With the warm temps that rolled in last week, on Saturday morning Jen and I decided to skip the 2 1/2 hour spin on the trainer and took the road bikes out for a spin across the Woodrow Wilson bridge and into Maryland. This was our first experience riding across the bridge and thanks to garmin connect we found a decent 30 mile route through the Oxon Hill neighborhood of PG County. I did get the sense the locals are not used to seeing a couple of road bikers when we were asked at a stoplight if we were lost. We will definitely do this loop again but probably better if done early in the morning to avoid some of the traffic.
After the ride and a quick sandwich from our favorite deli in Del Ray we met our dog trainer Sandy at the dog park for a training session with Islay. (It seems like someone in the house is always in training for something). This was the first time we did a session outdoors and Islay impressed us as usual. She mastered "come" and did an excellent job with the "join ups", all due to the power of cheese. The best thing about the training was the girl was tired after all of that play time which meant Jen and I could focus on date night.
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| My beautiful date and I waiting for our train |
Since Jen and I have been going steady, we usually try and reserve a night of the week as "date night" if our schedules allow. It can be as simple as sitting in front of the fire enjoying music and a cocktail or as in the case of Saturday night it was dressing up for dinner at a fancy new restaurant in DC. Jen made us reservations at a place called the Irongate in downtown DC. The restaurant is actually the re-opening of the oldest restaurant in DC and the owners did a great job with the place. We arrived early so our first stop was at the bar to enjoy a craft cocktail, I chose the Hang on St Christopher made up of rye, averna, and maraschino liqueur while Jen tried the Andiamo made up of genever, benedictine, dolin blanc, and bitters. Jen and I both like to try new things so we ordered two drinks that we each wanted to try and in a rare turn of events I actually enjoyed mine more than the drink Jen ordered. With the cocktail portion of date night in the books we transitioned into the beautiful old dining room, filled with the scent of the woodburning fireplace. We went with the four course tasting and wine pairing with no thought whatsoever of the 14 mile run on our plate the next day. Our meal was excellent with the highlights being the squash tortelloni and alysian farm lamb. (The wine pairing were not too shabby either, especially the Greek red that came with the lamb, good thing we asked our waitress to write down the names of all the wines). Dinner portion of the evening over, transition into the trip home and the metro gods were smiling on us as we caught the yellow line home just as it was pulling into the station. Time to rest up and get ready for the big run in the morning.
We were both feeling a little dusty when we woke up on Sunday and the weather was not looking ideal. I think we were both regretting not getting the run done on Saturday but like I told Jen, it could be raining on race day, just need to deal with it. We waited for a break in the rain and heading out for the W&OD and our 14 mile run. Coach gave us a twist to this workout, with the last four miles of the run getting progressively faster. The first five miles of the run seemed to drag for me and I was feeling the effects of dehydration. Good thing for both of us there was a bathroom at mile 7 to refuel the water and show solidarity with Islay. Jen and I were feeling recharged and set the course for home and the weather continuted to cooperate with us. We hit mile 10 and picked up the pace, just three miles to go and must get faster. Mile 11, had to hold back a bit but feeling good. Now we now this is in the bag, just two miles from home and we are cruising after mile 13 and getting faster. One more mile through our hood, my mind focused on that burger and tots we planned to treat ourselves with later in the day. Jen and I finished the last mile in a sub 9 minute pace, tired legs but happy to get it done. Really proud of Jen today and how strong she ran especially on the heels of a "Telluridesque" date night.
Finished the day with a burger and fries (tots were sold out, really the only thing that went wrong all weekend) at Del Ray Pizzeria along with a powerful imperial stout from Laughing Dog Brewery called the Dogfather weighing in at 11% alcohol, the perfect recovery brew. One more stop for Peppermint Stick custard at the Dairy Godmother and fortnately for us they were serving chocolate pudding cake, there is no way you can turn down that stuff no matter how full you are feeling, besides, we ran 14 miles today.
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| Merry Christmas from the heart of Del Ray |
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