Last Weekend

It's a bit late for a weekend recap seeing that another weekend is almost upon us and frankly I've probably forgotten most of what I did over the weekend. Will this deter me? No. So lets get right to it.

Friday was a day off so that made it good almost from the start. I got up, although not nearly as early as I should have to get in a row. I'm not exactly sure why, but my legs just felt lifeless. Dead and sore. It could have been from the rowing practice the night before and they hadn't enough time to recover. Whatever it was it made rowing a somewhat gruelling experience. It was more of forcing myself to complete the row. I did a total of 11 miles so there was a lot of forcing to do. Parts went well, but on the most part it was a grind. After my row I came home and paid bills (it was payday) and then ran to Target for some shopping. I have a hard time getting out of Target for less then $100. I lazed around for most of the afternoon. Had pizza for dinner and went to bed.

Saturday I was up at 6:00 to get to practice. We're doing a lot more drill work then in previous years and it seems to be working, although we are a stubborn group and set in our ways. We're also doing longer pieces gearing up for Head Race season, which starts in earnest in Mid-September. After practice, our fitness rowers provided breakfast for the club. I sampled a lot of everything including pancakes, donuts, scrambled egg casserole, a bagel and a few glasses of OJ. After practice it was home to get cleaned up. I beat Ann into coming up with a shopping list and once completed, I did the grocery shopping. Always a highlight of my week. Not. Saturday evening, The Son and I planned to catch a baseball game at the local minor league park just down the road a piece from us. The Nationals, while having a horrible parent club, have signed some promising talent and we thought it a good idea to go see the youngsters. The Potomac Nationals were tied for first with Wilmington, whom the Nationals just happen to be playing that night. I had put off buying tickets on line because (1) Ann was on the fence about going; and (2) tickets are always easy to get with the exception of the 4th of July, which always sells out. As it turns out, Ann decided not to go so it was just The Son and I. I tried going on line about 2 hours before game time and buying tickets, but they had already stopped selling tickets on line for the game. No problem we would just buy them at the park and off we went. It turns out it was Scout night at the stadium. Scouts of all kinds could watch the game and then camp out in the outfield over night. Sounded like fun for the kids. As we approached the ticket booths I noticed that they had signs posted that all box and reserved seating was sold out and only general admissions were left. Now I've sat in the general admission seats before and in this stadium they are a nightmare. There are no aisles for getting up and down from your seats so you have to walk around and between people already seated. Kids are running around like demons and overall not that great of an experience. We decided to bag the game and try another time. Live and learn - buy tickets earlier. Since we had counted on eating hot dogs at the game for dinner, we stopped on the way home at a Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. After dinner we went home and watched the parent club beat the Marlins on TV.

I've been sort of neglecting my bike riding this summer. Certainly compared to last summer. While I was tempted to go for another row, I decided it was time to get back on my bike.. It was suppose to get really hot, like close to 100 degrees hot, so I wanted to get out early. I was out of bed at 6:00, got the laundry started, loaded my bike in the car and left for the W&OD Trail. I was parking the car around 8:15 and I was lucky to find a parking spot. Apparently everyone had the same idea that I did. I rode out to Leesburg and after taking a break decided to continue on for a little longer and get in 25 miles. As I got into downtown Leesburg, there were police and race marshalls on the streets that cross the trail stopping traffic for a race. It turned out that the Leesburg YMCA 10K/20K Race was underway. I probably wouldn't had ridden into Leesburg if I had known the race was going on, but once there I just went on. Heading west. I was going against the runners so it wasn't a problem. In fact having people on the streets to stop traffic was actually kind of nice. After I turned around though I was in the middle of the runner, which I'm sure they appreciated having a biker in their midst. I managed not to hit anyone and vica versa. I ended up riding 25 miles and it felt good getting back on the bike. I'm planning a ride with Daughter#2 sometime soon in the very near future. The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the house and grilling some steaks for dinner. Not a bad day at all.