I have driven an automobile more than 1,000 kilometers — more than 620 miles — in four days. Making it the most intense siege of driving inflicted on me since leaving California more than 2.5 years ago.

And the verdict?

I did not like it. At all.

I have decided that, like many other activities, commuting from behind the wheel of a motor vehicle becomes more taxing, more draining, the older you are.

My trips:

–From Abu Dhabi to Sharjah, and back. This is a drive of more than 100 miles in each direction, even if you don’t get lost, as I did. Again. It also is likely to snare you in the worst traffic in the UAE, the morning flow into Dubai from the northern emirates, and (as I encountered) the flow back out in the late afternoon/early evening.

I needed an hour to cover the final 15 miles, as six lanes went down to five … to four … to three … and the superhighway degenerated into a crowded road through the middle of Sharjah’s crumbling old business district.

By the time I got to Sharjah FC for a soccer match, what I figured would be 30 minutes to prepare for the game had been shaved to five. And, more significantly, I was a wrung-out mess even as I launched directly into writing. My nerves were on edge.

–On Tuesday, I drove to Al Ain, another 100-plus mile trip each way, for a press conference with Asamoah Gyan, a prominent soccer player from Ghana who plays for Al Ain FC — and had not given an interview all season.

The Al Ain drive is easier in that the highway easily handles the traffic flow any time of the day. You lose that grinding stop-and-go stuff of the Sharjah ride.

But you suffer from the peculiar layout of Al Ain. The freeway essentially ends 15-20 miles from the city center, and you need a half hour, minimum, to negotiate the final distance, encountering street lights and numerous roundabouts and traffic issues along the way — as well as a speed limit that plummets from 140kph (87mph) to 80kph (50mph). Thus, in addition to the enervating driving process, you add concern over picking up an expensive speeding ticket.

–And I went back to Al Ain today, to do another interview.

All three of these trips involve being trapped in a car for two hours in each direction. In my case, I committed time, too, to picking up or dropping off rental cars — one for the Sunday stuff, another for the Tuesday and Wednesday trips.

So, back to age and commutes …

I have decided that stress is cumulative, among humans. You never get conditioned to it … you get worn down by it. It builds up. And when you are 50 or older, the stress of driving, especially in traffic and for long distances, hits you sooner and with greater force than it did when you were 20 or 30.

Those of you living in SoCal … the next time you are stopped in traffic on a freeway, look around at the drivers around you, and see how many of them appear to be 50 or over.

I predict it will not be many, far fewer than you ought to see from the Baby Boomer generation.

Long daily commutes prompt older workers to find a job closer to home … and probably kills others. One way or another, they get off the road, if they can help it.

In newspapers, it may explain why so few “old” guys are daily beat writers. They cannot (or do not want) to deal with commuting, and many of them leave the business or go inside to become copy editors.

I like writing and reporting, but I need to try to limit the 100-mile drives to maybe one a week. More than that … just not healthy.