The Long Overdue Biking Post

It's been a while since I've written about biking.  I've gotten a little side tracked with my obsession interest in nutrition, and people have asked me "how is the biking going?" Now its time to answer their questions.

In the past few weeks, I've usually been able to get a long(er) ride in on weekends, and have supplemented my outdoor riding with 2-3 days a week of spinning at my gym.  While I love riding outside,  it takes a lot of time getting ready for the rides (checking tires, gearing up, etc.).  During the week, it is just way more time efficient to go spinning.  And boy do I love spinning!  Spinning is by far the most time efficient cardio I do.  I will go to a 45 min or 1 hour class and be more tired and sweaty than any cardio session I could ever do on my own (save my training sessions which are killer!).  The instructors scream at you to pedal faster, harder, and wont let you quit!  I've been going pretty regularly to a couple of the classes and now the instructors know if I don't go.

The one thing I have noticed about all this spinning I am doing - it helps my outdoor biking endurance dramatically.  On my longer weekend rides, I am able to go a lot faster now, no matter what the terrain or incline.  With each ride, I notice the improvement in my abilities.  I think spinning is a must-do for any biker who doesn't have the time to get outside 2-3 days a week.

I've done the Capital Crescent Trail (pictured right) now a few times.  It's a great trail, about 20 miles total, plus about 4 miles to get to and from it.  The best part about the trail is that the entire way from Georgetown to Bethesda is uphill.  It is at just enough of an incline to give your legs a nice burn the whole way, and then on the way back you are able to get up to some pretty fast speeds because you are at a decline.

The first time I completed the Capital Crescent trail was quite interesting!  I managed to bike through dog poop, fall and bleed profusely (da*n those clips!) in the center of downtown Bethesda, see many, many people laugh at me due to the fall, notice that not a single person asked if I needed help (one guy did shout from a outdoor food stand "hey Lady, are you O.K.??"), have two jerk-offs cut me off and nearly fall again, see those same two jerks (on bikes mind you!) light up a joint and proceed to rides their bikes while smoking weed, shake my head at them, catch up with them apparently sometime after they finished their joint, see a bike cop on duty, and pull over and tell the bike cop that those jerks who just rode by were smoking weed while biking.  The cop said if he sees them again, he'll "get em."  Thats right - I snitched on them.  Guess what - pay back is a bi*ch.  Don't cut me off next time.

The next weekend I did the Capital Crescent trail again with a friend, A.B., and her friend.  This time none of the aforementioned excitement happened, but it was awesome hitting the trail with a couple people.  A.B. is a very fast rider, so she went ahead and then caught up with me later.  But we live near each other and so we were able to enjoy getting to and from the trail together.  My short term goal is to be able to keep up with her!!  :)

This morning I did the Mt. Vernon trial (pictured left) with A.B. and T.S.  We got up at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday, and were on our way to the trail by 6:30!  The three of us are all at different speeds/levels so once we hit the trial we sort of did our own thing.  A.B. in the front, me in the middle, and T.S. in the back.  After a while, A.B. was gone, and I turned behind me to see that T.S. was also.  Our plan was to ride 30 min straight, and then turn around at whatever point we were and meet up at the airport (Reagan).  We had already ridden about 30 min to get to the point where we decided this.  30 minutes into my stretch, and past Alexandria, I turned around as planned.  I rode hard, fast, and tried to make it back to the airport before A.B. lapped me.  While I was riding, I kept looking for T.S. who I thought I would run into.  No sign of her.  I thought to myself, wow, maybe I went faster that I thought.  Almost back to the airport parking lot, I see a biker coming from some adjacent parking area (not part of the trail).  This biker was coming up the ramp fast, where I was going down a hill.  I was hoping this biker would turn to look at me, so we wouldn't crash into each other.  The biker turns and looks, and sure enough, its T.S.!  Coming from out of nowhere!  What she was doing down there, I have no clue.  She later tells A.B. and I that she nearly broke her bike (switched the wrong gears), and got lost for the majority of the hour we were apart from each other.  For those who know the Mt. Vernon trial, there are many forks, so getting lost for a first timer is quite easy.  It was hilarious.

Hitting the trail this morning made me remember how much I love outdoor biking.  We got out early enough that there weren't very many people out yet, more runners than bikers yet anyway.  While I was alone I thought about how much I do want to complete that Century Ride next fall in New York.  I think my long-term training plan will start in January.  Now I am just trying to get myself in great shape in order to start endurance training.  I am going to have to buy some biking gear for the fall/winter months to keep warm/insulated out there.  Nothing is going to keep me from outdoor riding!