I've been commuting to school as my main form of training these days, with the shortest route being 20 minutes through town, and the longest 1:10 or so (depending on the bike) over McBeth and down the Fox. It's tough to do much more than just spin or ride light tempo with a big-ass backpack, but some days I've managed to do the double - 2:20-2:30 for the day, and the volume certainly helps. Sometime I'll have to drop the bag off at school early and just go do some hill repeats without the pack.

Coming down Fox has it's risks in the early morning, I've found out. The deer are out early, and this week the road is full of frisky bucks looking for a doe with an urge and a convenient place to do it. The does are all over the road - I startled a pair of them the other day, and one took off straight downhill parallel to the guard rail, at about 25-30mph, 20 yards in front of me for about 1/4 mile before peeling off.

Further down the road,as I reached the bottom of Fox at Amazon, I passed a van stopped in the right turn lane and heard a lady shout "can I talk to you for a minute?". I thought it was meant for someone else, but no, headed down Amazon here comes this same van headed the opposite way, stops as I go by, and this crazy doe leans out the window and shouts at me "can you pull over? i want to talk to you!". Me? Are you nuts, lady? Am I going to stop and talk to the crazy one who actually went down the other street, and turned up this to intercept me? Hell no. I kept going, shouting "what? No, I'm busy!". She passed me again down Hillyard, and I got the nasty stare. No idea what I did to piss her off.

Like I said, the nutters are out early in the mornings and running erratically. Watch out and keep the lights on.