Good morning, friends!
How were your weekends? Mine started off on a healthy and fun note – with a yoga + dinner date with my blogger buddy Gena on Friday night.
If you’ve been reading my blog for more than 30 seconds, you already know that I <3 friend exercise dates. A nice, sweaty workout followed by girl time and tasty food? Perfection.
Gena and I hit up the Studio DC for their 6:15 p.m. vinyasa flow class. I really love that studio, and I loved the teacher (Christine), who I’d never had before. Awesome, sweaty class!
As for dinner after, clearly we hit up Sweetgreen. Never disappoints. 🙂 I did a make my own creation with kale, some wild rice, feta cheese, dried cranberries, sliced apples, chicken, mushrooms, broccoli, and some lemon juice and balsamic vinaigrette. Plus bread!
On Saturday, Matt and I had a nice and relaxing day. I worked for a few hours in the morning, and in early afternoon we decided to take adventure of the gorgeous weather and head out for a bike ride.
It was in the 60’s and sunny here all weekend – what a nice treat! I hadn’t been biking in AGES since I’ve been more focused on marathon training, so it was really fun to mix it up.
Instead of biking the really hilly and crowded trails right near us, Matt and I decided to drive out to Reston, where we parked and linked up with the W&OD trail. We biked 10 miles out, and stopped at this awesome BBQ joint right on the side of the trail (genius marketing).
It was around 4 p.m. by this point and I was hungry, so obviously BBQ needed to happen. I got the brisket sandwich – it was so. good. Hit the spot! I love me some BBQ.
In case you’re wondering, the name of the place is Carolina Brothers and it’s in Ashburn. They have a fun map of the W&OD trail on their wall outside – this trail goes forever!
Here’s where it is exactly. I highly recommend planning a bike ride around it. 🙂 Made me nostalgic for our days in NC!
We turned back at the BBQ place so we ended up covering 20 miles total. Whew! Lovely way to spend a beautiful Saturday.
On Sunday morning, I headed over to the Endurance Athlete Center bright and early for a work event my EAC colleagues and I were hosting – a running clinic for the local Moms Run This Town group. Moms Run This Town is a national, free running club – check it out to see if there’s a local chapter if you are a mom looking for some exercise motivation and support! Seems like an awesome organization.
The event was fun – from 9 to 12 the EAC gang and I took turns sharing information and tips with the group. First up was Kavon and Tom from Functional Fitness VA – they provided a mini strength session for runners. I joined in since one of the women needed a partner. 🙂
Next up was George of Strong Foundations, the EAC’s athlete-specific podiatrist, to share some tips for smart running shoe selection.
As the EAC’s sports dietitian, I followed up his presentation with a mini session on the top 5 nutrition mistakes runners often make.
To close the presentations, we had Kerri, owner of the EAC and of Fast Track Physical Therapy, who shared running form tips to increase speed and prevent pain.
We finished out the morning with some Q&A and also offered a chance for the attendees to try out the Alter G machine at the EAC. Once everyone was finished, I decided to try it out, too!
This thing was so cool – have you ever tried an Alter G machine before? It’s a state of the art treadmill designed by NASA to offload body weight; you get into wetsuit-like shorts to zip into a bubble that makes an airtight seal. Air then enters into the bubble and, following weight calibration by the computer, you can remove up to 80% of your body weight in 1% increments. If you go all the way up as light as possible, it feels like you are bouncing on a trampoline (or, apparently, running on the moon!). SO awesome. This is a wonderful alternative for injured runners or those recovering and working back up to running! You can buy packages to use it at the EAC if you’re interested!
And now, back to work! I have a couple AnneTheRD clients today and I need to prep for teaching tomorrow, too. I hope you all have a wonderful day! The cold has sadly returned here, but I got in a nice swim this morning to recover from my 14 miler yesterday. I’ll be back tomorrow to share a recap of the long run – it was my last long one before the LA Marathon in 2 weeks! 🙂
