The Indians are in first...and I can't watch them...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I’m too cheap to pay for cable TV, so we only get about 12 channels, but have been able to get Sports Time Ohio…home of the Indians…right along…which made me happy. Suddenly last Tuesday, I lost the station. Nothing but royal blue appears where once the Indians played…channel 76. Jack had plugged his video game into the TV that day…something he never does, since he has his own…and I was sure there was a connection. He said he hadn’t done anything, but I couldn’t get the channel back. When I told my frustrations to an Indians fan at the office, he said STO had moved to another station and I was probably out of luck. OH…MY…GOD…a whole summer without watching an Indians game on the tube? This was unthinkable…and so I stopped thinking about it.

Then I get the paper this morning to find the Indians have won their sixth in a row and are alone in…FIRST PLACE. Too cool and I love the way they’re winning. Travis is thumping the ball again…something that had to happen if they were to have a chance…and the young guys are really pitching well. Okay…it’s only eight games into the season and I’m not getting too excited, but I’d rather win six in a row that lose them any day.

The TV situation has had one good result though. I’ve rediscovered the absolute best way to follow a baseball game…other than being there…which is to listen to Tom Hamilton call the play by play on the radio. I have always liked the radio broadcast better than TV…maybe because that’s the way I first followed the Red Sox back in the early sixties. It was great to be out in the yard throwing the ball, playing ‘running bases’ or even playing a game, with the radio on and the game tuned in. If something exciting happened…play stopped and we’d all listen. The sounds of the stadium in the background made it feel like we were there watching Yaz trying to win one for the Sox. I continued this pattern with the Indians and often had the radio on while out in the yard as I performed whatever yard chores I had to do. Somewhere along the way, Savannah caught the bug and listens faithfully down at Ohio State. So…maybe…I’ll be okay. We’ll see.

John came over for our ride around 1 p.m. “How’s the knee?” he asked as he was unloading his primo bike from his car. “A little sore after the ride yesterday…but about as good as its felt in a week. It’ll give me something other than the wind to complain about,” I said.

We headed out and I took the lead, riding fairly hard into a very strong wind over the first five miles. We blazed down Old Mill Road…I was up around 46 mph…but ascending the other side towards County Line Road was a struggle. John was breezing up…talking the whole time as a pushed and sweated my way to the top. I was dropping lots of water and my legs were feeling overly tired…but the knee didn’t hurt too badly. I have some checkpoints on the course we were riding and I could tell I was falling behind as we passed them. I didn’t care too much…this was just a ride to see how the leg would hold up and to have us ready for the 56-miler we’d be doing in six days. We rode out to Auburn Road on Pekin before turning around and it was shortly after that I caught my first cramp. It was in my thigh and pretty severe. I reduced gears, went easily and it subsided…but not for long. On another ascent, both quads began to spasm and I had to stop and get off the bike. I thought the day was over, but after a couple of minutes, climbed back on the bike and made it the rest of the way home…pedaling as easily as I could and crying like a little girl.

So…knee was okay but everything else is falling apart. Not a good confidence builder for next Saturday, but I can push through mild discomfort. Hopefully, I’ll be able to put some better time on the bike this week as the forecast says sunny and warmer.

Bike duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 2500.