Around the block. Not around several blocks. Not a neighborhood tour. The block. Singular. 0.94 miles in six minutes. Twenty-three feet of elevation, which means there was a driveway involved. Friday evening, the kind where you step outside and think “I should ride” and then you do, but only just barely enough to count. This was the warm-up. Or the…

Getting Pringles. On a bike. Because that’s a valid reason to leave the house. 1.31 miles to wherever sold Pringles. Nine minutes. June evening, still bright at 6 PM, warm enough that the ride felt like a reward and not a chore. Seventeen feet of elevation because even the snack run has a hill if you look hard enough. I…

Twelve miles on inline skates. Two hours. With the boy. This is the one. This is the kind of activity that doesn’t need dressing up because it’s already perfect. You strap on skates, you grab your kid, and you go until your legs are jelly and the sun is getting low and neither of you wants to stop but both…

Rode the bike to get gas for the John Deere. 1.7 miles to the station and back, twelve minutes, Camila Cabello on the speakers because the shuffle didn’t get the memo that this was a lawn mower errand. Three songs. One gas can. The most domestic ride of the summer disguised as exercise because the tracking app doesn’t know the…

Biking to get gas for the Deere. The John Deere. The mower. Because the yard wasn’t going to mow itself and the gas can was empty and driving two miles felt stupid when the bike was right there. Saturday morning, 9:36 AM. The responsible version of me — the one who gets up and handles things before it gets too…

Ride to get gas. That’s it. That’s the activity. 1.84 miles each way to the gas station on a bike, which means I either carried a gas can on a bicycle or I was getting gas for myself at a place that also sold snacks. Knowing me, there were snacks involved. Twelve minutes. Thirty feet of elevation, which in this…

Second ride of the day. The afternoon one was three miles in seventeen minutes. This one was almost four miles in thirty. Slower, easier, the kind of ride where you’re just out there because the evening is nice and you already proved you could go fast earlier. April 11th. Same day, two rides. The first one had purpose. This one…

Three miles in seventeen minutes. Afternoon ride — the kind where you just go and don’t think too hard about where. April 2018. This might have been one of the first rides after the move, or one of the last rides before it. Either way, the air was warm and the route was flat and seventeen minutes passed without me…

Strava called this an “Evening Run.” It was a walk. A mile and a half at twenty-two minutes per mile — which is the pace of someone who is thinking, not exercising. October 2017. Louisville. I was an Engineer I in the NOC by then, working backbone stuff, staring at dashboards and traceroutes all day. Sometimes you just need to…

One mile loop. That was the plan and that’s what happened. Took seven minutes and change. May in Louisville. Warm enough to ride in a t-shirt, cool enough that you don’t hate it by the time you get back. The loop was probably just the block — out the driveway, around, back. Quick enough that the bike seat didn’t even…