Weekend

We just had our first really warm, summer-like weekend of the year. In mid-August. A month from now, the leaves will start turning, but summer seems to have just arrived.

I wanted to run early on Saturday, but I also needed to get to the farmers market early, so my wife and I bought fruits and veggies before running. I was feeling beat from lifting twice on Friday and I didn't want to run as long as my wife was planning to go. So, we ran a hilly five miles together and then she went out for a bit over five more. I started to mow the lawn while she finished running.

After that, I did some home maintenance type of stuff, and it was time for a swim. We followed that up with dinner and then watched Slumdog Millionaire. It was a really good movie, but I find it hard to believe that it was the best picture released last year. It kind of reminded me of the year Shakespeare In Love won best picture. That was a good movie with a typical happy-ending to the love story, but it wasn't close to as good a film, in my opinion, as Life is Beautiful or even Saving Private Ryan. However, I haven't seen the other pictures that were nominated from last year.

Sunday morning, I got up early to go bike riding with one of my fellow ski instructors. My wife and son came with me and they hiked nearby while I rode. My friend and I did a very hilly ride that lasted just under two hours. The heat kept building through the ride and hills never seemed to end. I drained two water bottles during the ride and still felt like it wasn't enough.

The highlight of the ride was seeing a beautiful black bear - the first time I've ever seen a live bear in New England. It was in some bushes right beside the road and as my friend rode past the bear, the bear was startled and ran into a meadow, where we had a great view of it. My friend does a lot of mountain biking in the same area where we were road riding, and he sees bears pretty regularly, but it was a first for me. This is an area known to harbor a healthy bear population because of the high density of beech trees. Bears love the beech nuts and when I'm teaching skiing in the winter, I often show customers beech trees that have bear claw marks on the bark.

So, after our ride and my wife and son's hike, we met up for a late breakfast. After that, we went home and then went for a swim. I was too tired to do much else the rest of the day. Mostly, I caught up on the past week's episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report before bedtime.

I did a lower body lifting session today and I'll probably run an easy 3 miles to the pool after work. It's supposed to hit 90F today and my son has his first high school soccer practice of the season today. It's going to be a tough day for soccer.