I am NOT a morning person. At all. I would love to sleep until 9, or even better, 10, every day. Occasionally my body says, "Oooh! 7am! Let's wake up now!!" But that's rare.
There are a few problems with this.
One: Jobs like you to be there sometime before noon. Eh. Fine.
Two: South Florida hates me. And everyone else who lives here.
South Florida is only a few degrees cooler than Hell. If you want to ride your bike and not get burned alive, you have to do it early. We also seem to have some issues with wind here. If you're riding after 8am, at least part of your ride is going to be against a very unpleasant wind.
I tell you all of this so you understand that my brain doesn't function quite right before 10am. Especially on days when I'm not having a Coke to get my system jolted alive.
When I know I want to be up at a particular time, I wake up regularly throughout the night because I'm hella paranoid I'm going to miss the alarm. Not that it would make much difference right now, but I do hate biking into the wind. So, I didn't fall asleep until almost midnight, I woke up several times, and finally got blasted awake at 6:30. Awesome.
I stumbled around, trying to get dressed in ride appropriate clothing (total fail on this one - wore the long bike shorts instead of the short ones...). I grabbed my phone (I have an app that tracks my ride), my iPod (need the beat to help me pump my legs), and my wallet (in case I get hit). My water bottle is attached to my bike. I thought about filling it, but figured I didn't have that much to drink on my last ride so there would be enough water for this one. Ha. Ha. Ha.
I'm riding, trying to shake the cobwebs from my brain. I get going and hit a light. Despite the early hour, it's damn warm out. I reach down for the water bottle and find it significantly emptier than I thought. "Eh, I should be okay."
I ride along for a little while longer when the heat and exertion finally push me to drink more. And I emptied my bottle. Not quite halfway into the ride. I pedal on and start panicking. The sun is rising and beating down on me, it's getting hotter, I'm sweating more, and I am tired. My legs feel like they don't want to work anymore. SHIT.
I thought about stopping at the middle school along the way, but in my sports bra tank top and bike shorts, I was sure they'd just boot me off campus for being a creeper and I'm not even sure they HAVE water fountains there anymore. (No idea why they'd get rid of them...)
The next thing I'm going to pass is a fire station, but for some reason, I didn't want to stop there. I'd gotten going again, and I knew I'd be at a shopping center in just a little bit. Of course, not long after I passed the station, my legs were like, "SCREW YOU FOR NOT PROPERLY HYDRATING!"
I did make it to the gas station and I bought a HUGE bottle of water. I have NO sense of measurement apparently, and I bought more than my bottle can hold. I shoved the bottle I bought down the back of my shirt. I gulped down too much water and headed back on my way too soon. For a bit I thought I was going to vomit. Fortunately, I was close to home and rode a slowly and willed myself to feel better.
I got home and almost immediately threw myself in the shower. Now all I want to do is take a nap. I'm going to have to work on this being awake in the morning thing.
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