That Was Quick

I've grown accustomed to riding 7.4 miles from the south end to work over the course of the summer. Now that school is back in session, I've migrated back to my home base in the Highlands, from which the trip is only 4.5ish miles.

I was surprised how fast that particular ride seems, now (also, easy — on the way in, it's nearly all downhill, with a short climb at the end). It's really weird to look back and think how hard it used to seem! The distance never really bothered me, but I used to be really nervous riding in traffic on Bardstown Road. Now the distance feels like nothing and the traffic doesn't bother me. There's one nasty little merging spot that I forgot about — one of those places where one must merge right across three lanes of traffic with the rising sun obstructing one's view completely. Tomorrow, I'll just avoid that entirely.

This does not, however, mean I will fail to cram the mileage in. School is 10.5 miles (minimum) from work — I'll be riding out, then carpooling back with my roommate, since our classes get out the same time — and the 5:00 AM Group Ride of Doom (aka the FURLY ride — yes, that's its 'official' name!) will cram yet more miles in on Tuesday and/or Thursday. And then, of course, there will be the weekends... Well, Saturdays. I sing at my church's 11:00 AM service on Sundays, so I wind up missing most Sunday rides.

I might skip the Tuesday FURLY this week, because I didn't sleep worth a good gosh darn last night. I slept from 10:30 - 11:30 PM, then woke up and was harassed by a piece of music I'm writing until I consented to break out my laptop and notate it. I wasn't actually able to sleep until 4:30, then got up at 6:00. I'm surprised, actually, that I'm able to function at all, and that I didn't get myself killed on the way in. I would expect to be more incoherent, though perhaps I'm simply so incoherent that I don't realize how incoherent I am (something like the 'I'm not as think as you drunk I am' phenomenon').

I'm debating whether or not to take a lunch ride today. It depends how I feel around lunchtime.

In other news, I am apparently the last person on earth to realize you can drag the lines on Google Maps around to get the route you want. Jeez. You would think someone who currently makes his living as a web developer would be able to figure this out, eh? Sheesh.