So, got a new bike…

It’s a sweet ride and it folds, so I can potentially take it on the Metro during peak times if I need to. Only thing I really need to change is the tires. They’re off road tires and grab everything – so, basically, the moment I stop pedaling, I stop moving. The tires I have are 26 x 1.95 – if anyone knows of a good road tire of that size, please give me a holler…

I’m getting over a knee injury – been out of commission since October, but need to get back into rugby shape, so I’m going to (as much as possible) take the bike on the Metro (DC) in the mornings and ride home (Reston, VA) at night…

I rode from Reston to DC the other day. The W&OD trail at the Reston Metro Station to the Custis Trail. I was going to take the Custis Trail to the Mount Vernon Trail to the Bridge that takes you to the Jefferson Memorial (I think everyone calls it the 14th Street Bridge). But, somehow, I took a left (totally missing the rest of the Custis Trail) and ended up taking the Francis Scott Key Bridge to Georgetown, then down the waterfront (Rock Creek & Potomac Parkway) path to the Lincoln Memorial and back to Virginia, crossing the Arlington Memorial Bridge…

As I was going across the bridge I could see the trail that I had missed below me, but there was no way for me to get there from the side of the bridge I was on (I didn’t realize until I looked at it from my maps app when I got home that I could have gotten there had I been on the other side of the bridge). I tried riding around a bit to see if I could pick up another trail, but there was none to be had. As I was about to backtrack and suddenly, right next to the SeaBee’s Memorial, in a bush, there was an elevator with a sign saying “Arlington Metro”….

Sweet! As any good NOVA Resident would, I have my Metro Pass on me at all times. I totally took that bad boy all the way back to Reston. Funny thing is, everyone else had the same idea that day. When I got to the platform, there were at least 30 folks with bikes waiting to get aboard. From what they were telling me, the wind was just too strong that day and they didn’t want to ride against it all the way home…

I didn’t understand it until we got to Reston and I had to ride home. Yup, glad I did that – it would have taken me hours to get home riding against that wind…

Anyway, for my first long ride on my new bike – it was a good one. My knee felt great and my quads burned awesomely…