This morning's commute was completely uneventful.

However, last night's commute home was epic. At 5 PM when I was scheduled to leave, we were in the midst of a huge storm. Pouring rain, lightning, wind, etc. A co-worker who rides decided to try to make it home but turned around and retreated back to the office after a 1/2 mile.

I looked at the radar and it appeared that most of it would pass by 5:30. I decided to hang out at work until it all blew over. My son had jazz band practice so I needed to be home by 6:15 to get him there on time. I figured if I left by 5:30 I'd have 45 minutes to make the 8 mile ride home.

Sure enough, at 5:30 the brunt of the storm had passed. The rain and lightning was over, but unfortunately the wind had increased ferocity on the tail of the storm, and even more unfortunately had shifted so that I would be riding straight into it. I'd have to push hard to be home in 45 minutes, but it was still do-able.

Then as I was getting ready to walk out the door my boss returned to the office and grabbed me for a few minutes to discuss an idea he had. So now I was down to about 37 minutes to make it home.

As soon as I broke away from that conversation my wife called in a panic. It seems that during the school day my son's instrument had accidentally gotten loaded into a trailer by well-intentioned individuals in preparation for a concert series they were performing today. They didn't realize he had planned to take it home yesterday evening so he would have it for use for his jazz band practice, then bring it to today's performances himself. Unfortunately by the time it was discovered where his instrument was, the trailer was packed full and was now at some unknown (to us) location. The nature of the evening's jazz band is an invite-only ensemble group, and attendance at all practices is mandatory which meant just skipping practice wasn't an option. So I talked through the logistics of where we could secure a temporary instrument for him to play that evening.

By the time I got off the phone I now had 30 minutes to make it 8 miles home straight into a 30 mph wind. There was nothing I could do but crank for all I was worth. I was on my hybrid, but I bent over as far as I could in an attempt to cheat the wind. I pedaled and pedaled as fast and as hard as I could, trying to block the pain from my thoughts. When I came to hills instead of gearing down and slowly spinning up them like I normally do, I stood up and cranked even harder.

I rolled into our driveway exactly 30 minutes after I left, completely exhausted and nearly unable to speak because I was breathing so hard. Not sure what my heart rate was but I'm sure it was higher than that which my cardiologist would recommend. I was completely drenched in sweat. But I made it and was able to get my son to practice on time.

Today my legs are paying the price for that trip home. I have a feeling though that once the discomfort passes I'll probably look back on that trip home with some fond memories.