I didn't put down the shovel.

OK, a little background: when I see and hear someone digging themselves into a figurative hole (like the husband trying to make up for a "isn't that skirt a little tight" comment by offering to start taking her to the gym), I often advise him or her to, "Put down the shovel and step away from the hole."

Oh, if only I would heed my own advice. I was so excited to randomly find a newly completed connector street from the back of our community that I went ahead and took the connecting street to the next community. All the way down the hill (did you catch that? DOWN the hill...), I thought, "What am I doing?" But I kept going. So I hit the next community and turned South, thinking that a particular big loop would be gentler somehow, don't ask me how or why.

I continued going downhill. Oh. Hmm. Well. Why stop now? Finally, at the bottom, I headed back towards home. Up. Hill. Took a break. It's amazing how there's no cooling breeze when you're going so slowly. It was much cooler just a little while ago. Started again. Does my GPS really say I'm going 3.5 miles per hour?!? Took another break. At least it's pretty. Started again and nearly fell over just trying to clip in. Twice.

I survived, though I lost count of how many more times I stopped, and really, once I got close to home, I could and should have kept going (but somewhere else this time) to add some distance, but I felt like I had accomplished enough for the morning. Besides, despite now having three different streets out of my homebase, there are still only two ways out: uphill and downhill. Neither looked good at the time.

Remember, kids: if you're not good at climbing hills, don't start a ride by cruising downhill at 35 mph. It's only asking for trouble.

No weight training today; I had a massage. ?Estoy pobrecita, no? Don't worry, I'll make up for it tomorrow. Oh, hey, did you notice? I finally figured out how to put up my weekly schedule in the sidebar. Take a look.

Today's ride: 11.95 miles in 1:00:21. Average speed: 11.9 mph. Total ascent: 1015', elevation change from valley to peak: 600'.

Yeah, OK, so maybe I wasn't Greased Lightning. But that's more climbing than I've ever done in a much shorter time span than my most similar ride. So there.