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I've Got Something to Say
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| Ride Stats |
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Time: 00:42:33
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Distance:
9.22 miles
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Max Speed:
26.00 mph
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Avg Speed:
12.90 mph
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Route:
home-work (Price Rd)
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Weight:
0
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Category: training: general -
solo
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Fuji Supreme 700c Hybrid
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Club: Commuter Cycling Century |
| Weather Conditions: 79 degrees (feels like 81) - already
Wind: SSW7
Humidity: 71%
Partly cloudy |
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Time: 00:39:41
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Distance:
10.09 miles
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Max Speed:
26.00 mph
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Avg Speed:
15.10 mph
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Route:
work-home (Price Rd Direct)
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Weight:
0
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Category: training: general -
solo
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Fuji Supreme 700c Hybrid
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Club: Commuter Cycling Century |
| Weather Conditions: 91 degrees (feels like 93)
Wind: SSW11G23
Humidity: 43%
Partly cloudy
Sunset: 8:22 PM |
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There was an interoffice email earlier in the week about a pair of tickets available for tonight’s Cardinals vs. Brewers game. According to the seat location provided in the email, they are part of the season tickets I buy from a former co-worker. I didn't give it more than a thought. Then today, around mid-morning, another email came out saying that the tickets were available again due to the taker earlier in the week having to cancel.
I IM'd Jacque and a couple hours later we decided we'd like to go if the tickets were still available. I went & talked to Linda, saying I couldn't pay her today, but would pay Monday; she said she would check with her son, as he was the one that had purchased them. Turns out he was OK with that deal, but the problem now is that the tickets were at Linda's home - thinking that her son's friend would get them when he arrived in town today. One of the options to get the tickets would be for me (and my bike) to go home with her after work to her house, get the tickets, then she could transport me a portion of the way back towards work. She lives south of work, and I live north. Well, an hour or so later, Linda contacted me and said her son could get off work, go by her house to get the tickets and she would leave work to meet him somewhere halfway to get the tickets and bring them back in.
When my work day finally wound down, I had about an hour and a quarter to change clothes, ride home (normally around 40 minutes for the direct route), cool down from riding in the 90 degree heat, change into my Cardinal garb and get to the MetroLink station - if we missed the 6:15 train, we'd have to wait another 20 minutes for the next.
On top of all this commotion to get the tickets, I was also in the process of replacing my desktop computer with the long awaited & promised laptop. So, another aspect of my commute home today would be to include this laptop in the pannier (that I bought last month just for this purpose). As I started rolling down the road to make my way home, I began to wonder if the tickets made it into the pannier w/the laptop & other papers I threw in there. I stopped along side the road and tried to do a quick check for the tickets, but wasn't lucky enough to see them and have peace of mind the rest of the way home that they would be there, so instead of pulling everything out of the pannier for a more thorough check, I turned around and hammered the 1/4 mile back to the office to make sure they weren't still laying on my desk - and they weren't. So they must be in the pannier.
I then hammered up the road once again. I decided two things I normally don't do on my commute home. First, I would take Olive east to Woodson Rd, instead of my normal crossing Olive down to Old Bonhomme and over to McKnight that changes into Woodson Rd. I normally take that slight longer route to avoid the traffic on Olive especially at this time of day traffic can be pretty heavy getting to the I-170 interchange. Plus then I have to negotiate over two lanes of traffic to get into the left-turn lane to turn onto Woodson. But taking this more direct route today would save me at least 10 minutes of ride time and a couple more minutes sitting at the light trying to cross back over Olive. Secondly, cut through the residential area and jump onto Olive from Hilltop Dr instead of following Price Rd out to Olive. For the past year and a half, this is how I come into work – riding west on Olive from Woodson to Hilltop – and I have never done this on the way home. Doing it today would put me on Olive for 1/4 mile less time, and have that much less distance to deal with traffic.
That maneuver turned out to be a fine move. Working against my crunch for time was hitting traffic lights just as they cycled back to red for the direction I was going – except the last. Coming down Hanley Rd toward Airport Rd, traffic was light at the intersection so I was hoping it wouldn’t cycle to green as I hammered the pedals and kept down shifting to build my speed into the mid-20’s and pushed into the upper-20s. I kept saying, "Not yet" so it would turn green until I was in range because it would only be green for about 5-7 seconds. Well, it turned green and was still green as I rolled through the intersection. Now it was just a couple more miles and hills before I’d be home.
Bottom line, that was the fastest, hardest, ride home I can remember. Many times when I ride home I will push 90-95%, but today it was 100%+. And yes, the tickets were under the laptop with a couple other papers I threw in there. While trying to cool down and change clothes (again) I was kind of taking my time thinking we wouldn’t make the 6:15 train so I didn’t have to rush. We did arrive at the metro station about 6:20 and the eastbound train was pulling out – I must have confused the scheduled or they are running a few minutes late. Oh well, we would still catch the later train and get to the stadium right before first-pitch like I originally planned.
The game was great – Cardinals won 8-0 behind a Wainwright complete game, 2-hitter, shutout. There was a cool fireworks show after the game.
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