I woke for work Thursday morning at 3 a.m. when my alarm went off.  I drank my morning “wake up” two cups of coffee, showered and left at 4:23.  I put a full day in and left at 3:15 p.m., arriving home at 5:15.  Thursday’s a meeting night so leaving work late messed me up a little bit.  I had to get dressed quickly and get my butt out the door with the Venge if I was going to get a ride in.

I opted for a 30 minute ride because I was so short on time.  I figured I’d do some intervals and call that good, shooting for an 18-ish mph average.  After the first mile-and-a-half I got out of the saddle and hit it hard, sprinting north of 26 and holding that for a couple of power poles.  Three more power poles and another sprint.  Then another, and another.  I’d taken my average pace from 18-1/2-mph to just north of 20.  Rather than rest, I decided to hammer the rest and finish the ten-mile course in less than 30 minutes.  North and south weren’t much of a big deal – I was holding 22-mph easily.  The problem was going to be a three-mile stretch into the wind, heading east.  I carried some decent speed through the corner and put my head down, trying to stay just above my 20.4 mph average.  I got caught at a stop sign by traffic after the second mile, but with only one to go into the wind, I knew I’d make it.  9.91 miles in 29:21 for a 20.2-mph average…. Not bad for short on time.

I cleaned up and headed out to meet my sponsor for dinner at 6:30.  I was two minutes late.  We had a nice dinner and headed to our meeting.  After some decent discussion, we packed it up and I took him home.  I crawled into bed at a few minutes after 9 p.m., exhausted.

Most days are like that, anymore.  Packed with so much to do, it’s hard to get to it all.  I once naively worried I’d be bored in recovery.  That was more than a few 24-hours ago.  I’ve come to learn that I have a tough time fitting everything in.