Need to slow down

Work is getting a bit out of hand. I do like what I do for a living. It's in my chosen career field, and it's gratifying (at least many days), and it keeps my brain engaged. But a bit too engaged lately. Usually I teach a week or two, then have a week or two to catch up on office work that piles up. The office time allows me to catch my breath and keep up to speed on what I need to teach, and provides a bit of rest from lecturing 8 hours a day (plus usually working a couple more on each end) on technical subject areas and being on my feet. I haven't had a full week in my office in 2010. Just a rare couple days here at there. Needless to say I'm exhausted. (But thankful to have the work and way to take care of our family at the same time.)

My off time is usually spent with outdoor activities as is apparent by this blog, but I've had the strange experience of getting too tired for my regular routines lately. I've also been increasingly irritable. There is most definitely therapy to what I do outside. No question about it. I'm sure it can be reduced down to chemical reactions within the body during exertion, and that very well may be the case. But whatever it may be, I have been missing my regular high-frequency of climbing, biking, and foot-travel enjoyment.

I rode to work on Friday, which I haven't been doing anywhere near the amount I have been known to in the past. I've been driving to work due to the shear fatigue of my schedule, and it's gotten down right boring. I was tired Friday morning, it was raining and in the forties, and I rode anyway. And I had one of my best days at work that I've had in a while. The riding was peaceful, the exercise felt great, and air smelled wonderful (spring smells pretty good around here after the winters we get).

I've spent a bit of tonight reading up on various cycle-tour journals on crazyguyonabike.com, and it got me thinking of the freedom of the road again. Alison and I have been talking about going on a tour together sometime soon. It would be her first. We are talking of a mini-route that would spend a long weekend somehow connecting Lake Itasca (the end point of last year's tour), and Lake Superior. It should make for a relaxing roll through the woods of MN which is something that I think we could both use soon. I don't know if we'll be able to put the long weekend together for a while, but I think we should try. My dreams of spending a couple months or more on my Surly may be out of the question during this period of life, but who knows what the weekends can put together on a semi-frequent basis. MN is a quite decent place to enjoy some bicycle vagrancy. I think soon it'll time to slow down the schedule and roll a few miles.