Breaking in the bike...and me

The first couple of times, I just stayed in the neighbor hood, learning the gears and practicing, getting familiar and lots of shifting. I remembered my friend telling of a group of bikers meeting at the mall on Sunday mornings early. They would ride at a pretty good clip for conditioning purposes I suppose. It hit me, the mall, early in the morning, not very busy, jut before daylight. The next two weeks I spent hauling the bike over to the mall about 530 AM and riding for thirty minutes, if my legs could handle it, and lungs. I was not out to break any records, simply get familiar witht he bike and the technique of shifting smoothly. Now we are approaching the end of week two, is ther more to cycling than doing boring laps in an already boring mall parking lot?