Another Spring Weekend Flies By...

I've come to the conclusion that no matter what...the weekends are just not long enough. Friday turned out to be the best day of the week by far. I made it out to Elm Creek by 3 p.m. and was on the trails by 3:15. Once again, as earlier in the week, there were not many people at the park.
Most of the bikers I saw were roadies traveling the asphalt trails and families pulling burlys. Once off on the "Inner Loops" I only saw few a hikers.

With the warm weather and relatively low humidity the trails have dried out quite quickly, but there is still snow to be found on the tubing hills near the chalet.

After a long week at work I wasn't sure now I would feel Friday afternoon. Especially after experiencing a serious caffeine crash at around 12:30. One of my colleagues decided it would be fun to celebrate the end of the week with each of us taking a shot of Five Hour Energy drink. Now it says that there is no crash later, but I would argue this point. I was totally buzzed all day. Now part of it could have been the fact that I was up at 4 a.m. for Matt's Friday morning spin class. After all...I couldn't miss my birthday spin. Matt did a "51" theme. 51 second speed bursts, 51 four count jumps, etc. I also had a large coffee before even getting to school and having the shot.

However, once I got on the trails I felt fantastic. My legs felt strong, I did well on all the hills, and for the first time in nearly two weeks, felt like I was almost back to normal. After a couple of hours of riding I called it quits and went to meet Patti, my brother Jeff, and his friend Matt for a couple of cold beers at Granite City Brewery.

Saturday found Bob and I heading for the "Super Top Secret" single track. It was my first time riding there and I found it to be a challenge. The entire time we rode I felt totally disoriented and new that had I ventured in there myself I would probably have ended up lost or at least not knowing where the hell I was. I'm looking forward to giving it another go.

I only rode for about an hour and a half, but it was still satisfying. The rest of the day was spent shopping for tile, bathroom fixtures etc. for our remodel. After the sun came out we decided to give the yard work a good go. So, it was about five hours worth of raking leaves, vacuuming leaves, thatching and mowing the lawn, cleaning flower beds, bird feeders, spreading new grass seed, and getting the sprinkler system up and running. Fortunately, Patti and I were able to get it all done.

We relaxed for a bit afterwards and then went out for my birthday dinner. Patti took me to a local steak house called Pittsburg Blue. Our dinner was absolutely wonderful!

Today found me up early and venturing to Chanhassen Life Time for Matt's final Sunday morning class until September. It was ninety minutes of hill repeats, speed, and more hills. A Great workout and a super way to start a Sunday.

Patti and I then finished shopping for our bathroom remodel. This whole process is more of pain in the ass as far as I'm concerned. I'm easy to please...but the number of decisions that need to be made just to redo a tiny bathroom and hallway are ridiculous. My only hope is that Patti likes it when it's all done. If not, my life will be pure hell.

The final task for the weekend after laundry, etc. was to clean the mountain bike up. Tomorrow... it's back to a work filled with standardized tests, and meetings with psycho parents who think I look too "Middle Eastern" for his child to be in my class. What a bunch of bullshit!

Now it's time to dream of next weekend and wonder if I have the legs to do 85 + miles of hills on Sunday. We shall see...