When I saw the opportunity to combine my passion for building affordable housing with my love for biking, I could not pass it up. I have also wanted to drive across the country, and now I get to bike.

I am fundraising simply by word of mouth and sending out letters. I tell friends, family, faculty, and others about what I am doing, why I am doing it, who the program is helping, and ask for donations.

I will be setting up a rough training schedule for myself that will include long bike rides, some hill training, and other exercise including my simultaneous Boston Marathon training . . . I will be embarking on an 80-plus mile ride to Connecticut later on this semester. I will add in a ride or two to Massachusetts or southern Rhode Island. I will also be biking in various kinds of weather to get used to all kinds of situations.

Many of the building sites will be Habitat for Humanity sites where we will work with that local affiliate for that day. We do not know what stage of the house they will be on, but we could be raising walls, siding, painting, putting on finishing touches-anything is possible.

I love exercise. Prior to learning about mountain biking, I was a jogger. And then, like a lot of baby boomers, my knees gave out. I believe that mountain biking is going to be an outlet for a lot of people my age. I'm 59, and people are going to realize you get as much aerobic exercise - if not more - on the mountain bike without being hobbled.

We saw this as an opportunity to explore a passion we had and leverage some of the skills we had acquired at our day job. One day we were thinking about how we could teach people to play and become better ourselves.