(I've lost count.)

Yesterday's ride was not as productive as I would have liked. My plan was to bike around North Arlington and do some hillwork training based on a cuesheet off MapMyRide. Unfortunately, the plan was doomed from the start, as I didn't get going until 6:30 or so, thanks to the insane traffic I encountered driving home from work. I also spent a good 10 minutes searching around my room for AAA batteries to put in a spare blinky light, since mine fell off and is now residing in a ditch somewhere in Great Falls.

Anyway, I finally hit the road and almost immediately got off course. If you've known me for more than 5 minutes, then you know I get lost very easily. I don't exactly buck the stereotype of dumb blonde sometimes.

After I crossed Lee Highway, I ended up missing a turn (due to a mislabeled street name on the cue sheet) and found myself on Spout Run Parkway. Turning around, I decided the best course of action would be to forget the various side streets I had written down and go straight to Military Road, which would get me back to my intended route.

Military Road is a series of rolling hills - great for training - AND, it has its own bike lane. I will definitely be going back there in the near future.

After hitting Old Glebe and turning back to the southwest, things went south again. (No pun intended.) I found myself up near Marymount University and the Washington Golf & Country Club… then somehow back on Military Rd. Crap. At this point, it was starting to get dark (making me glad I took along the spare blinky light), so I decided to just head back to Lorcom and back south… yet got off track when I tried to backtrack my original starting route (which I had messed up) past Glebe Elementary School and overshot my turn, ending up at Virginia Hospital Center. Whoops.

Even if I remembered what roads I had taken, my route map would look more like a mass of spaghetti than a logical training ride.

Long story short — do not trust MapMyRide's cuesheet generator, and always always always have a blinky light handy. :stupid:

*Note to self: get a map of Arlington, and/or buy a GPS navigator.