.

banerjek

This doesn't sound bad at all. If your other option is the bus, I can't see the bus saving you much time (if any). I've never seen a place where they aren't hopelessly slow.

Once you're in shape, that 10 mile leg is going to take you about a half hour unless you're in town. The 7 mile leg will take just around 20 min. Plus riding will give you a generally higher energy level.

I think you'd be nuts not to take a bike.

DarrellA

The biking is the easy part. The times you listed and the distances are easily done in good weather, a bit harder in winter :-) Make sure to have enough time to keep your GPA up very high (3.80+) otherwise it will be hard to get into MED School. Plan on lots of study time. Remember getting into med school is the easy part.

Darrell

chephy

The bus may be slower, but you can read and work on it, which sometimes helps in a time-pressure situation.

However, a bike is more fun. Also exercise makes you more productive and mentally alert, as well as makes sure that you don't gain 20 pounds while sitting down and studying/working all day. I would try to bike whenever possible, and use the bus for a rest day or for when I really need to cram that last bit of info of my head right before the test (not the best strategy... but this does happen to students sometimes...)

keiththesnake

I think you can do it. If you're not used to the distances, maybe try taking the bus a couple of times until you feel comfortable riding every day.

Other than that, use the bus when you're tired or behind on your reading.

When I was in school, I found that keeping a tight schedule made me more productive. I was a better student when I was busy. Good luck.

kmac27

I guess one of the reasons I ask is because I lift weights for an hour for 4 days a week. and I just never feel like my legs are rested ever because of my lower body leg lifts.

chephy

I'm no personal trainer or anything, and maybe you know what you're doing and I have no clue, but if you never feel rested, you might actually be overtraining. Muscles need time to rebuild and regenerate after you abuse them (in a good way) with weightlifting. A guy I know (and he's really buff and strong... running out of weight range of some machines at the gym) says that he works out a different muscle group each day, and every gives any major muscle group a WEEK of rest between workouts; otherwise, he feels it does not have time to fully recover.

Anyway, cycling is not a strength exercise - it's a cardio exercise, which complements the weight-lifting. Neither should be done to the extreme though - take days off as necessary.

ALLSTOTT

Yea thats totally dueable .. i commute 30 miles 5 days a week and day in Phoenix Az weather, With a Job that can be physically hard.. but then again everyones body is diffrent

kmac27

I do rest a lot and they still never feel rested. I am fine on the flatlands until I hit the hill before my house.

Cave

I'm sure things are different in Australia, but I would have found med school pretty damn hard if I also had to work 4 hours per day.

I don't think the cycling will add too much time, but you might be physically tired and need a bit more sleep as well. 10 mi = 16km so shouldn't be too bad, at least once you get your fitness up. The other thing you can do is cycle one day, rest one or two, until it becomes easy.

I don't find taking a bus or tram saves time over cycling. Train is quicker if you don't have to wait. Car - depends on distance and traffic, usually quicker but not always. I remember once I was running late so started to drive, hit so much traffic that I came back home and jumped on the bike (shortish commute in inner Melbourne).

GearsForFears

My question would not be so much if you could make it to school on time but if you could make it in good enough shape to attend given the long ride and the potential need to change and/or clean up.

I second the slowness of the bus. My bus commute, if you figure in waiting for the right departure, walking to the stop and waiting for the bus to arrive, is twice as long as just leaving when I want and pedaling. Car under normal conditions is faster than bike though not by a lot. The car is more of a bad weather fallback for me than a time saver.

lisitsa

Who cares if your studies suffer. Study and work is the more boring parts of life. Life's too short to look ahead 'at some magic time in the future' when things will be easier. You'll always be challenged with work and demands. You just gotta run them over and keep riding.

I'm also at uni now doing eng, and everyone says if you sacrifice your free time now, you will be rewarded later. But with what? With a high paying, high responsibility job later on. In that job, they'll tell you, if you want a promotion to manager or if you want respect in the company, you should sacrifice some free time now to get rewards later. Then when you're in management, you'll feel responsibility and a reputation to uphold and will work your ass off there. In the end you've reached retirement and have already lived your life.

I reckon just ride to uni and whatever influence it has on your studies, take it as it comes.

matthew_deaner

Considering the distances involved, your commute sounds do-able.

I am a grad student and live 17.5 miles from class. I also have two jobs, and am a single parent. I typically commute round-trip 4-5 days per week, year round (weather permitting in the winter). I ride recreationally on the weekends, and usually log 200-300 miles/week in the summer months, and around 175-200 miles in the winter.

Commuting actually saves me time, since I'd have to park really far from class and take the bus if I drove. With a bike, I can lock up several hundred yards from the entrance of my graduate program building. I just wear my lycra bike clothes in every day, find a bathroom and change. I've been doing this for a couple of years and hardly get a second glance from the students now.

Like you, I lift weights 2-3 times per week. I don't do much in the way of lower body lifting because it's not necessary when you ride as much as I do, and it's not a good idea when you depend on your legs for transportation. I can actually squat more weight now than when I was not commuting and doing lower body workouts 1x per week.

lil brown bat

I'd say it's very doable. If you're healthy, the distance won't be a problem, and I concur with others that the bike commute stands a good chance of being faster than the bus. Unless your transit system is very different from mine, your bike is more reliable than a bus. My only concern would be that you're getting enough sleep. Never mind the bike commute, if you're going to work and go to school, and you're going to get up at four, that means a quite early bedtime if you plan to be functional after a couple of weeks. If you can handle the discipline of getting to bed early, you should be okay; if you can't, taking the bus won't make much difference really.