Happy 4th of July everyone! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend. I’m checking in with the latter half of my first weekend in Tennessee.
Let’s start with Sunday.
I started by hitting up Knoxville’s only spin studio, Turbo Cycle.
It was one of the classes where your stats appear on the screen, and this always makes me work harder! It was a tough and fun class. One thing that I didn’t love was that I didn’t have my own spin shoes. I’ve never actually used any other cycling shoes, but they didn’t make the cut of what to put into my crammed suitcase. Apparently mine have pretty thick and sturdy soles, so the shoes I used for that class made me a little nervous for my foot since I could feel the pedal more beneath me, but I was careful and it was ok.
Afterwards, I went to another highly rated coffeeshop to cool off with a decaf iced latte and to finish my book.
Back in my room, I made lunch.
Sweet potato noodles, spinach, cheese, guacamole, and BBQ chicken.
After lunch I walked down to World’s Fair Park with a new book in hand and explored the area.
After a while I decided that the ~95 and humid weather was not as pleasant in the shade as I was hoping, and headed back for a low key afternoon with my book and some netflix.
My outing that evening was froyo. It’s 5 miles to the nearest froyo! Worth it.
My 4th of July felt extremely American. My most American yet (although this one may be a close second). I’m in the South, my friends.
I started my morning with Crossfit, which was a Hero WOD.
Adrian
Seven rounds for time of:
3 Forward rolls
5 Wall walks
7 Toes to bar
9 Box jumps
Forward rolls? Not a thing for me. I did the sub, which was flutter kicks. I was able to knock out toes to bar pretty well. I’m getting stronger there at least! Box jumps? I did them! I used a shorter box (I think 18″), and was super careful. They felt good. I forget to mention it, but on Saturday I “did” my first burpees since my foot. I say “did” because I stepped forward and back. But we’re getting there my friends!
The Crossfit gym is decidedly un-airconditioned, so I was sweating buckets almost immediately. Lunch was a much needed green smoothie, plus a fuji apple chicken salad from Panera.
I spent the next few hours reading and doing laundry, before making the drive into the countryside to visit my college advisor’s lake house.
As a happy land dweller, I usually avoid water, but I was persuaded to spend some time in the lake, thanks to warm temperatures.
(Apparently Nike makes bathing suit bottoms that are shorts. This is my ideal!)
My floatie of choice was a paddle board. I’ve always wanted to try SUP, but there was a pretty strong current and I had no confidence in my ability to steer away from it if I actually got up. I stood briefly while hanging on to the dock. Baby steps! I spent most of the time just sitting on it, enjoying the beautiful day and the water.
I felt so AMERICAN. Floating in a lake, drinking a beer, eating ALL the appropriate BBQ foods.
I had a great time, and left in time to make it through the small and windy country roads with some daylight left.
It started to get dark right as I got back onto a main highway, and I saw a few fireworks being shot out a ways away. There is something so amazing and beautiful about seeing fireworks when you aren’t expecting to.
I made it back by around 9:30, and contemplated walking down to where I knew there would be fireworks, where lots of people were headed.
I walked a little ways before deciding I wasn’t feeling it. Also, I thought my room my have a decent view of some fireworks (yay for the 11th floor!), so I grabbed a treat at an open market (A candy bar. American? Probably.)
I arrived to my room JUST in time to see this:
What a perfect view!
And now it is time to head to bed—lots of early mornings ahead!
What did you to do celebrate the 4th?