Biking and Jogging I love exercise but only if its getting me somewhere. No wonder then that my two favorite sports are both open air, on the go activities and involved with moving from spot A to spot B.

I am an inveterate cyclist. Put me on a bike and I feel more at home on the saddle than on my car seat or on my revolving chair in front of the computer. I, sometimes, compare my bike to Mohammad's horse, aptly called Barak, swift like lightening. When on the bike with music in my ears, I zoom down the road, or huff up the creek straining and daring myself to make it to the top. My favorite treks are sprints in the fall with the leaves cracking under the wheels and the wheels splashing thoguh puddles with my cheeks feeling robust with the wind. I then feel like Mohammed on his steed flying with bike through the clouds, my feet planted on pedals, my hands gripping handles my head humped over frame. Mohammed made it in a tizzy to Jerusalem. I feel, in the best of moods, that my steed and I can make it in a tizzy down the next lane.

I have been biking for years and as many bikes that I have acquired have I lost or had stolen from me. Most of the others were second hand and cheap. This one is new and a Raleigh, bought in California and costing the world. It is black and silver with an arrow racing through it. It is my dearest friend since it and I have traveled through various...

At time, I feel, as thoguh it were my favorite horse who, given care and affection, would dedicate her to fulfilling my every need. They say that plants are sensitive and reciprocal to human love and indulgence. Plants are almost inanimate. Why shouldn't bikes be too? Sometimes, I feel as thoguh my bike were a Pinocchio. I muse: I stroke its frame, caress its saddle and suddenly -- gee wily! -- The bike comes alive as in some Disney movie feature of, let's say, the ending scenes of Beauty and the Beast. Then off we race, my speaking bike and I to jump across the world as Aladdin on a magic carpet.
As child I was never taught to bike. I first learned it as an adolescent when I 'pegged' a man's bike for fun, it was parked outside a store, and feet barely touching the pedals raced down a hill smack on my principals' bonnet. Talk about love at first sight! I never dismounted a saddle after that.

Ice and snow, when all are indoors, sees me on my bike. I have learned how to maneuver it over ice -- simple: you skim across the ice as thoguh you were ice-skating. And have taught myself how to bike without holding the handles. I feel like an acrobat then. I can also bike wearing high heels. Very high heels. I simply place the pedals in between sole and heels and maneuver the…