Last Thursday night, Pete and I headed to the velodrome for Thursday night track racing. Neither of us had raced at the track for over a month, so it was about time that we made it back up there. As I made the trek to Blaine, I visualized myself racing and I got really nervous. I get nervous for every bike race, but there’s something different about the track that really gets the adrenaline pumping. It was a really windy night, and it makes track racing that much more difficult…and as I was warming up, I knew it was going to be a long night. I felt like I could barely keep the bike upright in the banking with the headwind. It was also a lot cooler than usual, which makes it more difficult to stay warm between races (we each do 3 races a night). There were only 5 other women racing, so we had a small women’s field. As usual, the first race was a short, 10-lap warm-up race. I struggled to keep up, and I was hurting…my lungs hurt, and my legs felt like bricks. My lack of track racing (i.e. sprinting) had caught up with me. After the first race, I spent the time between races coughing up a lung and trying to keep warm. Good times. But Pete did much better than me…he had a good night of racing and he and his Madison partner (former teammate Chris Flood) took second place in the State Championship Madison race, so that was cool. There were a handful of sketchy crashes too (including Bob crashing the motorcycle after coming off the track from leading out the Keirin), but everyone walked away intact, and I didn’t see any slivers. On Friday, my lungs still hurt. (That photo is from last year, and it's courtesy of Matt Moses).
Friday after work, Pete and I fought traffic and headed to the lake. We stopped at the liquor store and got some yummy red wine, and got to the lake just in time for dinner (which mom already had cooking). We ate dinner, drank some wine, and watched the continuing coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Which reminds me…I checked in with my friend Jana last week to make sure her sister Gina had evacuated. Gina’s in law school in New Orleans at Tulane. Jana said that Gina had decided to head to Memphis (where her other sister is based…she’s a pilot), and was then going to head home to Minnesota to wait it out. She left her new apartment in New Orleans, and most likely lost everything…he clothes, computer and school stuff, and everything else. She was frustrated because she couldn’t get any information from anyone. My mom said she heard on the news today that Tulane is canceling their classes for the semester, and they’re hoping that the U of M can help out some of Tulane’s students for the semester. Yet another tragic event that reminds me how quickly life can change.
I had a really lazy Saturday…it was great.
We sat around drinking coffee in the morning, and my mom cooked up a big breakfast, then Pete went for a ride while I read The DaVinci Code.
When Pete got back, we went fishing with my mom and dad (with not much luck, except for my mom’s mother-of-all crappies).
We fished until we saw lightning coming from the clouds slowly moving across the lake.
It started raining, so it was the perfect time to finish reading my book (again, I highly recommend it!) while Pete took a nap and my parents went to church.
We ate an excellent dinner, then laid around watching the NASCAR Busch race.
Sunday morning, Pete and I went for our first “coffee ride” at the lake. There’s a relatively new Caribou about 10 miles from my parents place, so we did a nice easy ride and had some coffee and a snack, then headed back. We went for a little run after our ride, then out fishing again (with no luck yet again). We swung by the Manor’s place on the other side of the lake and I had a chance to chat with Susan and Anne, and others. It’s always nice to catch up with the relatives! Susan is five months pregnant, and she doesn’t even look it! And wow, do I feel old…Anne’s son is already walking and saying “da-da”, and I can remember holding Susan and Anne when they were babies! And it won’t be long before Drew and Luke are as tall as me. Crazy stuff.
We had a nice dinner and wine out on the deck on Sunday night, then watched the long (and relatively boring) NASCAR race. Two of my guys didn’t do very well, but my guy Kasey got 6th…so that was the highlight of the race for me.
Monday we were lazy again, drinking coffee and eating a big breakfast again, and watching some of the U.S. Open. Before we left in the afternoon, we had a yummy Mr. Pizza frozen pizza (my favorite!), then headed to Lakeville via the scenic route. We decided to drive through River Falls, Prescott, and Hastings instead of fighting traffic on 94 and 494. I was also nervous because for the first time in the 6.5 years I’ve owned my Honda, the dang “check engine” light came on. Pete reassured me that the car would be fine until I could get it serviced, but I was skeptical (randomly, the light went off today…so I guess it’s fine now). As we were driving into Hastings, we noticed the green city sign (the one with the population on it) didn’t look quite right…mostly because it said “Afton”. Curious.
We stopped and got all of the fixin’s for banana splits, then we went to see the Pork Chop and the T-Bone (aka my nephews) in Lakeville. As usual, they were wound-up, cute little stinkers! J-Dawg is at such a cute age, and he has the cutest little giggle, so I love to tinkle him. The Pork Chop is at a sensitive age now, and he has starting “telling on” me and Pete (e.g. “Mommy, Pete scared me”, “no Sawah, don’t scare me!”…needless to say, he gets scared easily).
All-in-all, in was a great, relaxing holiday weekend! I liked it so much I’m taking this Friday off again, and heading to the lake early. We’re having our first annual Family Golf Outing this weekend…and we’re not exactly the Woods family…should be interesting.
Thanks for reading!
SS
p.s. “Carlos”—the bar ride included The Chatterbox Pub (which I didn’t make it to), The CC Club, Brit’s, Psycho Suzi’s, and the final destination was The Front (not sure if anyone made it that far).
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