I'm surprised I can walk today. I was sure I would be stumbling slowly along, whimpering with every step. After all, I certainly put my poor legs through hell this weekend. It started with a warm-up on Friday afternoon when Alex and I met after work to hit again. The weather was more pleasant than last week, not quite as hot, with a slight breeze and some passing clouds. We even had about a minute of very light rain, which was quite refreshing.
I have two tennis racquets to demo, so I switched back and forth quite often, giving them each a fair amount of play. I got the racquets from tennis-warehouse.com because of a great trade-in deal that Wilson has going on until the end of the month. They're accepting any racquet, as long as it's playable, for $30 off a new Wilson racquet. The Wilson K Factor KZero interested me and since it costs the same to demo one or two racquets, I found another one to try out too, the Dunlop Aerogel 1000 OS. This racquet doesn't have any special deal and costs more than the Wilson. Naturally, it's the one I liked the most when were were finished hitting.
On Saturday morning I attended the round robin at Singleton. Again, I switched back and forth between the two racquets. The Wilson started to take the lead, especially when an opponent referred to it as Excalibur. Apparently I was playing pretty well and the racquet was getting the credit. By the end of the day I couldn't say that one was better than the other, I was so confused. And possibly neither is better than the racquet I currently have. Now I need to compare the new Wilson with my old Wilson and see if there's any point getting a new racquet at all. I may have just gotten swept up in the trade-in offer. I'm quite the sucker and I'll be the first to admit it.
Sunday morning, Tom and I drug ourselves out of bed in order to meet our pack for a morning ride. The earliest we could stomach was 9:00, which had us getting up at 7:00. Alex, Dallas, Matt, and Vicky met us at the park in Cocoa Village. From there we headed out on a nearly 42 mile loop. Yes, 42 miles.
The route: (for those who know the area and are interested)
Head north from the park, cross 520 and ride north on River Road. Turn left at Blacks Road, cross US 1, the road becomes Canaveral Groves Blvd. Turn right onto Grissom Parkway and go through Port St. John. Turn right at Perimeter Road and weave around Tico Airport. At 405, head east, over US 1, over the Indian River. Continue east until Space Commerce Way, then turn right. At State Road 3 turn right and continue until N Tropical Trail. Follow along until road comes out at State Road 3, turn right, cross 528, turn right onto Venetian Way, then left onto N Tropical Trail again. Continue south until 520. Turn right, cross causeway bridge, then turn left and collapse in the parking lot.
We haven't ridden that sort of a distance in over a year. Our 28 mile out and back is usually enough to tucker us out for the rest of the day. But we did it. And we're all still walking and talking. Some parts were better than others. We were lucky coming east on NASA Causeway because we had the wind at our backs. But that gave us the wind in our faces on SR 3 before we turned off on Tropical. It rained a little during that same bit, and that felt really good. We stopped at a fire station to get out the rain under a nice, dense tree. There was a Coke machine and Alex bought drinks. We also stopped at the Hess station at the Barge Canal and refilled our bottles with ice and cold water. Once we were back at the park and had our bicycles stowed away, we all (except Tom) cooled off in the fountain. It was heaven. We went to Murdock's for lunch and I had two ginormous glasses of Coke.
It has just now occurred to me that the tummy ache I had later in the day might have been caused by all of that carbonated beverage. Huh.
And something not relating to my poor overworked legs…
One of my friends from tennis is auditioning for American Idol next week. As a practice run, she sang at a local pub called River Roost. My ex tennis instructor plays in a bluegrass band, which happened to be performing Saturday night. The group invited Susan to sing her audition song between sets. I've never heard her sing before - matter of fact, I didn't even know that she sang - but she did a wonderful job and truly has a great voice. I've never watched American Idol, but if Susan makes it onto the show, I'll watch it for sure.
Tom and I went to TGIFriday's after the performance and I had something so yummy that I have to share.
Gourmet Mac 'N Five Cheese:
A rich and creamy five-cheese blend of Fontina, Bleu, Gruyere, white Cheddar and Parmesan is tossed with crispy bacon and penne pasta, and topped with Bleu cheese crumbles and a Parmesan-crust topping. Served with a juicy grilled chicken breast.
Whoa, Nelly! You better slow down. All your exercise is wearing me down just reading about it. Now if you could just transfer some of those calories lost this way, that would be nice.
Posted by: Jenn | June 29, 2009 at 03:52 PM
You had me at rich and creamy blend, then lost me at bleu cheese.
Posted by: Denise Baum | June 30, 2009 at 05:50 PM