When I was packing to come up to D.C., I checked the weather and saw it was going to be especially gorgeous yesterday, on Saturday. I decided to throw my bike in the car and take advantage of the opportunity to hit up some DC trails!
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I went out yesterday morning without any real thoughts on how far I wanted to go — I just figured I’d see how much time I had and how I felt! I ended up covering 20 miles — a new distance record for me for biking! 🙂 Love that my Garmin watch has a “bike” setting in addition to a “run” setting!
I parked at Gravelly Point by the airport and took the Mt. Vernon trail 10 miles south, through Alexandria and just 2 miles shy of Mt. Vernon itself, then turned around and came back. It was a GORGEOUS ride! I wish Matt had been here to join!
The first 10 miles took me about an hour since I stopped and took photos and was enjoying the view; the way back was only about 50 minutes 🙂
I absolutely loved all the sailboats out and about. Water makes me happy.
The only part of the ride I didn’t like was when you have to go through the city of Alexandria and the trail kind of disappears and leaves you to bike through traffic for a mile or two. Boo!
But the section of trail between Alexandria south to Mt. Vernon is my absolute favorite, so it was worth it 🙂
I hadn’t biked on this trail in YEARS — and I’d only ever done it on my mountain bike. It felt much nicer yesterday on the road bike 🙂
You know what’s also way more awesome with a road bike? Taking off the wheel and putting it into your car. I did it in literally 3 minutes flat. With my road bike it used to take me at least 20 minutes and a lot of huffing and puffing because the bike was so heavy it was really hard to shove it into the car on my own!
Biking win!
After biking, I headed out to meet my friend Michelle for lunch at an old favorite in a new location — Sweetgreen, recently open in Ballston, VA!
If only this location had been open when I lived here after college — I used to live right in Ballston in a townhouse with friends!
I ordered my favorite — the Sabzi salad, which is a vegan salad of baby spinach/mixed greens, topped with spicy quinoa, white beans, raw beets, radish, basil, sprouts, dried cranberries, and a carrot chili vinaigrette. Plus avocado — yum!
Just as good as I remembered 🙂 And great company, too!
After eating, Michelle and I took a nice long walk around the neighborhood, chatting away, and then returned to Sweetgreen because let’s be honest… you can’t go to Sweetgreen and not get their frozen yogurt 🙂
YUM! We shared a small topped with all sorts of berries and it was amazing. Best frozen yogurt, ever! Thanks for the fun lunch date, Michelle 🙂
I’m off to have lunch with Matt (he’s back from his trip!), then have afternoon tea at my grandmother’s with my mom for a little Mother’s Day fun 🙂 Then it’s time to make the drive back to Chapel Hill later tonight, boo. The weekend was to short, as always.
Have a great day!
