1000 Mile Challenge – A day from Hell???

Last night I hit the bed at 11:30a  after a 32 mile ride, only to rise for a morning 21 mile ride with my wife at 4:45a.     After a rather long day at work I hit the road again tonight at  6:45p for another 22 miles.    Needless to say I’m a bit tired.   The real challenge is that I need to get a 20miler in tomorrow morning before I leave for Louisville for a day trip.   That means the alarm goes off at 3:45a.

So you ask, “why go through all this hassle?”   Well I must admit I did have a moment of doubt this morning when I found myself about 5 feet away from a head-on collision with a car who for some reason decided to make a left turn into my path at a well lit intersection.  In an effort to miss me he swerved and almost hit Misty.   My guess, some young kid, up too early, just not paying attention to the road.   At any rate, Misty let him know how we felt.

Tonight’s ride was much less eventful.   As the sun set the temp dropped into the mid 80’s.   That’s pretty nice in my book.     I did my typical 22miler from my house out to route 42 and back.  

So once again, “why go through all this hassle?”    For me the scenery has a lot to do with it.   I can ride the same route day after day and I’ll always see something new.   Yesterday it was a snapping turtle (about 18” in diameter") crossing the road.   I stopped to try to give it a hand but after nearly getting my hand bit off I decided he would do fine on his own.

Tonight was a real gem as a Harvest Moon followed me as I headed West on Harriott road.   I had to stop and get this picture.   Too bad I only had my camera phone.

  One thing I’ve become accustomed to during this challenge is riding in the dark.   In fact about 70% of my riding time has been at night.    So the scenery that I see looks a lot like this.    

In reality, this picture doesn’t do the actual beauty of the night any justice.  City lights in the distance; rock quarries in full production in the middle of the night; moonlit roads in the middle of the country; a thunder storm in the distance, and my favorite, the pitch black as I escape the city.    There something to be said for the feeling of smallness and perhaps insignificance, when you’re alone in what seems like ‘the middle of nowhere’.    I, like many of you strive to be significant in this world.   Riding hard is one way that I achieve this.  

Six days remaining, 735 miles ridden, 40707 kcal burned.   I’ve got a lot of riding to do this weekend.    See you tomorrow!