19 June 2011 Ride: Who needs sleep?

So, let's crunch the numbers.  The night before I awake at 2:45AM with 4 hours of sleep.  I take a 3:30 AM ride and a few hours later, hop in the car for a 9 hour trip.  Arriving in Nashville, I bike ride another 90 minutes.  Rachel's game begins at 10:00PM, ends close to midnight and because our hotel is located 40 minutes away, we don't get into bed until 1:30AM.  That means I've been awake almost 23 hours.  Five hours later, at 6:30, I wake.  Normally, after so little sleep over the past couple of days, I would close my eyes again and hope I get a bit more sleep.  But I know that if I want to get a ride in, the morning is my only real opportunity.  So, I gear up and I'm out on the bike by 7:00.

It was a bit cool when arrived back at the hotel last night, so, I'm surprised how warm it feels, probably because of the humidity.  Showers are in the forecast but the skies look as if they'll hold for awhile.  A good ride as I cruise in and out of neighborhoods.  I think I'm on a stretch of road that is taking me a mile or two from my starting point and laugh when I end up just a few blocks away from where I started.  This seemed to happen a couple of times, a bit the reverse of navigating the streets in Paris.

About halfway through the ride, a cloud wall appears in the west.

I'm about halfway through what I hope will be a 20 mile ride and wonder if the rain will hold up that long.  A bit later the cloud wall looms larger.

And, a few minutes later it begins to rain but nothing serious. 

The 20 mile mark comes and I begin to hear thunder in the distance.  I get some renewed energy and think I may go for 25 miles.  But, by mile 22 the thunder suddenly gets louder.  I head back to the hotel and get drenched just a couple of minutes away with the lightening really flashing in earnest.  A nice morning soak at the end of a good ride.

View from our hotel room.  Normally, having a hotel room with a view of the interstate and the airport runway would not seem very appealing, but the patterns 12 stories up have actually been quite interesting.

Writing the entries in a bit of a haze the past two days.  Maybe I'll get some sleep tonight.

Today's Ride:  2hrs 6mins.  23.30 miles.  Miles YTD: 3,798.51

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