Lynne in VA

In preparation of our 100 Mile Bike Ride coming up,  Lynne and I decided/planned to do a long bike ride down here in VA.  If you remember, Lynne, Dennis, and I had done a 50 mile bike ride in Philly which turned out to be as eventful as expected.  

Lynne arrived Friday night and we planned to head down to Falls Church Metro Station Saturday morning and bike to Purcellville on the W&OD trail.  Sounds like a flawless plan, right? RIGHT!

We ate breakfast and headed down to the car to install the trunk bike rack that I assured myself (and Dennis) that I knew how to install.  Nope, I did not.  So we tried loading both bikes into the trunk of Lynne's car and they didn't fit, shocker.  So we attempted the bike rack again and from what it looked like, we were able to secure the rack and my bike to the car without it falling.  

Our first stop was Starbucks and we parked next to a car that legit had the same bike rack as us installed, properly.  But it was too late to try to fix it and after getting some caffeinated beverages, we were ready to go!

We entered the parking lot the wrong way and ended up in a bus loop and it just spit us back out onto the main road.  Once we figured out how to get in the metro station parking lot, we unloaded our bikes, packed our stuff and we were off!  On the wrong path, none the less, but we were off!  

We finally figured out where we needed to be (with the help of some bikers) we were on the W&OD trail, heading the correct direction. 

The day couldn't have been more beautiful.  The sun was out, the path was semi shaded and the temperature was slightly warm, but nothing unbearable.  This is when our joy ride started to take a turn.  

Lynne started to notice that her chain would randomly become slack for no real reason.  We decided to stop and take a look at it (which is pretty funny since neither of us know how to fix a bike) but I did the only thing I knew how to do which was turn the bike upside down set it down on the seat.  And what do you know, the problem magically fixed itself!  I am amazing!!

However, a few miles back into the ride, the chain kept acting up.  We were just at Reston Town Center by this point so I suggested we stop at the only bike shop I knew to have the bike looked at and hopefully fixed.  

So we turned off the trail and headed to the bike store.  The mechanic looked at Lynne's bike, made a few tweaks and we were good to go.  After they sent Lynne's receipt to her aol account (LOL) we were back on the trail!  

Well sorta.  In order to get back onto the trail we had to go through a development and for whatever reason I assumed that Lynne knew where she was going and this caused, let's call it, crash #1.  Lynne was on the inside of me and I started turning right and there was contact.  Luckily not enough contact to cause either of us to fall,  but in any case it was not good.  

We laughed it off, commented how it was crazy that neither of us fell and started back on the trail.  

So now it was about 1pm, we hadn't eaten since 8am, and the day was getting warmer and warmer and little did I know, the trail in the direction we were biking was basically uphill.  Not like you can see how steep the hill is, it was so slight that to the naked eye, you wouldn't think it would be challenging, but with all the previous elements I just mentioned, it was getting bad.  Fast.  

Fast is a bad way to describe it because at one point a person jogged past me.  I was on a BIKE and a human being running, was running faster than I was biking.  We had about 10 miles to go and at the rate I was biking, it was going to take over an hour.  So Lynne shouted some encouraging words and I powered through as best I could.  Until we got to the 40 mile marker and Lynne saw a sign that said "Purcellville 5 Miles."  We wanted to die.  But we had no choice but to keep going. 

At this point it was legitimately up hill.  Like the kind of hills that you see and say, oh fuck.  This was just horrible.  On we pedaled until we got to an area with some road traffic.  We as bikers had a stop sign so I came to a halting stop, with Lynne close behind me.  Obviously neither of us were thinking clearly, because that was stupid to do and there we have crash #2.  Lynne hit me and "bounced" off into the stop sign, nearly missing another fall to the ground.   It was clear that we were hungry, fried from the heat, and tired.

After what seemed to be forever, we made it to our final destination and ate at the first place we could find.  A horrible mexican restaurant.  We were both starving and inhaled our food reguardless and we decided to treat ourselves to ice cream.

After indulging, we waiting for Dennis to pick us up and the bad day and the bad food was catching up with us and this is how we felt for the rest of the day. 

Even though we both thought were going to die at some point in the ride, we enjoyed each other's company and I was happy to have a kid free long bike ride.  We learned many things on this trip and are looking forward to our 100 miler in early October. 

Adios Adam

I'm sure I've blogged this before, but as soon as I find consistency in my life, something changes and then I'm forced to adjust.  I'd like to think that I adjust to things pretty well by now but that doesn't mean that the things that change don't suck.  Today I was hit with another major bomb.  Coach Adam was leaving CrossFit Chantilly.  UGH!

When I first joined CFC my main coaches were Ethan and Rob.  I can't remember which of the two of those left first, but they phased out and then Kyle and Adam phased in.  Then Kyle phased out and my main 6am regular coaches became Adam and Dan. 

When I first met Adam I thought he was a "surfer dude" mostly because he laughed a lot and was very chill about things.  When the clock hit 6am, he turned into Coach Adam and you could tell he took himself very seriously when it came to giving us direction, suggestions, and instructions.  

As time went on and I got to know him more and more, the more I came to love him as a friend and respect him greatly as my coach.  He knew when to push me during WODs, test my limits with weights, all while keeping my safety in mind. Even when I questioned his madness, it turned out that he was always right.  (Boy do I hate that).

Adam had basically coached me from the early months that I started at CFC, while I was pregnant, and then helped me get back to where I wanted to be post pregnancy.  So he's seen me at all stages of my fitness journey which is pretty cool.  

When Adam told our beloved 6am class that he was leaving, it was clear on his face he wasn't prepared for the emotion that announcement was going to cause. I started crying immediately.  Not an ugly cry, but an "Adam, your breaking my heart cry."  But as I've gone through this before with Molly (Molly Leaves 610)  and I needed to stop being selfish and be happy for him.  

The one nice thing that Adam did for us was give us tons of notice of when his last day at CFC would be.  And honestly, his last class was one of the WODs I will never forget.  Adam appropriately named it "A WOD to Remember" and forced us to do all the movements to a play list of sad sappy songs about people leaving/dying.  (BTW every time I hear See You Again by Wiz Khalifa I think of you Adam).  

Post WOD we had the best CrossFit photo shoot of all time (Including a 10 person human pyramid!):

The O'Donnell's couldn't let Adam leave without a proper good bye celebration so we offered our house up for a Adios Adam party consisting of CFC friends, lots of food, South Riding fireworks display and of course the slide show (that I may or may not of have been forced into doing as per request of Adam).

Adam, I cannot thank you enough for the training/encouragement you've given to me and to Dennis.  We will continue to apply all that you have taught us in the future and we wish nothing but the best for you in your future endeavors!  

50 Miles of Philly Fun

With our 2nd 100 Mile Bike Ride coming up in October, long bike rides have become a priority for us on the weekends.  Obviously thing's don't always work out that way, but this particular weekend, even though we had 2 social commitments, we were able to plan and execute a decent 50 mile ride.  

Normally we'd have to tow the kids with us (which is SO MUCH EFFORT) but when we travel to PA we also get babysitters (aka Grandparents)!  This is a mutual benefit!!

So with that all in mind, our friend Lynne and us decided to bike from Valley Forge Park to Philly and back, for what we hoped to be a 50 mile-ish ride. 

And so began our journey to the "City of Brotherly Love."

The ride started out really nice.  A bit warm, but nothing we weren't prepared for.  Lynne told me she was trying out her camelback for the ride, so I decided to dig mine out of the garage and gave it a go as well.  Verdict?  I loved it!  Way easier than a water bottle and I drank way more during the ride than I have in the past.  

The bike path was really great until we hit.....

Even though Manayunk is a "biker" town, it was extremely scary biking on these roads.  Dennis nearly got hit by a car, Lynne got stuck in car traffic, all while we were weaving in and out of lanes in order to follow the trail into Philly.  We all made it through ok, but we were not looking forward to that return part of the ride. 

Once we got out of Manayunk, things definitely start to improve bike path wise and we all felt much more comfortable. 

The 1st stop on the list was the Rocky Stairs.  This is a "must do" with your bike.  A few years ago I climbed the steps with my bike and took a killer pic with my bike over my head (Click Me and Scroll Down) and now being a Crossfitter, I wanted to OHS my bike on the stairs.  Mission Accomplished:

Jeeze Dennis, Could you Zoom out Any More?

   

 From there, we really didn't know where to go to get in a few miles so we decided to bike around aimlessly which proved to be way more frustrating than it was worth.  After the Rocky Stairs we went to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall for some quality photo opps.  

Biking the streets of Philly is WAY more fun than it sounds.  Highlights included seeing a grown / older man in an orange shirt trip on the side walk and fall (I wanted to stop to help but Dennis and Lynne assured me he was ok and his wife would take care of him), watched the slowest woman on the planet with 10,000 grocery bags get into a cab that was in front of us, using the "bike" lane that was also the "bus" lane, and getting passed by a horse and carriage because of all the traffic / red lights.  I thought DRIVING in the city was stressful, this took stressful to a whole new level.  

Once we got out of the city and back on the trail, we had one goal in mind, to get to the Manayunk Brewery.  Once there we were promptly greeted with dirty looks (because of our athletic attire) and the slowest waitress ever.  Besides those two things, the food and drinks were pretty delicious.

With only about 20 miles left to hit our 50 mile goal, we returned to the bike path and on we went back to Valley Forge Park.  We knew once there, we'd have to go about 2 miles down the path and then back 2 miles to our cars to get the full 50, and holy hell did those last 4 miles feel like eternity!  

During those "bonus" miles Lynne and I got up close and personal with nature as I ran over a dead chipmunk and almost came face to face with a deer hovering along side the trail.  Pretty sure that is one of my worst bike fears and I was glad not to see that deer on the path on the way back. 

We did hit our 50 miles, and it was a good time!  If this was any indication of how the 100 miles was going to be, boy are we in for a treat.  Also, we were very thirsty at the end of the ride.

All the liquiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiids

Lynne - Thanks again for joining us on our wild ride into Philly!  You were a good sport and we hope you had as much fun as we did.  Looking forward to the 100er and any other rides we do in between.  :)