Kyle in Poland: Days 83-85
Workouts, Practice, Extremely long laundry day, Gifts for the kids, and more, Photos at the end
On June 21, I woke up around noon and ate sandwiches for lunch.
As I was getting ready for the day, I received word that practice was cancelled due to the impending thunderstorm. Not long after, the clouds became dark, and it rained a small amount.
Around the same time, I received a call from one of my best buds, Mr. Tell Cross. We talked for a while and shared some laughs, just like old times.
Once we got off the phone, I did some light editing on a story before doing my daily stretches.
Since it appeared as though it could rain again at any moment, I decided to get ahead of the potential precipitation and ride to the gym.
For that session, I did my typical “day one” workout which consisted of leg curls, leg press, side lunge, back lunge, calf raises, and 400 abs.
I finished up and rode back to the apartment, a slightly rough endeavor considering my legs were dead from the workout. Luckily, I made it back fine and without getting rained on.
Back in my room, I laid around for a quick break and read a few sports articles. When I was ready to get up again, I made pierogis for dinner.
After I ate, I went on a mini cleaning spree by washing the dishes, taking out the trash, vacuuming, and showering.
I then settled in for the night- reading more sports articles and editing my own story before going to sleep.
The next day was rather long and exhausting.
Having only slept a few hours, I woke up just before 8 o’clock and could not go back to sleep. I tossed and turned for a long time, but eventually gave up.
I thought to myself, since it was about due for a laundry day, I might as well just get up and do it then. So, that is exactly what I did.
Moseying out of bed, I got ready, packed up, and made the 30–40-minute trek to Pralkomat Break and Wash.
On this occasion, I had more laundry than the previous trip, so I ended up doing two loads instead of one.
In the meantime, it was very pleasant sitting outside during my wait. The weather was about 65 degrees with a nice summer breeze, you’d be hard pressed to find much better conditions than those.
Thirty-five minutes later, I consolidated my clothes from the two washers into one group and started the drying process.
To pass time, I listened to podcasts and read a small portion from “The Fighter’s Mind,” a fascinating book about various figures throughout combat sports.
When the drying cycle came to an end, I noticed my clothes could use another round to properly dry. However, since other people had arrived and were waiting on me to finish, I decided to pack up and let them use the machines.
I made the long walk back to the apartment and arrived just before noon. The laundry process was finally complete, taking nearly three hours to do so.
I unpacked my clothes, put away the dry ones, and laid out the others to air dry. Then, I laid down to rest. What started as resting my eyes soon turned into a two-hour nap, shocker.
When I woke up, I made sandwiches for lunch, stretched, and got ready for kid’s practice.
Surprisingly, their practice schedule was different that day. They began by attempting to play catch with one another, worked on a throwing drill, and played a game.
I must say, I had a good time at this practice. I stayed highly involved by playing catch with one of the kids, catching for everyone during the throwing drill, and playing on one of the teams during the game. It truly was a fun time.
Once their session concluded, our normal team practice began.
Our training schedule was fairly simple; we played catch, did infield work, and hit BP. I hit and fielded pretty well, so I was happy with my performance.
Afterward, we went back to the apartment.
I waited around in my room for a bit, and later walked to the store. There, I purchased bread, sub style bread, milk, three jars of peanut butter, three jars of jelly, three jars of Nutella, crackers, cereal, three boxes of wings, a liter of Fanta, and a small box of chocolate for roughly $37.
On the way back, I stopped at a street vendor that sold souvenirs. The stuffed animals caught my attention, and after some thought and consideration, I bought five of them, one for each of my nieces.
The kind, elderly woman who owned the shop was incredibly grateful for my business- so much so that she even gifted me a tiny boat magnet for free, which was very thoughtful and neat.
When I made it back to the apartment, I unpacked. Then, I cleaned my room, showered, ate noodles, wrote, and, astonishingly, fell asleep at a decent hour.
The next day, June 23, I woke up around 11 a.m. and laid around until I grew hungry. As you would guess, I made sandwiches for lunch.
After I finished eating, I made the final edits on a story and published it. Once that was done, I stretched and walked to the gym.
In preparation for our playoff game the following day, I went through two rounds of deep stretches, mobility, and an ab routine.
My intent was to get the body moving around, to not be stiff for gameday. By all estimations, I would say the routine was a success, I felt great afterward.
Instead of going directly back to the room, post-workout, I decided to stop by Café Ika for dinner. I ordered baked chicken, roasted potatoes, and Fanta, all of which were solid.
Finished with my meal, I walked back to the apartment and settled in for the night.