This school less summer gives me lots of free time for work out. and now with the Olympics I am enjoying sports I rarely see (probably haven't since the last Olympics) such as ping pong and water polo) but I still stick with soccer, watched 2 games on the elliptical. since long distance running is out of the question :( , and i like to break my own records, lame as they may be, biking is the thing. I arrived at about 6 to the main square down town and stood next to the tower building trying no to get soaked from the rain, a short drenching of 20 minutes ended and I began the ride along with about a thousand others, this was the Critical Mass ride, my first, but this kind of ride occurs on the last Friday of the month in lots of cities, I asked someone what it stood for, and they told me for no reason, strange to me, but if there is a reason I don't know it. 22k ride on the bad areas of Cleveland where i wouldn't go on my own, but with such a big group, no issues and the people honk their horns, clap, shout and cheer, this was on the same day as the opening ceremonies and I think they felt like we were like the Olympics. the fun event ended in the Velodrome. I didn't know Cleveland had one of these, never seen one before and was amazed by the angle, It doesn't look this curvy on TV.
Next day I went on a 59k bike ride, my longest to date, this was on a mostly paved mostly flat path, with the other bikers used to this distance and I was working hard all the time just to keep up, the pace which was faster than what i ma used to actually got faster on the road back! I got an unexpected rest in the middle when one of them crashed his knee next to a divider on the road, fell forward, and after a few minutes kept riding, this guy would later that day go on another 50k ride and the next morning on another 50Miles race with lots of hills. I am way out of my league here. the biggest hill (they call a speed bump, I call it mountain) was at the very end, made it , barely and was really exhausted), now I have to break this personal best again...
My volley ball was cancelled on Sunday :( so instead I climbed on the treadmill and watched the Great Brittan soccer match with my favorite United player Ryan Gigs playing well and Brittan winning, because of him, I am supporting Great wales this tournament.
In the evening I went with Alla's parents to pick up Alla from work and go to the Russian festival. this event was held next to a medium size church with several priests roaming around in robes. they served some decent Russian food and had some dancing Georgians, the debate whether they are from Georgia or not still goes on. as the show began, Dina fell on a small step, we rushed to help. nothing serious, she banged her finger on the ground and bled from underneath the nail, no damage but painful and another scrape on the palm. a nurse came to assist, washed it off, with alcohol (not from the vodka that stood nearby) and Alla bandaged her, and after a few minutes after all the commotion ended and as soon as the last nurse left, she went right to the pirushke. this was after 7PM on the last day of the festival and fearing that this dish would end she rushed, didn't see the step and would have kept going if these annoying people would stop treating her and preventing her from reaching the dish. everything ended well and we all enjoyed pirushke (usually it has onions, so not for me, this one didn't)
I liked the mashed potatoes, Alla devoured Pelemini and we sampled some other stuff i cant recall the name.
as festival goes, this is a tiny one. 2 hours is more than enough to sample everything , see the Georgian band playing and bandage a finger
not sure what this week will bring... more on that next week
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