Darker and Darker

With sunrise already after 7am the 6:15 ride is just getting darker and darker. Getting up in the dark is not something I do easily, either, and this morning it seemed a particular struggle. I suppose that was at least partly due to the fact that I didn't get to sleep until around 1 am last night, thanks no doubt to the rather large overdose of caffeine I'd imbibed over the course of the day. I guess the two glasses of wine after dinner proved an inadequate antidote. I did, nonetheless, make it out the door and to the levee, all the while acutely congnizant of the fact that I was lacking my trusty red blinky light. I needen't have worried, though, because not a single car passed me from behind. Apparently drivers don't like getting up in the dark either.

When I arrived at the meeting spot the stars were still out, and even though we started a few minutes late, it was really a bit too dark to go very fast for the first few miles. The pace did finally get going pretty good, but as usual when Howard tried to force the pace the paceline suffered. A couple of times I just let him ride off the front rather than try to sustain an unsustainable pace. Nothing was ever able to stay off the front for long anyway. There was still one drilling rig up on the levee, and going around it on the wet grass of the levee slope I could tell the bike was close to slipping out from under me. Anyway, by the time we were halfway back I was feeling really tired. In fact, I still am. I think I am just suffering from an accumulated lack of sleep, though. It will no doubt be a struggle to stay awake through my dentist appointment this afternoon.