W&OD Trail

This past weekend Kevin and I decided to ride the W&OD trail from end to end. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I was a little hesitant. I haven't been biking nearly as much as I wanted to in the past month, so I didn't feel as though I were in proper shape for a 45-mile ride. Then again, the weather was perfect and we had no other plans. Plus, the trail passes right by our house about 35 miles in. I know I can bike 35 miles, so in the worst case I'd just peel off and head home at that point.

I did end up biking the entire trail, but I also found my limit. By the end of the ride I was grumpy, hungry, and tired. This also started to happen about halfway through the ride. Both times we took a break and ate some food (Kevin came well prepared). If I go on any more longish rides, this is definitely something I'm going to have to pay attention to. Taking a break is a bit of a mental block for me. It feels like I'm cheating, even though I know that isn't true. Having Kevin around to insist certainly helps, but it's something I ought to get used to doing on my own.

At any rate, the ride was really nice. We had perfect weather. It was cloudy and breezy, and maybe a little humid, but not too bad. We started in Purcellville and ended in Shirlington, which means that the ride is basically downhill. You lose about 600 feet in elevation going that way. But it is by no means all downhill. There are two longish (~3 miles) uphill sections as you enter the towns of Herndon and Vienna. The first one I wasn't expecting and it came right before our snack break in Herndon. Going up that hill was rough, and probably the worst part of the ride. The second one was a stretch of the trail that I'm more familiar with, so it didn't seem as bad.

We decided to get lunch in Crystal City after the ride, which meant an additional couple of miles of biking. It was further than I thought, which did nothing to help my mood. Also by then the sun was out and my sunscreen was reaching the end of it's effectiveness. And after four hours on a bike my butt was killing me. But we made it to a sports bar and got some food and caffeine and I was feeling better.

Then it was time to get home and collect Kevin's car from the trail head, which ultimately took longer than the ride itself. It would have been fine, except that metro was closed between a couple of stations. Getting home meant taking the blue train to Roslyn, switching to the orange train, getting off the train and onto a bus for 5 miles, then getting back on the train for the last few miles. If we'd been feeling up to it, it probably would have been faster to bike home. But we'd already gone nearly 50 miles and another 10 or 15 was just out of the question for me. It took two hours to get home after lunch and then it was another 2 hour round trip to get Kevin's car. But it all worked out in the end.

I'm hoping I can do this ride once more this year. It really does take an entire day (we left our house at 7:45 AM and ultimately got home just before 6:00 PM), so it may be hard to schedule. But now that I have a better idea of what to expect, I think I'll be less grumpy next time. Half the battle for me is mental preparation, so knowing what I'm getting into makes everything easier.