Keeping Up WIth Kevin

One of my more nebulous fitness goals has been a vague desire to keep up with Kevin. To be clear, this will probably never happen. Kevin has always had more strength and more stamina than me, and I doubt I'll ever actually catch up to him, fitness-wise. It's more that I want to be able to feel like I'm not slowing him down too much.

I've been getting better at this recently. We've gone on some longer bike rides together, and while I know he would go faster if I weren't with him, I don't make such a bad showing. At least I don't have to completely stop or forgo certain activities anymore. And if I average 11 mph on a bike ride that Kevin averages 13 mph on when he does it by himself, well 11 mph isn't exactly anything to be ashamed of.

This past weekend I did a pretty good job of matching Kevin. Certainly better than I would have done a year or two ago. Jen and Steve proposed a hike in Rock Creek Park, and Kevin almost immediately decided to bike down to meet them. I didn't want to drive in the city by myself, so I considered metroing down to meet them, but I ultimately decided that I could handle the bike ride and hike in the same day. And if I couldn't bike back, well the metro was always an option.

So on Saturday morning we woke up and biked the 18 miles to Steve's house. We went a bit out of our way so Kevin could show me the beginning of the C&O trail, which we may do part of at some point. It's packed dirt, not gravel, so we'd have to pick a day when it hasn't rained recently, but at least it wouldn't be as bumpy as the Accotink trail.

Jen made delicious bacon and pancakes for us when we arrived, and we hung out for a bit. Then we drove over to Rock Creek Park to find a trail. We decided on the Boulder Bridge trail, a 3.5 mile loop from nature center to creek and back. I fell a bit behind on the steeper uphill section, but it wasn't too bad. And we stopped partway through to drink some wine and play and excellent game called Infinite City (Kevin lost!).

After the hike I wasn't feeling up to biking all the way home, but neither was Kevin, so I felt better. We took a quick ride to Foggy Bottom, so we wouldn't have to haul our bikes through Metro Center, and took the train home. Granted, at the end of this I collapsed on the couch and Kevin went to umpire a baseball game, proving that I'm not actually as fit as he is. But I still feel pretty good about myself.