Six O’Clock Somewhere
Burnout Rides Uphill Too
Six PM on a Wednesday in February and I’m heading out. This is not a typo. The sun is already packing it in, the temperature is doing that thing where it stops being cold and starts being personal, and I’m pointing my bike uphill into snow. Grabbed my headlight on the way out the door like some kind of afterthought insurance policy. Because that’s what this was. An afterthought. The whole day had already happened to me, and this was the part I almost didn’t get to.
Here’s the thing about burnout. Not the kind where you take a long weekend and feel better. The lifetime kind. The kind where your brain has been redlining for decades and efficiency isn’t a solution, it’s the trap. You start thinking, tomorrow I’ll get out earlier. Then earlier the next day. Then you’re optimizing the one thing that’s supposed to be unoptimizable, and congratulations, you’ve turned your medicine into another task on the list. I know this cycle. I’ve lived inside it long enough to recognize the walls.
But tonight I didn’t optimize anything. I just went. Late. Underequipped for the hour. Snow packing into tire knobs. Headlight carving a tunnel through trees. And then the trail opened up and Missoula was down there, glowing in the valley like a circuit board someone left on. The last band of orange sat across the mountains, and the air was so still I could hear my own breathing come back to normal. Not my heart rate. Something deeper than that.
The snow was untouched up top. Just me, a cold bike tire, and a city full of people who were probably already eating dinner. I stood there long enough to feel the difference between thinking clearly and feeling clearly. They’re not the same thing. One happens in your head. The other happens when your head finally shuts up.
Getting out late isn’t failure. It’s still getting out. And the mountain doesn’t check your watch.
On This Day
February 17 has shown up 6 times since 2002. From Montreal snow adventures to hot springs excitement to social media navigation... apparently this date attracts both physical and digital misadventures.
2002: Montreal Misadventures: Snow, Spice, and Subterranean Shenanigans – Alright, gotta catch that snow train back home before I turn into a human Popsicle! It’s coming down like crazy, but hey, at least I’ll be home by 7pm-ish (fingers crossed, traffic gods willing)....
2010: Not So Bad – My default training interval photo for all the posts about working out.Man, the dread was real yesterday. I was mentally gearing up for the workout, but honestly, my enthusiasm was dragging its feet...
2012: The beautiful workout – DALL-E’s masterpiece... since my camera took a day off or WordPress went on a deleting spree.I excitedly waved my girlfriend over to take a peek at my workout stats, and she couldn’t help but let out...
2016: Before the fall – We were headed down to the pool at Elkhorn Hot Springs. Yes we were a little excited but that was not the cause of the fall. The cause of the fall was that I tried to wear my cushies down. And then I...
2021: Cabinets – 2017: Team MoBill Part 3 – Green Goggles
2025: Navigating Social Media in Politically Volatile Times – The decline of fact-checking systems and shifts in platform policies present challenges for social media users. Meta’s termination of third-party verification[1] and Project 2025’s proposed...