Bachelor weekend... day 1

X is in Colorado Springs, CO all weekend for a Roller Derby game so i've got the entire weekend to myself. Her game will be shown on the web on the Derby News Network tomorrow at 8pm. It's two super all-star teams playing so it should be pretty good. She's on Team Master which is a collection of top players from the Mid-West. This may be here last bout (i've heard that before) so she's pretty pumped.

Lately i've been worried about getting my butt kicked in the upcoming open cross races so i've been doing a fair amount of riding. I haven't raced in maybe 3 weeks but thats actually giving me more time to ride. These 50 min to 1 hr cross races are going to be longer than most of the races i do so i'm trying to get in some longer rides as prep. I'm also mixing in some running once or twice a week. I got home from work today and did both.

Brand new running shoes. The shoe gal took them out of the box and i said "good god those are hideous", then i put them on. It's like walking on a cloud. 

I came back from the run dripping with sweat so i needed 1 or 2 or 5 beverages to rehydrate me.

Tuna the cat.

After a 30 min transition i was out the door and ready for the bike portion of the evening.

So for my ride i did the Rocky Route. It's a ride i've come up with that takes you from the Plaza thru downtown over to the East bottoms, thru cliff drive, over to the west bottoms and then home... which for me is the south plaza neighborhood. I've always liked how Rocky used old school training methods and he always seemed to be running over train tracks. This ride has that feel. It's industrial, it's smelly, it's gritty. It's fun. I love it so much i'm going to share it with you, so here are way to many pictures documenting the Rocky Route.

Warning: this route goes thru some sketchy neighborhoods. You've been warned.

Departure time.

North on Ghillam and past Hyde Park. A personal favorite, mainly because of the cyclocross training we've had there.

North on Grand and past the white power, i mean power and light district.

Stay on Grand as it curves East thru River front park.

Right on Lydia Ave and left on 1st st. Hopefully you arnt delayed by the trains, but that's part of the fun with this ride. This is about where you start to hum the Rocky theme song. (The tour of Missouri stage went by here but they stayed strait instead of turning left on 1st.)

Working hard now!

Wont be long now!
This is the Local Pig. I keep hearing about it. Go left at the local pig and watch out,  another train crossing is strait ahead.

As soon as you cross the tracks go right on Rochester and theres Knuckleheads, a great local bar / music joint, on your right. Make a point to go there for a concert.

Keep wiggling to the right and eventually you pass Nicholson Ball Diamond Park, which to me needs to be featured in a movie. Soccer fields in the middle of a crazy industrial neighborhood with train tracks running immediately paralell. Cool spot. Rocky would totally so sit-ups here while suspended vertically from the bleacher seats.

The wiggle to the right continues until you wind up on Gardner Ave followed by a right on Chouteau Traffic way which turns into a bridge over this big railway mess. Lots of action going on here. I can almost see Rock jogging in sweats.

Stay on Chouteau as it curves south and then take your first right. It's a hard right headed up to Indian Mound Park and the beginning of Cliff Drive.

Take Cliff drive all the way to the Paseo exit then go west on Independence  and follow it as it loops back north to 3rd st. Go west on 3rd for a quick trip back thru the River Market until you end up underneight the Broadway Bridge... then head right down the hill, along the Missouri River and into the West Bottoms.

I take Woodsweather road until it ends and then just make my South to Kemper Arena. 

This is so Rocky.

Kemper Arena. Danny Manning and the rest of the 1988 Kansas Jayhawks won the national champion ship here.

There are some options from Kemper Arena but ultimately you end up on Southwest Boulevard and all the sudden you're back in civilization.

I head south on Main St, past Union Station and all the way home.

Crown Center and downtown fade away as you climb the main st hill.

Once in a blue moon, if you really push hard and get lucky, you can make all the lights from the crest of the Main St hill all the way thru the Plaza. When it happens it's amazing, it didn't happen tonight.

The blinding lights of the Plaza tennis, home is near.

So thats the ride.