Benefits of Biking

I saw this on A Cup of Jo and just had to re-post since it was so cute!


Also, on a completely unrelated note, today is my sister Amy's birthday! Happy Birthday Amy!!!

New Shoes

My mom was in town for the past few days, and when I took her on a bike ride on Monday night, she was appalled that I was wearing sandals. Although I had zero problems with my choice of footwear while on the bike ride, she decided the next night that I needed to get a new pair of running shoes. The boyfriend came and met us at Pacers in Clarendon, and the sales person who helped us was super helpful. First he asked me a bunch of questions about what activities I would be doing with the shoes, and how often. Then he had me get on a treadmill and run for about 2 minutes. While I was running, they taped my feet running, and then we watched the video afterwards. I wish I had pictures of what my feet looked like while running, but when my feet hit the ground, my ankles turned inwards, quite significantly. The salesperson said I needed "stabilizing" shoes which would help my feet land flat on the ground instead of turning in. I tried on a pair of these and hit the treadmill again. He played the 2 videos side by side and you could immediately see a drastic difference! I took home these Asics Duomax shoes and hope that I can feel a difference next time I'm on a run (or a bike ride).

Weekend Recap - Sporty Edition 2

My bike!

This weekend was full of sunshine, bike riding, and soccer. Friday night the boyfriend and I laid-low since I had an early soccer game Saturday morning. My Sunday team was in the Semi-Finals (hence the Saturday game instead of the usual Sunday game) and we ended up loosing 2-1. After the game we decided to get some brunch at Steak and Eggs, since I had a Groupon from there. Then we decided to hit up a tennis store I had also bought a Groupon for. They had to special order me a racquet so I have to go back and make sure I like it. We also hit up the hardware store and I bought a kickstand for my bike, that the boyfriend was kind enough to put on for me. Then we were passing by a farmers market and my front tire was low on air, so we decided to stop off at the free bike clinic and this ended up being the best stop. They filled my front tire with air and gave my whole bike a look over - telling me I needed a new front tire and a new chain soon, before it damaged other parts of my bike. They did this all for FREE and even fixed a few minor things on my bike as well. I could feel a huge difference in the bike after we left the clinic. Well, after a whole day of bike riding (did I mention that we rode our bikes to all of these stops) and sunshine - we were quite tired. We were supposed to meet up with some friends but were too tired to go out, so we ended up just staying in.

Sunday also started off early with the boyfriend and I meeting up with my co-worker B for an Eastern Market trip. B is sort of new to the area and she had never been to Eastern Market before so it was so much fun showing her the market. She LOVED it and we will definitely be back again. Sunday ended with me watching the boyfriends soccer game, which he scored the team's only goal at (they tied 1-1). However, he got quite dinged up at the game and was limping around today. The poor thing, it was breaking my heart to see him hurt like that.

Today's Monday again, but only 4 more days of work and then I'm off to the beach for the long weekend, which cannot come soon enough!

Bike Collecting

Last year for my birthday, my boyfriend bought me a bike. A vintage cruiser bike with fenders and a rack:


At the time, he had a vintage road bike:


But after seeing me on my cruiser, he decided he wanted on too:


Then, I decided I wanted a road bike, so I bought a Terry bike:


Finally, the boyfriend decided he wanted to build a fixed gear bike (and yes, he really did build this thing from scratch):


Wonder how long until I decide I want a fixed gear...

While we're walking down memory lane, a year ago today I was at my 1st week at my last job (which I ended up hating) and am so thankful that I now have my current job (that I plan on staying at for a long time). 3 years ago today, I was prepping for my move from Cleveland to DC. Taking a huge gamble on quitting my 1st job out of college to move to DC only knowing 2 people, and moving here with no job lined up. 3 years later, it's all worked out wonderfully - after bopping around a bit, I have an awesome job that I love, a wonderful boyfriend I would have never met if I hadn't moved (or would we...), an awesome group of friends, and of course 3 amazing roommates. Wonder where I'll be 3 years from today?