Better Than Nothing!

After I finished helping my hubby proofread his latest English paper, I still had plenty of daylight (and sunshine!) to get out for an afternoon ride. I was planning to try out a 40-mile route I'm hoping to lead later this month.  I got out to the start and onto my bike by 4:15 and headed down the trail for the first few miles.  I was feeling pretty lethargic, which makes sense considering I only got about five hours of sleep last night.  Still, I figured I could do the ride since there was really only one big climb, and because it felt so good to be outside after all the rain we've been getting lately.  When I turned off from the trail, I was riding along a pretty busy, 2-lane, shoulder-less road, and it was approaching rush hour.  I could tell that people were pretty ticked that I was slowing them down, especially since the bike trail was so close to where I was riding.  Usually I don't care what drivers think - cyclists have every right to use the roads, too - but I just wasn't feeling very safe out there today.  So, when the road brought me back to the trail, I decided to just call it quits and head back to my car.  I still got 19 miles in in an hour-and-a-quarter, which isn't a bad workout even though I'd planned to do more.  Ah, well.  I'm realizing, AGAIN, just how important sleep is in the training equation.  And I should be able to get on that now that Hubby is almost finished with his semester!