Two Wheel Blogs

[Note: The last entry was supposed to be dated 8.13, and it was supposed to have a title. Sorry.]

I wanted to ride over to do my radio show today, but didn't. I like riding over to KDHX on Saturdays. Pretty much every weekday, I drive to St. Louis to work in an office building. I don't like it, but I do it because that's where the work is. But the weekends are different. Weekends are my time. Since I don't get paid to do my show (not monetarily, but doing it has other benefits), the least I can do is save money by not driving over. Plus, it's a good way to get a 60-mile ride in. And were it any other Saturday, I would have ridden over. Today I was subbing for the host of the show after mine, so I needed to get there early to pull music. If I'd left home early enough and managed to keep my pace up, I probably could have made it. But I'm still not 100% after last weekend's mishaps, and I didn't want to risk being late. So I did the safe thing: I drove.

And I should've ridden to Litchfield tonight. The Skyview was showing a twin bill of DESPICABLE ME and THE LAST AIR BENDER. We've not seen either, and wanted to see both. But this is my son's last weekend at home before going back to college next week. As much fun as the drive-in might have been, we decided to skip it in favor of a quiet evening at home.

I did go for two rides when I got home. First, I did the Belk Park Loop, the new, slightly longer route. I wanted to see how my bruised rib muscles felt, and I figured the loop would give me a good chance to stretch them out. When I did the 2-hour Marine Loop on 8.11, they were still sore: breathing hard and standing to climb did not feel good. I felt a little better on Friday's ride, but the rib muscles were still sensitive. Today, they felt a little better. I covered the 19.5-mile route in 1:07, a 17.3 mph pace. Not great, but as hard as I could ride today.

I stopped at home long enough to refill my water bottles, then headed out again. I did the Belk Park Loop to ride hard -- or, at least, my version of it. This time, I wanted to climb. I rode out to SIU-E to do Whitesides and found I had the campus to myself. I rolled down the hill to Bluff Road, then dragged myself up Whitesides. I did not climb particularly hard or fast, but I pumped my way up the hill three times. I wanted to do another, but it was time to head for home. On my way there, I did one last climb up Locust. And that one was hard. I don't know if it was because I was tired -- or, more likely, that I'm just not that strong. But I was glad to reach the top.

I covered 16.5 miles in an hour for a combined total of 36 miles in 2:07. No, it's nowhere near the 60 miles I would have covered riding to and from KDHX, and no, there was no drive-in double feature waiting for me at the end of it. But there was a couple of Skinny Dips and some grilled chicken. Tonight, that was enough.