Damascus, Virginia

I am not sure how I found out about this place originally but at some point I bookmarked the Creeper Trail.   A few weeks ago I was thinking about whether we would stay home for Memorial Day weekend or take a trip.  That is when I came across the Creeper Trail bookmark & knew we would be taking a trip this year.   I spent a couple hours looking at lodging options & settled on the Old Mill Inn.

We arrived at the Old Mill mid-afternoon on Friday.  We checked in & then headed out to see what the bike rental options were.  We hit 3 bike shops & they were all a little different.  We settled on the 3rd bike shop because they allowed all day rentals for less & the first shuttle to Green Cove left at 8AM.

Once we booked our bikes for Sunday morning we headed to start the eating part of vacation.   Our first stop was the bar at the Old Mill Inn.  I was thrilled to see they had Fat Tire on tap.  We ordered Fried Green Tomatoes to snack on before dinner.   We then went to Blue Blaze Cafe to try their pizza.  We split a deluxe pizza & tried one of the local beers - Wolf Hills Brewery Creeper Trail Ale.  So far no disappointments in the food & beverage category.

Saturday we spent a good portion of the day hiking the Appalachian Trail.  From the Inn you could hike through town to the AT & to the VA/TN state line.  The weather was perfect for hiking.  There was a pretty good climb out of Damascus that got us warmed up.  We saw a handfull of hikers but for most of the hike it was just us.  Total roundtrip was about 8 miles.

You can barely see the sign for the AT but the trail pops out of the woods between 2 houses in Damascus.
 

We walked to Tennessee!  

For lunch we tried MoJoe's which is next to where all the trails intersect.  It was so-so.  Which was surprising because it had one of the highest ratings on Trip Advisor.  Maybe we hit it on an off day.  The place & location was definitely cool but the food & coffee was mediocre at best.

Lots of rain before we arrived so the creeks were moving

AT Leaving Damascus

On the Creeper Trail in Damascus

After some showers we hung out on the back lawn of the Inn next to the creek.  Dinner was BBQ sandwiches & ice cream.

Sunday we were up early to catch the shuttle to begin our Creeper Trail ride.  The morning was cold!  I wore my winter cycling pants, arm warmers, tech shirt, cycling jacket & bike gloves & was still freezing.  Steve was even worse since he just had shorts & no long pants.  We left the bike shop about 8AM & arrived at Green Cove about 30 minutes later.

The Creeper Trail is an old rail bed converted to a mountain bike trail.  The trail is about 34 miles & it runs through absolutely beautiful country.  The first part of the ride - from Green Cove to Damascus is mostly downhill.  A super easy ride for 15 miles.  

There were a couple of guys that we rode up with on the shuttle.  We stopped off to take some photos & they were there as well.  One of the guys offered to take our photo.  He took a  bunch of photos & when he handed my phone back he said that those are wedding album worthy!  Kind of a funny / odd thing to say but we laughed.  Well when we stopped in Damascus for breakfast I looked through the pics he took.  I LMAO when I saw them - yep wedding album worthy!

After breakfast we decide to ride to Abingdon - another 15 miles or so one way.  We had the bikes all day so we were in no rush.  It took us about 2 hours to get there.  I thought we would be able to get lunch or something but apparently the Creeper Trail is a very minor attraction in Abington.  Nothing like Damascus where the town is sustained by the Creeper & Appalachian Trails.   We settled on a gatorade at the nearby bike shop & then started our journey back.

By this point our bums were getting sore & we were ready to get off the bikes.   With the exception of a potty stop we rode non-stop the rest of the way home.  We got the bikes back to the shop around 4PM.  

A cool thing about Damascus is we didn't need to use our car at all.  You can walk the entire town.  We will definitely go back to this cool little place.

Next time we will stay in one of the cabins down the road from the Inn we stayed at.  If you are into the outdoors I highly recommended this place!!!

FINALLY!

I have been on this journey for a few years now - since 2009 to be exact.  Over the past few years I have trained hard & have had subsequent setbacks.  The big setbacks were mono in Spring 2010 & that ridiculous piriformis injury in fall of 2011.

I have had a goal of a sub - 30 minute 5K for a couple of years now.  I was really close in the spring of 2011 but was focusing on my Olympic training.  Shortly after that race was when my muscle imbalances did me in.  2012 was spent slowly getting back into it after a heavy focus on cross training & swimming.

LexRunLadies!

I have been running really consistently since last summer.  After my 32m05s cross country 5K in the Heart & Sole triathlon I was curious if I was close to busting that 30 minute barrier in a stand alone 5K.  So last Sunday I decided to sign up for the Derby Stakes 5K.

Race morning was a near perfect day for a run. The temperature was in the upper 50's, partly cloudy but a fair bit of wind.  I figured I would see how I felt & give it my best shot.   I tried to run the first mile pretty conservatively.  When my Garmin clicked off the first mile it was a 9:44.  Not too shabby.  My second mile clicked off at 9:50.  At this point I started doing some math in my head.  I was starting to think a sub - 30 was possible because I was feeling pretty good.  When I got to the 3 mile mark I didn't bother looking at my watch - I just picked up the pace as much as I could.  I could hear the announcer calling out times in the 28'ish.  I really was thinking I could do it.  When I got to the last stretch I went into a full on sprint to the finish.

I finished with 3 other folks & the announcer called our names but not our times.  The clock said 30:07 when I crossed so I was thinking I nailed it since I started at least 20 seconds back & it was chipped timed.  Of course I forgot to stop my watch when I finished.  I walked for a few minutes & then found Steve.   I got my phone & saw I had a text from the timing company saying I finished in 30:08.  What?!  Was that gun time or chip time?  There were a bunch of others asking the same question.  The announcer told us he was calling off chip time but Steve told me they said that the awards were based on gun time.  I had no idea what to think.

Steve & I met up with a few of the 10K finishers & went watch the awards.  As we walked in they were finishing up the 5K awards.  I went to check to see if they had my times.  I was shocked to see I won 2nd in my age group with a gun time of 30m08s!  So there was still a chance my chip time was less than 30 minutes but I would have to wait until they posted the official results on the website.

We hung out to watch the 10K awards.  Quite a few of our West 6th runners won awards too.  I even won some frozen Glier's Goetta in the raffle.

West 6th Runners!

Love these shirts!

Very fitting awards for Derby day!

Nice donation to the One Fund

For some reason the carpet design really popped in the photo

And yes my chip time was under 30 minutes - 29m47s to be exact.   WOOP WOOP I finally busted through!  AG = 2 / 13

SBBC Week 7 & 8

SBBC was supposed to end last Sunday but Amanda, the host, didn't want to end the challenge on such a tragic week so she extended it an extra week.

Ever since I started the Boost plan I have had no problems hitting the minimum 7 freggies every day.  The green smoothie gets the morning started with 3 servings.  Never in my life did I think I would look forward to drinking green smoothies!

SBBC Week 7


This was also week 3 of the metabolic boost.

Monday - 80 minutes Cycling, 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Tuesday - 30 minutes Run, 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Wednesday - 1 hour Pilates, 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Thursday - 40 minute Swim + 30 minute Run, 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Friday -  64 oz water, 7 freggies
Saturday - 1 hour - 40 minute Sprint Triathlon, 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Sunday - 65 minute Walk, 64 oz water, 7 freggies

Week 7 Points = 54.5
SBBC Total Points = 289.8


SBBC Week 8

This week rolled into the burn portion of the plan.  Basically, the burn is continuing to eat clean which surprisingly has been very easy to maintain.

Monday - 40 minutes Swim, 65 minutes Cycling, 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Tuesday -  35 minute run, 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Wednesday - 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Thursday - 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Friday -  64 oz water, 7 freggies
Saturday - 64 oz water, 7 freggies
Sunday - 40 minute Run 64 oz water, 7 freggies

Week 8 Points = 31
SBBC Total Points = 320.8