What a buzz…

I spend 3-6 hours in my car everyday. Sounds gross, and it is.  I commute to work, and that takes 2.4 hours round trip. The rest is driving from client house to client house. I did a quick calculation, and get this… at the rate I am going I will spend over 9 years of my life in my car. Yikes.

My ugly drive to work.

So what, right? What does that have to do with the Ironman? Well, nothing. But I have discovered that my favorite time of the week occurs in my car.  On Tuesday and Thursday nights I do a long spin and a short run at Absolute Endurance, which is about an hour from my house.  After my workout, I quickly shower and jump in my car as fast as I can. I check in at home to let them know I am on my way, I then shut my phone off, sit back and I let the endorphins flow.

By the time I reach the first set of lights I am in a full-blown high. This is the only occasion I feel fortunate to be confined to my car… nobody asking me to do anything, nothing to kill this buzz. I push the auto-pilot button and zone out.  Tunes cranked, I test the limits of my Bose speakers. I can’t tell what’s louder, the music or my singing. Oblivious to everything around me, I am sure I been the source of a few double-takes.

In my intoxicated state, I careen down the road, ecstatic to be going faster than my usual commuting crawl. So fast actually, that I now use my cruise control as a safety feature.  My door-to-door buzz comes to end as I pull up to my house. Like sand in an hourglass, the last grain slips through the narrow and, poof, it’s gone. I exit my car, open the front door and reality returns:

”Mom you’re home! Can you drive me to…?”

Ok, new calculation. Make that 10 years in the car.