Monumental Bike Ride

Yesterday, I took a walk along a bike-hike trail.  Towards the end, I was hot, foot-sore, and cranky about retracing my steps. I continually eyed the bicycles going in both directions, thinking about how free and fast they seemed.  I occupied myself during the walk thinking about whether I should get myself a new bike, one I'd actually want to ride.  Then, right at the end, the penny dropped.  I belong to a bike-share!  There aren't any bikes anywhere near where I live, but plenty near places I want to ride. And those bikes are way nicer than any bike I've ever owned. So I formed a plan.

This morning, it was up very very early, and down to park on the street outside my office. I used my bike key, and was off and gliding in minutes.  I dislike hills, but downtown DC, where all the monuments are, is totally flat. It's all landfill of a swamp, after all.

The bike has only three gears - but I only used two of them.  I was off to the Capitol first (driven by which light was green) and then down the length of the mall to the Lincoln Memorial, and then down into Potomac Park to Hain's Point. I'm a bit nervous about urban riding, but I was rolling before 7:30 am and there was little traffic to contend with. I have been observing bikes around town, and it seems to me that bikes choose between car and pedestrian rules as it suits them.

I saw bunches of bikes down along Hains Point. Every bike I saw going in direction passed me, but I didn't care.  It was relatively low humidity and a good breeze was blowing, and it just felt really good.  I stopped down at the point to get a sip of water, and almost immediately was set on by biting flies.  I didn't linger, and headed on back.  I accidentally rode through the FDR memorial (saw the "no bikes" sign on the way out) and wandered through the sidewalks around the memorials, a bit turned around. I was surprised to realize I had come on the Korean war memorial. Things are all torn up between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument where the reflecting pool is being reconstructed.

This is the longest bike ride I've taken in a couple of years - more than ten miles. It felt good, though I was plenty ready to be done.  But I thought about how with this bike share, I certainly can explore different parts of the District or even Alexandria. The bikes are often at metros, so it would even be possible to do a one-way ride, or a walk and a ride to make a circuit.  Early in the morning is the ticket.

I don't know how much I'll do this, but there are possibilities, and this certainly was fun.  Here are the stats and the link:

Monumental Ride

Ride Time: 1:07:13
Stopped Time: 6:50
Distance: 10.88 miles
Average: 9.71 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 22.99 miles/h
Ascent: 246 feet
Calories: 480

Potomac River Walk

Saturday, I had to go early to the airport to put my boy on a plane for frisbee camp. It's been brutally hot, but it was slightly less horrible on Saturday, especially early. By nine a.m. the boy was beyond security and out of my reach. I had missed my normal weekend gym appointment, and decided to take a walk.

I know there is a bike-hike trail all along the Virginia side of the Potomac River for miles, from somewhere opposite the District down to Mount Vernon. I've seen it, but never been on it in the section south of the 14th St bridge.  It took a bit of casting around in the airport to find it. I've walked around between terminals and down to the hangars before, but which path would keep on going wasn't obvious to me. I came to a dead end in the rental car garage, and consulted the closeup satellite view on google maps to figure out where to try next.

I ended up on the correct side of the metro tracks, and the actual exit to the trail was alongside the little known Congressional parking lot. (There is a very close-in lot - as close to the terminal as the metro station - restricted to Congressmen and Supreme Court justices.  I was glad to see it was nearly empty, as they should all have been hard at work.)  I followed it south towards General Aviation, and was much relieved to come upon a signpost, pointing one way for Alexandria and another route to Crystal City.

I hadn't really planned on this walk, and I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt, and sandals. My plan was just to walk until I was ready to turn around. I knew there was a sailboat marina between airport and Alexandria, but only had the vaguest notion how far anything was. I figured I could find water or a bathroom at the marina if necessary.

It was really lovely. It was hot, and it was humid, but I just walked along and it wasn't too terribly bad. Much of the walk is through woods, and it was shady. A slight breeze was blowing, and I was efficiently sweating off the heat. I was listening to a fascinating book on the ipod, which helps the miles click off. The walk led along the shore, and at one point was on a boardwalk above a little swamp where hibiscus were blooming.  As I went, it got more and more crowded. Lots of walkers, runners, and plenty of bicyclists. Finally, I came to a power plant along the shore and turned around to come back. I dislike retracing my steps, but this was linear. A look at the map suggested that the next metro stop was still slightly further away than turning around, and I did have other things to do during the day.

The return trip was hotter, but just as nice.  I remembered to start up my tracking app on the phone, so I have stats for the return trip.  I also experimented with the technique of taking photos of myself, trying to capture the lovely feeling. The last bit of the walk was really hot, and I was thirsty and had to pee. My shoulder bag seemed much heavier, and I started carrying it in my hand to take the weight off my shoulder. I started to get a blister from the sandals. The bicycles started to seem really appealing to me.  I eyed all the different ones I encountered, thinking seriously about going bicycle shopping later.  I was really ready to get back to car.  Just as I did, my boy texted to let me know he had arrived at the destination.

Part of what really appealed to me on this walk was because it was a place I've never been before. There was the thrill of discovery, the joy of exploration, along with the good sensation of striding along while listening to a great book.  I've got to get out more, go on along and find new places to explore.

I went on into the airport terminal where I was glad for the air conditioning. I used the rest rooms, and got a sandwich and bottle of water from the fancy grab and go restaurant there.  I just sat on a bench in the terminal and enjoyed the sandwich and water in the air conditioning, before driving home in the heat.

Here's the stats and a link to the map of the return trip. All told, nearly six miles. Not bad for a totally impromptu stroll. And I didn't go buy a new bicycle after all.

River Walk Map

Walk Time: 58:06
Stopped Time: 5:27
Distance: 2.82 miles
Average: 20:35 /mile
Fastest Pace: 12:43 /mile
Ascent: 64 feet
Calories: 217

Time to try credit again

I've not been entering anything here, while I took my vacation break ( which oddly seemed to include a couple of weeks leading up to vacation). Now I'm tracking in WW, but that isn't the same as what I mean the credit log for. "Credit" is a concept for positive reinforcement. What am I doing that is praiseworthy? And I do like my scoring. Time to focus on that again. Maybe not every day- especially if I raise the bar for what is worth noting.

We'll see how it goes.


Sherbert update

Exercise in the News

Today's New York Times says that exercise, even moderate exercise, staves off brain deteoriation as you age. It buys five years. That seems worthwhile.  And I even like it, so why not?

But the best part was my brother's comment on facebook:  "This might explain a lot, like my Mom"

Link to NYT article

Couple Blips in the Posting World

Working with the iPad last night, I accidentally deleted a couple of posts and my most current post decided it was the year 2000. Through the magic of copy, cut and paste I got the posts back (I think I got them all) but I didn't get the comments restored. Sorry for any confusion.

Preoccupied

I was so busy and absorbed today at work that---- I forgot to eat lunch! I'm not sure that has ever happened before. I'm normally so obsessed and focussed on what I am eating that this is astounding to me. Even more astounding, I was home and thinking about dinner before I even realized it, in spite of stomach rumblings and other cues. 

I had a satisfying breakfast (leftover bacon and chard). I took a brief walk at lunchtime (the giant heat has broken slightly) and when I got back to my desk, I decided to make some phone calls first. And during that, my phone gave me a buzz to make sure I had logged my lunch into the WW tracking system. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it" I thought. Then, I was hungry in the late afternoon and regretted not having brought a snack. But my lunch was there in the fridge across the hall, all nicely packed and ready for the microwave. "I wish I had some nuts" I thought around 4 pm. "Oh well, I'll just go fill up my water glass from the cooler.". And never once thought about that lunch. At least it's there for tomorrow. 

I'm well under my daily points. Probably not a good idea to try to reach my cap by filling up on chocolate now!

Sherbert update

First Week on WW

My WW week officially starts on Monday (I don't know if that is a function of when I joined or if that's just what they do) but I'm not so likely to post during the week.  Here is what I'm thinking.

The tools are imperfect but usable, now that I've gotten used to them. They are different on the different platforms (computer vs ipad vs iphone) and I can do things on the ipad I can't do on the computer. Weird. But I can live with it. Some parts of the website simply don't seem to work. For example, when I go to the main page, there is a box with headings for my instant summary - but no numbers appear there. That may be function of using Chrome as my browser, I suppose.

The allowances seem really generous. I read that my allowance, 29 daily points, is the lowest they give. I was able to live within the daily limit every day except my Ikea  extravagance and the party last night. I had a couple of points each day to eat a couple of pieces of chocolate, my special evening snack. And I was able to cover the special occassions easily out of the weekly points and points earned for activity. But nevertheless, it is constraining my eating by guiding my choices and cutting back the snacking at night. (Evening snacking is also helped by my falling asleep at 9:30 every night!) So now, on the last day of my week, I have more weekly points left than my total daily points. So the trick will be - will I lose weight on this style of eating?

I weigh myself every day, and didn't gain as much on vacation as I feared (three pounds). I've bounced at the high end of this plateau-weight range all week, down and back up again. It's the average and the trend that matters to me, though WW is about the weekly weigh-in. Entering the weight on Monday stacks the deck against me - it is often the highest weight of the week, probably because of big and salty eating on weekends.

Ironic side note:  I mentioned WW remembered me from years ago. The weight I was then is basically the weight I am now. I've been mostly higher, not lower, in between. How about that?