Southern Indiana Is A Nice Place to Ride, FLATE, and Other Thoughts

Point the first:
Southern Indiana seems like a nice place to ride. IUS is just across the river from Louisville, and I pay in-state tuition there. New Albany and the surrounding area reminds me a bit of Syracuse, NY — a very sharp, fast transition from small-city scale to rural scale. I like that: it couples the convenience of living in town with proximity to escape from said town. It's very 'bikeable,' and the drivers were surprisingly respectful.

I met my roomie for dinner before school last night, but he has an evening class at 6:00, so I still had plenty of time to ride, and got in a fast 45 minutes in the rolling hills around the knobs. I did not, however, climb Moser Knob, which is one stiff little climb: I started too, then realized that between iffy lungs (my asthma has been a bear all week due to a medication SNAFU), being really, really tired (what with having slept all of 3 hours), and needing to remain awake through class, I probably shouldn't.

I think I might try to give it a go next Monday. This time of year is a little touch-and-go, since the persistence of the heat and humidity of Ohio Valley's summer is coupled with the arrival of insistent fall molds and pollens. Go figure.

Point the second:
Rogue has a recurring training ride known as the FURLY ride. FURLY stands for something akin to 'freakin' early.' I had planned to do today's FURLY, but the need to make up for a sleepless Sunday night prevailed (and I took some Tylenol PM, which means I was lucky to wake up at all -- that stuff makes me sleep for days). Instead, I spent this morning running late. Really late, in fact. One might even say I was FLATE.

I learned that being late, however, is a good motivator for being fast (though, if you're not careful, it can also be a good motivator for being stupid, and there's definitely a break-even point — if I'd been five minutes later getting out the door, the difference in commute time wouldn't have been worth the extra effort). And fast I was: as fast, average-wise, as I have been on any commute I've done since I started keeping track of my average speed.

I was also stressed, because it had been a rough morning, I hate being late, and I was still mildly drugged — but I wasn't so stressed that I didn't enjoy the ride.

I've realized I'm going to have some trouble juggling all the stuff I have going on right now. I'm hoping to step my work schedule back to part-time soon, which will help considerably ... at the moment, it's going to be hard to get homework done between my Monday and Wednesday class sessions, since the only available time I have, really, will be lunch break and Tuesday evening.

I need, first, to figure out my health-care options. It is an established fact that I am dreadfully allergic to the Ohio valley, and that living here without three medications that would run me some $200+ each month if I didn't have pharmaceutical coverage probably isn't an option (except in winter, when I can get by with just Advair and a rescue inhaler). I'm thinking about dropping one of them on a trial basis. We'll see.

I'm not used to my life being this busy — in fact, I don't really like being this busy. I like a less-scheduled approach to things. Leaves more time for the bike :D