The Great Motivator
It's often difficult to keep up the intensity during a workout. You often have to rely on external forces to keep you driving hard. Cycling in a group can do that for you, especially when riding with more experienced riders than yourself. They'll push you harder than you might normally go on your own. However, I've found an even BETTER motivator: the cable company.
We did our group ride along the San Gabriel River Trail today. I had one major constraint; I had an appointment with "the cable guy" between 1:00 and 3:00. They had been to my house twice before to fix my TV and it still wasn't working. I was thrilled that I was able to get a Sunday appointment and I did NOT want to miss it. I knew that I absolutely had to be back at my car at 12:30, which would give me 30 minutes to drive home.
We let ourselves sleep in a bit for once and had a late start. We reached the turn-around point at 11:20, where we took a short break for a snack. It took us about an hour-and-a-half to get there, going mostly downhill along the river. In order to make it back by 12:30, I had 70 minutes to do a 90-minute ride, only this time I'd be going uphill.
I skipped the break and split from the group and started racing back to the car. I have done the river ride many times, and I swear the wind there is evil; it knows which way you're riding and switches directions so you always have a headwind. Today was different for some reason, and I lucked out by getting a tailwind for once. Phew.
I pretty much nailed it. I got to my car just before 12:30. This is what I found:
Yes, that's my wallet on the roof which was sitting there for about 3 hours. Somebody up there likes me.
I got home at 12:55. And what time did the cable guy show up? 1:03. Eight minutes to spare.
(And no, my cable still isn't working properly. The tech guy says it's a problem with the billing; the billing people say it's a problem with the hardware.)
posted by Wedgie @ 10:24 AM
6 Comments:
Did Pete catch you???
Wow!! What luck! (except for the cable still not working).
And, by the way, that diet mountain dew was Stephs, not mine. Can we still be friends? Circle yes or no.
Pete did not catch me. But at his speed, he might have whizzed past me so quickly that neither of us would have seen the other.
Steve S: < circle > yes < / circle >
Let me guess - Comcast.
We had a Sunday appointment too. Worthless.
For a month now, between 630-700pm every night, the connection starts dropping every 5-7 minutes for a minute or two at a time. It continues that way until about 7am, then is perfectly fine all day.
The guy's response at 1:30pm? "It's the modem". Funny, I never knew a modem to keep time. He fiddled around with some other connections and then left. Same issue Sunday night.
Can anyone say DishTV and ATT DSL?
Nice ride! And amazing luck with the wallet and the cable guy showing up so close to his appointed time. It never works out in a person's favor...if you want them to be a little on the late side they show up minutes after the scheduled appointment...if you want them to be earlier in that appointment window they inevitably show up 15 minutes after the window or not at all (and go to the wrong house...which is what I had happen awhile ago)
That's a huge seat bag and a bento bag on the steerer tube too! What do you haul in all that luggage? You're that close to getting front and rear panniers on a touring bike for a cross country ride.
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