With my busy work life - I'm thinking of commuting to the office a day or two a week (about 50 miles round trip). - hoping these added bike miles will help out on my bike training.

I have a tri specific bike (Softride) and use it in my twice weekly group rides - but I am not getting enough miles in - so hence it makes sense to me to add in commuting on days I can fit that into my schedule.

The commute would be mostly on a hard pack gravel that is not friendly to those little skinny tires on the Softride and therefore a bike with fatter tires would seem best for this pupose.

If I went out and got a recumbent bike for the commute (you know the type with the lounge chair seat where you lay back with your feet up in the air) - DOES ANYONE HAVE AN OPINION AS TO WHETHER THIS WOULD HURT OR HELP ON OVERALL TRI BIKE TRAINING?

I wanted to get a recumbent bike anyways to hopefully lure my wife into biking and besides those bikes are "cool" by being so different.