My Morning Commute
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@TwoWheelsDC 121314 wrote:
I rode northbound over Powhatan this morning thinking the paving would be done. Southbound side is great, but the northbound lanes are particularly rough and uneven milled pavement, basically from the Arlington-Fairfax line to Kirby. Guess I’ll wait a while before doing that again.
But Freedom is finished – it is so much fun now!
https://www.strava.com/segments/7681644?filter=overall&gender=both
Well, I finally made my move from the Buckingham neighborhood of Arlington to the Mark Center area of Alexandria this weekend, so I am now officially a resident of Alexandria.
Which also means my commute went from 0.7 miles (yes, that’s a 0 in front) to about 5.5-6 miles depending on the route. I’m testing out a couple of different routes this week, so I’ll update as I find better/worse qualities about each.
Today’s route: from my apartment complex, I climbed the Beauregard hill from Roanoke towards Seminary which was steeper than I expected (read: lots of huffing and puffing). Once I got to the top, after being blinded by that big flaming ball in the sky things were mostly okay save for a bit of nervousness at the fact that I had to maneuver into the straight lane at Beauregard/Seminary which has 2 right turn lanes (one is a slip lane). After that, it was a nice downhill as the road became Walter Reed which I used to access the W&OD before using Park Dr to get through Arlington Forest and eventually into Ballston. All in all, a pretty nice commute which was tough at the beginning. I was prepared having left a set of work clothes at my office and changed in the bathroom handicap stall. Not too shabby for a first “actual” commute
…as I think I’m having withdrawals for having lived in Arlington so long, I’m already working out a route for an “Alexandria Loop.”
@bobco85 121394 wrote:
Well, I finally made my move from the Buckingham neighborhood of Arlington to the Mark Center area of Alexandria this weekend, so I am now officially a resident of Alexandria.
Which also means my commute went from 0.7 miles (yes, that’s a 0 in front) to about 5.5-6 miles depending on the route. I’m testing out a couple of different routes this week, so I’ll update as I find better/worse qualities about each.
Today’s route: from my apartment complex, I climbed the Beauregard hill from Roanoke towards Seminary which was steeper than I expected (read: lots of huffing and puffing). Once I got to the top, after being blinded by that big flaming ball in the sky things were mostly okay save for a bit of nervousness at the fact that I had to maneuver into the straight lane at Beauregard/Seminary which has 2 right turn lanes (one is a slip lane). After that, it was a nice downhill as the road became Walter Reed which I used to access the W&OD before using Park Dr to get through Arlington Forest and eventually into Ballston. All in all, a pretty nice commute which was tough at the beginning. I was prepared having left a set of work clothes at my office and changed in the bathroom handicap stall. Not too shabby for a first “actual” commute
…as I think I’m having withdrawals for having lived in Arlington so long, I’m already working out a route for an “Alexandria Loop.”
Welcome to Alexandria!
While not as nice or well marked as the Arlington Loop, there is the Alexandria Heritage Trail http://www.alexandriava.gov/HeritageTrail
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Rode the road bike in today (the pretty-pretty-princess trek pilot). It’s one of the first days in a long time that had a low chance of rain, AND I didn’t need to haul my super heavy govt laptop around.
Although I felt super fast on the bike, it ended up only being ~2 min quicker than my normal time on the commuter this year. That’s not a really big difference on a 35 min commute. I think regardless of how fast I WANT to go, the busy trail plus stoplights means there’s a limit on my speed. My weekend rides average must faster, even when I’m on the pretty princess bike instead of the carbon one.
Regardless, I like riding the road bike in sometimes, and I’m happy that even with the nicer road bike for my weekend rides, I can still find uses for the trek
@CaseyKane50 121397 wrote:
Welcome to Alexandria!
While not as nice or well marked as the Arlington Loop, there is the Alexandria Heritage Trail http://www.alexandriava.gov/HeritageTrail
This is great! I’ve got ideas for a route (it uses much of the Alexandria Heritage Trail) and will post them on a new thread later this week.
@Rockford10 121406 wrote:
Team DRock did this route after the Port City Brewing ride over the winter. It was nice, but many hours after breakfast, the beer, lack of a promised food truck and a wrong turn, I was on empty climbing that hill. *shudder*
That hill kills me, but I think it might be more due to the fact that its so close to my apartment that I haven’t warmed up enough to tackle something difficult when I hit it. For now, the huffing and puffing will continue
I had completely different experiences for new commutes #2 and #3 (Tuesday and today, respectively).
Tuesday, Day #2
Waking up, I felt like death because the combination of less sleep, waking up an hour earlier, and general state of chaos in my apartment from the move. I took Sanger onto southbound Beauregard then onto Holmes Run Trail where I climbed up Fillmore very slowly due to feeling so sluggish. I made my way to Seminary and followed that onto George Mason Dr. Traffic was fine, but as I neared Wakefield HS, the construction (repaving) had changed the surface to a milled and bumpy mess for the big downhill towards 4MR (dodging lots of sewer hole mounds, happy I was on my hybrid and not my road bike). I then took the W&OD again to Park Dr and Carlin Springs. While the route was okay, I will wait until the repaving is complete before riding it again.
Wednesday, Day #3
What a difference a good night’s sleep makes! I was fresh this morning and ready for my commute. I again took Sanger to Beauregard to Holmes Run Trail and did the climb on Fillmore, but this time I turned onto Chambliss which becomes Lacy Blvd and has a big downhill to a stop sign (boo to total loss of momentum) to an immediate big climb. Two successive hill climbs plus the humidity meant that I had a nice amount of sweat on me by then. Crossing Columbia Pike, I took Washington Dr to get to the Route 7 sidewalk and crossed using Glen Carlyn Dr. Turning onto Manchester, I passed my parents’ house (and to think, I woke up earlier than my parents for once!) and headed into Bluemont Park to take the Bluemont Junction Trail. After that, it was a short ride on Wilson Blvd and the sidewalk on the east side of Glebe Rd before I had arrived at work in quite a good mood
Well, 3 morning commutes from my new apartment, and I like all of them! All 3 commutes were very similar in stats (according to Strava): 28-34 minutes, 5.6-5.8 miles long, 324-380 feet of climbing, 2 major climbs, and around 300 calories burned. I like to have the variety, and will try other routes in the future, but for now, I like my commute
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