May Day!

I almost forgot to recap my goals today! Good thing I was reading a few other blogs that reminded me. Happy May! I hope you left flowers at someone's door (or even better received flowers).

Refrain from using the snooze button- Success!

Run at least 6 races- No races in April, but I signed up for a Half Marathon in June and am debating a Warrior Dash in May.

Track what I eat & when I work out- Success! In light of the Biggest Loser Finale tonight, today's with today's weigh in I've dropped 12% of my body weight.

Knit something new- FAIL

Travel somewhere new- Sunday I ran to Roosevelt Island, not the Roosevelt Island I lived next to in NYC, but the wooded one in the middle of the Potomac. The island has a one mile hiking trail and a HUGE memorial. Parts of the island seem pretty secluded, another section is a long boardwalk, and then in the middle of the woods arises Teddy and his love for nature. The only way to get there is a footbridge from Virginia, but you can take the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge accessed near the Kennedy Center or do a little off roading like I did on my way over and take the Arlington Memorial Bridge and then run down to the Mount Vernon Trail. (My directions are if you are on foot or bike (bikes are not allowed on the island, but they do have a spot to lock them up) please do not try to off road with a car) I included the trail in my run, although some areas were not safe for running... so I did some bouldering and limb hoping. Then took a short break to check out ole Teddy. Pretty cool.

Be friendlier to strangers- Partial success. Balancing politeness and safety.

This and that

I haven't been doing anything super exciting lately so I'll just update you on the everyday things that have been making me happy.

Last Saturday I had another football game and made a one handed catch (sorry no pictures, going to have to trust me on this one).

Sunday was very rainy and cold. I played the morning smart, ran on the treadmill, read a lot of Grisham's new novel Calico Joe (nice easy read), did some laundry, and cleaning. But then I got antsy and it was Earth Day. I thought I should go do an Earth Day activity, so I decked myself in rain gear and headed out. Well I only got as far as H&M before wanting to head inside. While at H&M I bought a new top, bright enough that my coworkers can't misplace me. I went back home and arrived pretty wet and cold.

Super flattering desk shot... can you see my shirt????

The National Portrait Gallery is near my office and has a fantastic atrium. I took my Chipotle Veggie burrito bowl there to enjoy on Tuesday. 

Beautiful flowers complement burrito bowls perfectly

 Today I went with a few coworkers to enjoy lunch at another nice area- the Archives

Fountains!

This weekend is starting tomorrow with the arrival of my friend Matt. I downloaded a new app the other day... Phonto With the app you can easily add text to any picture. 

Easy + Fun= me making lots of things like this...

40 mile dust off ride

This morning I decided to enjoy the amazing DC weather with a bike ride. Since moving here in October my bike hadn't moved out of the corner of my studio apartment. I always get a little nervous biking with traffic, but really I was being silly, because DC has tons of bike lanes and I the last two years I had been biking in Queens where there were just suggestions of where you should bike. Anyway I had been getting pretty excited about the trails around the city and especially the idea that you could bike all the way to Mount Vernon.

I don't know if it was the sunshine or my lack of plans or the fact that I ran yesterday, but I woke up and geared up and pumped up my tires and headed out the door. The plan was to ride as far as I felt good riding. I packed two bottles of water, a banana, and a bag of craisins (clearly I need to go grocery shopping) and some things I didn't need, like a long sleeve shirt. 

The first part of the trip was pretty smooth, from my apartment down to the mall there are dedicated bike lanes. Across the mall and around the Thomas Jefferson memorial its with traffic on the street or traffic on the sidewalk. I had to ask a fellow cyclist how to get to the bridge, but from there on was smooth sailing.

Shortly after entering Virginia I reached the airport, and the cool park where you can be freaked out by planes landing right over your head (oh is the freaking out just me?). 

Cleared for landing... and for tanning

This is with no zoom.

The trail has lots of bridges some of made me worry a nail or splinter would give me a flat tire. Luckily nothing happened.

rickity-rickity-rickity

The trail went along the Potomac the entire way, but the terrain changed quite a bit. Marshland, woods, city, country...

Enjoying the marsh

The trail winds through Old Town Alexandria, the end next to the water, which I had never reached. Turns out it is quite lovely and I think it deserves a return visit.

River cruise

 After Old Town the path was a lot less busy, but there were several access points along the way so there were walkers and runners all the way. Most of the bike trails I've road in the past were old railroad tracks and therefore pretty flat and straight. The Mount Vernon trail is neither flat nor straight and the last mile to Mount Vernon is a tough uphill climb. I credit my weekly spin class to my ease of climbing the hills, but we'll see how my legs feel tomorrow on how much the spin classes replicate biking.

Proof that I made it

Better proof

The entire trek with several stops for food, water, and pictures took around 4.5 hours and I covered about 40 miles. Route below...

Recovery included a shower and pizza. If I can't get out of bed in the morning we'll know that a dust off ride shouldn't be 40 miles.

Cherry Blossom Parade

My new thing to do is sightsee while running. Women like to multitask. So today I had a football game at 1 (takes an hour to get to the field with warm up time) and the parade was from 10 to 12:30. I decided to work in a 4.5 mile run as well. I'm not a fan of crowds or rather my cost/benefit analyses always tilt towards the "its not worth it" side more vigorously than other people's. People kept warning me about the "Cherry Blossom CROWDS", but luckily I lived in NYC for four years and uh... where are the crowds? I didn't fight my way in to the middle of the parade route, but at 18th St. it was very pleasant. My pictures came out ok despite the fact that I couldn't see what I was taking due to the beautiful weather today.

Blossom Balloon

The guy in front (who blends in with the tree) is Nathan Pacheco a Disney recording artist (who?)

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen oh my! 

Miss Piggy... don't ask why? just enjoy her.

Gretchen montage

After Lindsey's wedding I dropped by my parents' for Easter. Hunting eggs isn't as exciting when you are 29 so I dedicated my energy to teaching my niece Gretchen how to find eggs.

I just learned from Hillary that this might be considered a  selfie.

Finding eggs came natural

Posing for the camera.. not so much

"Courtney, what are you doing?"

What is this egg doing here?

And the ultimate "I'm awesome" pose

Lindsey & Drew

Last Saturday I attended my friend Lindsey's wedding in Columbia, Missouri. Not only did I get to celebrate with them, I also had another dream come true... staying at the Stoney Creek Inn. My sophomore year of college I lived across the street from this Inn and remember thinking how fancy it was and how all the rich alumni stayed there, and how I would never stay there. Well guess what? I made it.

Me and the SC Moose

Wedding program (my dress matched!)

Loved the colors, loved her dress

Just Married Pedicab!

I suppose I then commenced eating and dancing and have no photo documentation. However the wedding photographer was up in my dancing grill a lot so there might be some gems in the upcoming weeks.

The end of my favorite month!

March is my favorite month for a few reasons. My birthday is in March, the days get significantly longer, the weather gets significantly warmer, and I love all of the flowers blooming everywhere. March seemed to fly by this year.

Birthday dinner cheese plate

More birthday tulips at the Botanical Garden

The Capital in full spring glory

1. Refrain from using the snooze button- Again no snoozing, but twice I reset the alarm to skip my workout... Allergies hit me hard the week of peak cherry blossom bloom.
2. Run at least 6 races- Two down. I ran the St. Patrick's Day 8K in March.
3. Track what I eat and when I work out-  I've gotten a little more lax on tracking what I eat on special occasions, but mostly I've been good.
4. Knit something new-  Spent one lunch break teaching some coworkers how to cast on... this one might need the most work.
5. Travel somewhere new- Does the 9:30 Club count? On Saturday I ran a stretch of Rock Creek Park trail that I hadn't seen before. Running along the river and next to the Kennedy Center just made me smile.
6. Be friendlier to strangers- Still working on this one, no big failures or successes.