One of cycling's quite little excitments

You know what one of the most beautiful things about cycling is? When you go out on a nice long spin, get into such a rhythm that when you snap out of whatever zoned out state you have gone into, you realise that you've covered the last five miles of road almost subconsciously. You've gone into some day dream, your legs are turning over and you're enjoying the scenery so much that you forget to even think about what you're seeing when suddenly, in the snap of a finger you're fifteen minutes up the road and you don't remember getting there.

This happens to me a lot when I get outside the city limits and into the countryside in the long summer evenings when the sun is beating down. You can even be pushing along at a decent clip when it happens and you can even have been riding into a miserable headwind, though it tends to happen more when the wind is at your back.

"What was that?" you ask yourself as you suddenly blink and realise just where on the ride you are. "I made the left turn back there and must have crossed that bridge, but I don't remember it. I don't remember riding the last five miles." You check your bikes computer which confirms the distance you've covered and you check your average speed to confirm you maintained a steady pace over that segment of road and you smile to yourself, click up a gear and push on, happy to tick off the miles ahead and likely back into that zoned out state that puts you at one with the bike and the ride.