30 Minutes Out and Back

In less than six days, Josh and I, with Betsy and Sandy, will be riding our bikes forty two miles through the five burroughs of NYC. So we thought it might be a good idea to do a little training. We had a hearty breakfast yesterday morning then got on our bikes and rode an embarrassingly short .2 miles to our first pit stop, the zoo. It was nice to walk down and uphill on a sunny Sunday but, otherwise, it only confirmed my dislike of the place. I’m not a big fan of zoos in the first place, though I can be a sucker for the vast savannahs and the snake tanks (snakes are probably the only animal I don’t feel bad seeing in captivity) at Busch Gardens, and couple that with the hoards and hoards of tourists at this one and I go a little crazy. But it was a short visit- we saw some unhappy looking animals L and Josh got some decent pictures. But crazy from the madness, I was ready to move my legs! We rode to our usual Frisbee spot, uninhabited by the Somerset Frisbee crew on this holiday Sunday, and got on the trail there. We had never ridden south through Rock Creek from there so had no idea where it’d take us. We had a little over an hour to ride so I, naively, decided that we’d ride 30 minutes out and then turn around, and that we’d ride hard. About 7 minutes in, we were passing the four seasons and it was becoming apparent there wouldn’t be 30 minutes worth of trails laid out before us to ride, unless we wanted to cross the river and ride in Virginia, but there probably wasn’t time for that. So within ten minutes of leaving Woodley Park, we were in Georgetown and we stopped to chill for a few minutes in the grass by the Watergate. We sat on the wall, Josh took a few pictures. There were people fishing and grilling and sleeping. We headed back and barely broke a sweat… until we reached the Frisbee field, where we rode up the grueling hill to Calvert Street and that was enough training in and of itself. So we’ll go into next weekend not having ridden more than a few miles at once. But we’ll be totally fine, it was more of an excuse to take a long ride yesterday than a real need for training. In the end, it is so great to know how insanely close we are, via bike path, to Georgetown and to the mall. We can ride to our soccer games on the Polo Grounds in ten or fifteen minutes. And I found a place where I can run and breath a little less smog. I can’t think of anything better. And next time we want to try a long bike ride without crossing the river, we’ll know to turn left at the park and head north.