Category Archives: D.C.

Barre Ride

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It’s felt great hitting the spin studio a ton this month, and Sunday I finally tried out my first Barre Ride class up at Revolve in Clarendon. What an awesome combination of cardio and strength in an hour workout. I put in a fast-paced 4 miler right before heading up to the studio, so my legs were already feeling it a little, but they were full-on shaking by the end of class.

It started out like one of their usual rides. We did 36 minutes of heart-pumping riding and using the weights for an upper body workout before hopping off the bikes and ditching our bike shoes. We started out with calf raises and then stood in different ballet positions – first and second position – doing squats and pulses while holding onto the bikes for balance. We did more of these going into a plié, while up on the balls of our feet in relevé. (For any ballet dancers out there I’m likely using these terms wrong, but I’m trying!)

The toughest portion for me came when we were up on the balls of our feet, went down to a 90 degree chair position, pulsed further down before coming back to chair position, and stood all the way up before starting again. I was seriously trembling by the end. We wrapped up with a few more exercises before ending class with some stretches. I can’t even remember them all now, but my sore muscles over the past couple days have reminded me what we worked on!

If you’re looking to get in some intense cardio and strength in one workout I highly recommend the barre ride. It was great!

Officially Done with Physical Therapy!!

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Last night I headed out to Fast Track Physical Therapy in Falls Church for what I was hoping would be my last PT session. Liz, my physical therapist there, gave me the great news that I have in fact officially “graduated” and am done with PT.

It’s not easy for me to admit injury (main reason things got so bad in the first place!), and it’s even harder for me to stop running, so starting PT and being told I needed to give my body a break was a bit hard to swallow at first. Turns out this whole injury thing might have been one of the best things for me. I’ve become so much more aware of my running form and what muscles need to be working when. Thanks to run analysis my form is getting better and more efficient. I learned the hard way just how important strength training and flexibility are for runners. This seems obvious, but I love to run so much I wasn’t always making time for the other stuff. That’s changed.

Liz did a final video run analysis last night and my form has improved a ton from the first time we did this. I’m still dropping my hip a little bit, but it’s getting better and I’ll keep working on it. My feet are landing in a very neutral position and I’m doing a better job of pulling my legs underneath me. We did a quick run through of my home exercises and stretches that have helped me get so much better over the last few months, and she gave me a few more to add to the arsenal to make sure I don’t end up hurting myself again.

I’m amazed at how much more flexible I’ve become. There’s still work to do, but I always just assumed I wasn’t very flexible and didn’t realize I just needed to put the time and effort in to work on it. It has been so amazing to run pain free these last couple weeks. Seriously, I think it’s been a couple years since running felt like this. Liz and Fast Track are the best! If you live in the NoVa/DC area and need to see a physical therapist – I highly, highly recommend them.

I’ve never been so excited for a race season, and can’t wait to go after some new PRs and a Boston Qualifier!

So excited, I can't stop smiling!

So excited, I can’t stop smiling!

Keeping It Light!

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Winter running brings with it all sorts of obstacles. It seems like a lot of my runner friends would rather be too chilly than too hot on a run, but I’m the oddball who loves nothing more than getting out on the roads on those 100 degree hot and humid D.C. summer days. I’ve made a big effort over the last couple years to not listen to my inner cold weather wimp, and keep running outside as much as possible during the winter. I’ve already shared some posts on my favorite cold weather gear and getting out there even in sub-zero temps, and having spent the first two-plus decades of my life growing up in Syracuse I have to admit getting out on the roads down here in the winter is much easier than they have it up north.

Battling the cold or slippery snowy streets aren’t the only obstacles winter brings, however. There’s so much less daylight! I hate leaving work and having it already be dark out, and I can totally understand how people can suffer from seasonal affect disorder…it’s really depressing! Running in the dark brings out a whole bunch of safety issues. As a female runner, I try to never run in the dark alone. Obviously running in a group is safer for anyone who is running in the dark (or anytime for that matter), but I definitely think it’s something we women runners think about a lot more.

AllLitUpOn occasion that I want to do an early morning run before daylight this time of year, I get myself up at an ungodly hour to meet up with a Pacers Fun Run Group for a 5 a.m. run. If you can’t tell, I’m not much of a morning person! The route is mostly well lit, but at that time of the morning, it’s dark for the whole run even in the summer. I also like to run or bike home from work a lot, which takes me along a well-populated mostly well lit route. There’s one stretch though without street lights where the trail runs facing a busy road, so you have to battle the headlights coming at you to still see the road you’re running on. I got a headlamp for Christmas that has completely solved this problem. It’s amazing how a little light can provide so much power and light up my line of sight. I have no problems spotting the paved trail, staying on my side of the yellow line and seeing any bumps in the road I need to avoid.

The headlamp helps me stick out too so other runners, bikers and drivers can easily see me. I don’t think runners always realize how hard it is for drivers to spot them once dusk hits, and knowing that you’re battling with so many other distractions (put your phones down in the car people!!) for their attention, I want to make sure I’m as visible as possible. In addition to the headlamp (which makes  me look oh, so cool!), I rock a Nathan reflective vest that has two built in bright red solid or blinking lights. Just to ensure I look as much like a Christmas tree as possible on my early morning or evening runs, I like to set it to the blinking setting. I also have a couple reflective snap bracelets that help as well. I might get made fun of for looking like such a dork, but I’ll take that over ending up as a newspaper headline for runner hit by car any day!

Stay safe out there and remember to keep it light!

Car Troubles

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Well, this is an all too familiar site for Ian and me. Just more than a year ago, my little blue car was on the back of a AAA tow truck. That New Year’s Eve adventure included breaking down in the middle of nowhere, a 90-mile tow to the “big city” of Scranton, an entertaining cab ride to an airport and finally a rental car to our NYE party. If you didn’t catch my post on that one, get all the details here.

Ian's Car Getting Towed :-(

Ian’s Car Getting Towed 😦

Ian and I did the long distance thing for quite awhile, so I couldn’t be more excited that he moved here just after Christmas. Two people in a junior one-bedroom apartment is a tight squeeze, but we’re making it work and enjoying every minute of it. A fringe benefit of having him here is having a car again! I flew out to Minneapolis before Christmas to make the trek back with him. I figured he’d made that drive on his own enough times…he figures I was coming to get him and making sure he actually came! Either way you look at it, we managed to avoid all the snow storms and made a successful trip back in his Volkswagen Golf.

Getting to drive the Golf though means relearning how to drive standard. My first attempts at driving standard were back during my freshman year of college. I used to occasionally work at my cousin’s bookstore in Rochester and over the summer when I was back home, he would drive me down for the day to help out. He put in a long day though, so he’d let me take his car and get out of there for a bit during the day.

One such day I went to Nazareth College to use their pool. I parked facing in on a slight downhill with another car parked facing me in the lot. Starting in reverse was not something I had tried yet, and as I inched closer and closer to the car in front of me with each try I started full on panicking. I finally got out of the car ready to give up and saw an older couple walking by. I sheepishly explained my predicament and asked if they could drive standard. The man laughed and said no problem he’d be happy to back the car out for me, so I handed my cousin’s keys over to a complete stranger. His wife joked with me about remembering when her husband first learned on a stick shift, and said he wasn’t very good back then either, so not to worry, I would get better. Thankfully he backed the car out in a flash without any problem. I’m not sure I ever told my cousin as I was a bit embarrassed, but if anyone sends this on to him, well, sorry Dave! I still think handing it over to a stranger was better than me hitting the other parked car though!

Flash forward to this past summer, Ian made the trip by car rather than flying since he was staying for the whole summer, not just a quick visit. I didn’t drive standard all that many times freshman year and hadn’t done it since then, so I really needed to start over. After one lesson around our parking lot, we had a weekend wedding in Annapolis coming up that Ian was in. I didn’t have enough vacation time, so we planned that he would catch a ride up earlier and I would take his car up after work to meet everyone after the rehearsal dinner.

One piece of advice if you’re learning to drive stick…driving through D.C. and Maryland in rush hour traffic is not recommended! I stalled 15 times just getting out of our parking lot. I wish I was exaggerating. Amazingly I didn’t stall the rest of the trip, but I was still a nervous wreck. Somehow I managed to turn the back windshield wiper on on a sunny, 95 degree day and couldn’t turn it off, so I think the other drivers knew to just give me some space. I made it to the restaurant, handed Ian his keys while still shaking and informed him that he was now the DD for the rest of the night.

The next few practice runs were in a much more manageable empty Target parking lot. I felt like I’d gotten the hang of it and would be ready to drive on my own this winter. I was doing OK, or so I thought, until I stalled on a hill on the way to an early morning spin class last week. I struggled to get it started for a minute and noticed a burning smell. We thought everything was OK, and Ian was able to keep driving the car for the rest of the week.

I gave it another shot Monday morning since I had agreed to sub for an early morning boot camp class. I was so proud that I was able to get it started each time without revving the engine or squealing the tires. The trip is all uphill with a lot of stop lights, so this was a big accomplishment for me. As I got closer though, the gears seemed to have trouble catching and the smell was back… and it didn’t take me long to realize I’d burned out the clutch, ugh!

I tried pushing the car to a side street, but it kept rolling back down onto the main road. I’m sure it was quite a sight! Thankfully some kind soul stopped and helped me push it up onto the side street – unfortunately in a no parking zone though. Of course, I’d just grabbed my licence that morning leaving my wallet with my AAA card at home, so panic mode set in again. I first left a panicked voicemail for the CEO of the boot camp company saying I didn’t know if I’d be able to get there. Then I called my Mom – because of course calling Mom in a panic before 7 a.m. won’t cause any panic on her end either.

I told her I broke Ian’s car, couldn’t get to boot camp, couldn’t call AAA, didn’t know what to do… pretty much all in one breath and not in the calmest of voices! She told me to take a breath, leave a note on the car, go to boot camp, she’d text me the AAA number and I could have Ian meet me at the car with my AAA card after class. I might be 28, but sometimes calling Mom still makes everything better!

After leaving a note on the car in hopes of not getting a ticket, (this is Arlington, so I was lucky and just got a warning ticket even with my note) I took off running and made it to boot camp just in time. Ian, who is much calmer in these situations than I am, met me at the car after class and we were able to have the car towed to a dealer in Fairfax who replaced the clutch for us. Ian tells me it’ll be easier to learn on a new clutch, but I’m not so sure I want to drive it again. My car luck is not exactly that great, but I also don’t like giving up on things, so we’ll see.

Lottery Luck

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My first experience with trying to gain entry to a race via a lottery was several years ago with the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. I did not get in. I tried again the next year, but had the same result. Thanks to their policy regarding two failed attempts, I received an automatic entry to last year’s race. The email with my link to register said something along the lines of: looks like your bad luck has turned into good luck.

Well, my good luck didn’t stop there. I entered two lotteries for April races in 2013 recently. Based on my past experience I didn’t have high hopes of getting in. One was to again run the Cherry Blossom since I had so much fun in 2012, and the other was for the inaugural Nike Women’s D.C. Half Marathon.

Good fortune shined and during the past week and a half I found out that I got accepted into both races! I know a lot of people running in both races, which will make them even more fun. The Cherry Blossom on April 7 will make for a perfect training run for the Nike Half a few weeks later on April 28 as it appears the courses are almost identical with the exception of the beginning and end of the half to get the additional 3.1 miles.

Let me know if you’re planning on running either of these April races in D.C. next year!

On another note. I think I might buy a real lottery ticket tonight!

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In The Spirit: Holiday Fun in D.C.

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Last weekend my Mom made a trip down to visit for a girl’s weekend. We kicked things off with a Christmas cookie baking day. Thanks to my Dad for FedEx-ing a package full of all the ingredients we’d need we were good to go! We put on the Christmas music station on Pandora and made dozens of peanut butter blossoms, chocolate peanut butter balls and attempted some snickers peanut butter bars.

National Christmas Tree

National Christmas Tree

The cookies were mostly a success. The snickers peanut butter bars came from a recipe I found on a blog I follow, and it seemed like there might have been a liquid ingredient missing from the recipe. There was nothing really holding them together, so they didn’t make the cut and ended up in the trash. The others were delicious however, so I stuck most of them in my freezer to keep me from eating them all at once! We also took advantage of the leftover chocolate to make a bunch of chocolate covered pretzels. Check out the recipes below.

On Saturday night, we enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather and went into D.C. to check out the National Christmas tree. Somehow in my six years here I’ve never done this. It was of course, very crowded, but also very fun. We took a quick spin through to check out a couple of the state trees and then got up close to see the main tree and all the train sets around it. They really do a great job with it, and it’s a fun holiday thing to do. We capped off the night at one of my favorite D.C. restaurants right around the corner from the White House – Old Ebbitt Grill. It was a great weekend and a fun way to get into the Holiday spirit. Only 8 days till Christmas!

Peanut Butter Blossoms:
½ cup veg oil
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Shape into balls and roll in sugar. Bake on cookie sheet at 350 for 8 minutes. Put in hershey kiss and bake another 2-5 minutes (unless you use peanut butter cups – they melt much faster!!).

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
2 ½ cups peanut butter
½ cups margarine
2 cups confectioner sugar
2 cups rice krispies

Shape into balls and place on wax paper.

To make chocolate coating in a double boiler mix and melt:
¼ bar parifin wax
18 oz plain chocolate bar
16 oz pkg chocolate chips

Cover cookies, return to wax paper and refigerate or freeze when cooled.

My Favorite D.C. Restaurants

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Last week I wrote about my favorite Arlington restaurants, so I figured I’d share my favorites in the District today. It’s hard to pick just a few, but the ones I find myself going back to again and again are RFD, Buffalo Billiards and Match Box.

RFD has a beer list that numbers in the hundreds so it’s a great spot for happy hour that turns into several hours plus dinner! They usually have a few ciders on the drinks menu that I like to try, but more often than not, I find myself ordering the “get real Miller Lite” – yes, that’s actually how they list it on the menu. What can I say? I like my Miller Lites! They have decent pub food to complement all the drinks with good nachos, good burgers and good sandwiches/wraps.

Located in Chinatown right near the Verizon Center it’s a great spot to go to before or after games. It’s huge so even when it’s packed you can usually find room. They also have a nice back room for parties or watching games.

Buffalo Billiards is admittedly nothing special, but I love it. It’s the perfect spot for watching sports. You can grab a table and see a bunch of TVs all around from any angle. They’re great about putting the game I want on if I ask them to change the TVs (Syracuse games of course!), and they have really good specials.

I haven’t met many buffalo chicken wraps I don’t like, but theirs is great as are the french fries. If you’re bored with the games on TV, you can entertain yourself with shuffleboard, darts or pool as well. It’s always a good time here.

Last but not least is Matchbox. They have several locations, but the Capitol Hill one is my favorite. Given my love for pizza and burgers, a place that is known for it’s amazing sliders and pizzas had to make this list. You can order the sliders to share (or for just you!) in sets of 3, 6 or 9 with a choice of several cheeses – I usually go with gorgonzola. They’re also served with onion straws – the only way I like onion rings – making them the perfect app.

At most restaurants I have one go-to dish that I get everytime I go. At Matchbox I always have a tough decision. Even their sandwiches are great, but I almost always go with the pizza since that’s what they do best. My favorite pizzas I rotate between are the matchbox meat, spicy meatball or four cheese white. You really can’t go wrong!

Similar to my Arlington list, my favorites here fall in the pub food and pizza categories, but there really are a lot of other great places in D.C. to eat out at as well. Let me know your favorites in the comments!

My Favorite Arlington Restaurants

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One of the great things about running and working out so much is that I get to enjoy all of the great restaurants (in moderation of course!) near me in the Arlington area without worrying about packing on the pounds! I’m by no means a foodie, so fancy or trendy restaurants aren’t my thing, but I do love to eat. There are so many great spots to eat out at here, but given my love for pizza and pub food, it should come as no surprise that my top three spots in Arlington in the Rosslyn to Ballston corridor are RiRa, Fire Works and Ray’s Hell Burger.

RiRa is an irish pub up in Clarendon. It’s part of a chain that tries to bring a bit of Ireland to the states by hiring bartenders and servers from Ireland and serving dishes like Guiness stew and fish and chips. For years my favorite Irish pub in the area was Four Courts, but since they have stopped serving Magners and have taken my favorite food options off the menu, RiRa is now number one.

RiRa has a great appetizer selection. My favorites are the soft pretzles and the spinach dip. If you’re not looking for a full meal, you can get a sampler to share with three full-size apps for under $25. They also serve good burgers and chicken sandwiches, which is about all it takes to please me! I love the setup and atmosphere of RiRa as well – you can catch a game in the eating areas downstairs, come for trivia night or head upstairs where another bar is located for some great people watching, especially on 80s cover band nights!

Fire Works near the Court House metro opened a couple years ago and won me over right away with their wood-fired oven pizzas. I also love their garlic knots and their spinach dip (are you sensing a theme here?) served with delicious pizza bread. I generally go with the plain old cheese and herb pizza, unless the special of the day is their buffalo chicken pizza, which is quite tasty. They have an extensive beer list and a few ciders too, so I usually end up ordering a Crispin or two.

The only downside to Fire Works is their service. I’ve never had anyone be unpleasant, but they are usually understaffed resulting in pretty slow service. The food and atmosphere make up for it though, especially when you can sit out on the patio on a nice summer evening or even on cooler evenings if you’re by the fire.

Ray’s Hell Burger might be the best burger I’ve ever had. If you’re looking for a great burger, then look no further than Ray’s. It’s cash only, so be sure to stop at the ATM first or you might miss out on your best burger ever. The meat is seasoned perfectly – you have several seasoning options to choose from – and cooked to juicy perfection. I always add a side of seven cheese mac and a coke. I’m no expert at restaurant reviews, so head on over to Croutons Stuck in Futons for a review that does Ray’s a bit more justice.

I finally made it to Ray’s: To The Third recently. It’s another one of the restaurants in the Ray’s family and is right across the street from the plaza that houses Ray’s Hellburger. I didn’t think it was fair to add to this list since I’ve only been there once, but it will quickly become one of my favs. It contains all the Ray’s wonderfulness from the steakhouse, Ray’s Hellburger and Ray’s Nice ‘N’ Greasy Steak ‘N’ Cheesy. The steak and cheese sandwich was out of this world, and the inside of the restaurant is a bit nicer than the more cafeteria-style version over at Hell Burger.

The best part about these places: all three are walking distance from my place. Some might argue with me on that when it comes to RiRa and Fireworks, but hey, it can never hurt to work up an appetite on the way there or walk off a delicious meal on the way home!

Setting Race Goals

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Last night I headed out to Falls Church for Tri360’s clinic: Big Goals for 2013 Panel. Tri360 is a new triathlon store in the area that I’ve wanted to check out for awhile, and it’s very cool. The space is awesome and they’ve got a great assortment of bikes and gear for all three disciplines as well as a service area for bike repairs and maintenance.

I’ve been biking a bit lately since I haven’t been able to run and am really enjoying it. I haven’t done a triathlon in years, mostly because I got frustrated with the fact that I’m not very good at either the swim or bike portions. I’ve been thinking about giving it another go though when I get back into running, so I have some other outlets to keep me from overdoing it on the running right away.

Tri360 put together a great panel of professional and elite triathletes, an elite cross/mountain biker, an Ironman finisher and a swim/run coach resulting in some really good advice and an info-packed discussion. They talked about setting realistic goals based on your fitness level and time to train to avoid burnout and set yourself up for your best chance at success.

The panelists reminded us that goals don’t just have to be about your finish time or place, but can focus on other things like improvement and attitude. It’s also helpful to have training goals and to document your progress so you can look back and see how far you’ve come. Set your goals based on what’s right for you, not based on a competition with someone else – especially if you’re not at comparable fitness levels.

A big theme of the night was achieving balance between training and the rest of your life. Family, friends and work shouldn’t suffer because of your training. Having family or friends that don’t participate in swim, bike and run with you can be really beneficial – sometimes you need to “step out of the bubble”. They also talked about remembering to have fun and the reasons why you do this. If you’re not having any fun then what’s the point.

I really enjoyed the clinic and loved the store. I’ll definitely be back!

Other than the 2013 Marine Corps Marathon, I’m still planning out my race goals for next year. Let me know what your big goals are for next year in the comments!

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Volunteering at the Veterans Day 10k

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I’ve run a lot of races over the years reaping the benefits of a lot of helpful volunteers whether it’s someone giving out a helpful hint at packet pick up, a cup of water just when you need it or cheers of encouragement when you’re at your lowest point. Throughout the past year or two, I decided it was my turn to give back a little, and have been trying to volunteer at races whenever I can. Usually, I try to help out at pre-race packet pick-ups so I can still run on race day, but while I’m on a temporary running hiatus I figured now was a good time to actually pitch in on race day.

I signed up to help with last Saturday’s onsite packet pick-up at the Veterans Day 10k in West Potomac Park. It was the same course I ran in early October for the Run for the Parks 10k, so runners could expect fast, flat, a little bit boring and if windy, a potentially brutal course. The weather gods smiled on this event though. It was sunny and the temperature hovered around the 50s – not half bad for early November!

I had to leave my apartment a little after 6 to get to the start of packet pick-up on time, so without a car and the metro closed, my only option was to bike over. It was still a bit dark when I took off, so I was very thankful my Dad helped me install blinking lights on the front and back of my bike when he was in town a couple weeks ago. I also sported a Nathan blinking reflective vest just for good measure. I’m pretty sure anyone could see me from a mile away!

Things started off slow with a few early birds there to grab their race bib and t-shirts right at 6:30, but quickly picked up steam as we got closer to 7. The hour before the race started was a blur. The lines were constant and we were all moving as quickly as we could to make sure all the runners were ready to toe the starting line by the 8 a.m. start time.

A handful of us were stationed at computers looking up runners by their name. I love Pacers’ system of assigning the race number at packet pick-up rather than having to search through a pile of numbers to pull the right one. I would simply find the runners name, grab the next bib in my pile and type that number in to assign it to them. Several others behind us at the computers hustled back and forth as we yelled out t-shirt sizes making sure to retrieve the right one for us.

One of the big things I’ve learned as a result of volunteering over the last year is that I will never, ever again complain to a volunteer about a logistical race issue or wanting a different t-shirt size. They have no control over it! For the most part, people were great.There were lots of smiles and excitement as people picked up their bibs and shirts and got ready to run. There’s always an exception though! A few bad apples were very upset with me for not allowing them to switch t-shirt size. I tried to explain they could just check back after the race to see if other sizes were available and that I wasn’t allowed to give out different shirts until we knew we had enough, but they didn’t want to hear it. Thankfully those folks were few and far between, so I was able to just smile, wish them luck and move on to the next person in line.

I decided to hang around and watch some of the finishers come in and boy were they flying! The top three men all crossed the line in less than 30 minutes. The winner, Chris Kwiatkowski, finished in 29:47 and the women’s winner, Carmen Hussar, came in shortly after at 33:45 for paces of 4:48 and 5:26 per mile respectively. Impressive!

It was one of those days I really wish I’d brought my nice camera along. Riding into D.C. looking at the red sky over the monuments as the sun just started to rise on a foggy morning was absolutely beautiful and my iPhone just couldn’t do it justice. Also, as you can see in the finish line pic, my shutter speed on the iPhone couldn’t quite keep up with the lead runner so all I caught was the finish line banner falling to the ground.

It was a great way to start my day and while I really can’t wait to run again, I also look forward to helping out on the volunteer side of things again soon too.