Crosstown shootout exercising
13-Dec-07
So as many of you loyal followers (all 3 of you) know, we got rid of our TV, then brought it back for limited-use. We still don’t have cable, which I think I like. One downside of that is missing some sporting events that I’d rather watch. I have been able to see some of them through what my friend Mike H once called “the seedier side of the Internet”, but last night I was out of luck for the 75th annual Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout.
The Crosstown Shootout is an annual basketball game between the local universities of Cincinnati and Xavier. The rivalry is ummm heated 
. Bonus points for those of you looking to approximate my Google-Fu: Name the only pair of Division 1-A colleges that are closer together than UC and XU’s 3.3 miles apart!
Game was at 7 pm; so after getting back home from the kiddo’s piano lesson, I headed out to the YMCA to watch the game. I told the mrs. that I planned on staying for the whole game but if it was a blowout I might come home early. I didn’t know quite what to expect since this is one of those rivalry games where you “throw out the records”. Xavier was favored by 19 points but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. In 1996 and 1999 Xavier upset the Bearcats when UC was ranked #1 in the country. An unranked Xavier team also beat a ranked UC team in 2000, 2002 and 2004. Last year, on their way to one of their worst seasons in recent history (11-21), UC did manage to knock off a Xavier team that ended up 24-8.
I got there about 10 after and UC was up 5-2. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the TV that’s right in front of the bikes was not able to get ESPN2, so I had to crick my head to the left to see the TV that was over by the treadmills. I also chose to ride on an upright bike because the recumbents are in the front row and the angle would have been worse. This past Monday I also went at night to watch a little Monday Night Football and I was able to get the prime recumbent bike (front row all the way to the left) which is directly in front of the TV that is always on ESPN. I set the bike for an hour (that’s as long as you can go) and started a-pedalin. The game went back and forth with UC continuing their poor shooting ways but was able to play some pretty good defense and at halftime Xavier was up 4 thanks to a last-second junk 3-pointer.
My hour was up, so I got a drink (while not giving up my prime TV spot – well as prime as it got on a bike) and then busted back over and set my bike for another hour. I had also brought a book to read during halftime / commercials, so I got a few pages in.
The game continued – UC got up 5 at one point in the second half but gave it away and Xavier ended up winning 64-59. I ended up with 38.79 miles in 2 hours.
So, with respect to my goal of 1000 miles for the year, I am now at 704.1 miles cycling and 838.3 miles total. That leaves me 161.7 miles to go and 15 days to do it, or 10.78 per day. So you can make book on it folks – it’s getting done.