Coffeeneuring 2020

 This post will be updated as my coffeeneuring continues ... 

So, a local cycling blogger hosts an annual challenge called "coffeeneuring". It's not an extreme challenge, like riding a century or running a marathon. Rather, it's a lighthearted way to get people out on their bikes and, in better times, socializing. The basic notion (cribbed from the event web site) is:

• over the course of 7’ish weeks,
• ride your bike to 7 different places,
• at least 2 miles round trip each time,
• drink 7 cups of coffee (or similar), and
• take 7 pictures (or other documentation) as proof of your coffeeneuring.

Most importantly, there are trinkets! People who complete the challenge can get a patch! There was also a chance to order socks, but I didn't notice it until two weeks after the deadline had passed.

Here are my coffeeneuring rides:

Week 1: 10/10 - 10/16

Ride #1:

Date: 10/13/20

Destination: Tysons Corner Walmart, in an attempt to buy 1 lb. gas cylinders for my tabletop patio heater. Oh, yeah - I shouldn't forget to mention that I dropped off my ballot for the presidential election along the way - fingers crossed! I got my beverage at the Dunkin' Donuts across the street, at 1495 Cornerside Blvd., Vienna, VA

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4191325409

Mileage: 18.6

Beverage: Dunkin' Donuts decaf iced coffee. Okay, this isn't a properly hoity-toity coffeeneuring beverage, but it was a surprisingly warm day, and I had forgotten to bring water. The iced coffee was the only decaf they had (I've generally avoided caffeine since briefly being dead back in 2017).

Ride #2:

Date: 10/15/20

Destination: Thursday coffee club. This used to be known as WTFCC, for "Whole (the) Foods Coffee Club". Due to pandemic consideration it no longer meets at Whole Foods. Instead, it meets where there's a group of Adirondack chairs outside an office park in Crystal City. So I don't know what the location is called. I used to go to coffee clubs pretty regularly, but when I'm not commuting anywhere it's a lot harder to convince myself to get out the door at 6:30 AM. Outside of 201 12th St. S, Arlington, VA.

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4198064239

Mileage: 18.8

Beverage: Drip coffee (decaf, of course, since I've generally avoided caffeine since pieces of my heart were replaced with aftermarket parts in 2017).

Week 2: 10/17 - 10/23 

Ride #3:

Destination: Mom & Pop at Mosaic District, Merrifield. 2909 District Ave., Fairfax, VA. I went there to meet my friend and former co-worker Sharlene. As hard as it is to believe, we've known each other for 27 years. For 24 of those years we worked for the same company (though not always in the same organization). She's still there! 

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4234324188

Mileage: 13

Beverage: Decaf skim latte (decaf because I've generally avoided caffeine since the day my doctor, having finally gotten around to taken a second look at my test results, called me up and said, "you should avoid any strenuous exercise and go see a cardiologist as soon as possible." That made for a great story over dinner on Friday, and hospitalization the following Monday).

Week 3: 10/24 - 10/30

Ride #4:

Destination: Cafe Amouri. 107 Church St NE, Vienna, VA 22180. I just needed a destination to head for on a short ride to get out and get moving after a fairly sedentary day. I had forgotten that Brad, a guitarist I play with, is the coffee roasting guy there, so I got a pleasant surprise of having a chance to say a quick "hi" to him.  

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4251549889

Mileage: 15.6

Beverage: Decaf skim latte (decaf because I've generally avoided caffeine since that time when the chest pains my doctor had long misdiagnosed as seasonal asthma turned out to be my coronary arteries doing their best impersonation of the Beltway at rush hour).

Week 4: 10/31 - 11/6

Ride #5:

Destination: Hump Day Coffee Club. Shirlington, Arlington, VA. In normal times, HDCC is my favorite of the daily BikeArlington morning coffee clubs. I love the Best Buns bran muffins and am willing to look the other way at the buttery stains they leave on their wrapper (my diet really shouldn't  include anything that leaves buttery or oily residue). I like the seating, both indoors and out, and I like that it's a little closer to home than the other coffee clubs and so doesn't require quite as early a departure. But these are not normal times. There is no seating at Best Buns at present, and so coffee club has moved to the breezeway next to Guapo's.  

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4284866231

Mileage: 10.4

Beverage: I learned that Best Buns has gotten a little more user-friendly about ordering since the last time I was there early in the pandemic and so I think I could go back to ordering from them. Still, right now they're not making the bran muffins (since the pandemic started they haven't been making any of their sourdough-based products, for whatever reason) and without bran muffin temptation it's easier to stay on the low fat wagon. I brought my own coffee and breakfast. Just plain old black coffee, and a container of overnight oats with dried blueberries and slivered almonds. The coffee is, of course, decaf (because I've generally avoided caffeine since that time I was way ahead of trend in spending time on a ventilator).

Week 5: 11/7 - 11/13

Ride #6:

Destination: Peet's Coffee, Shirlington. When you ride a loop, is the destination the same as the starting point, or is it the place you stopped to get coffee?

Does my coffeeneuring have to include an Arlington loop? Of course it does. I can access the loop from my house with just the littlest of pigtails and so it's a frequent ride for me. The last time I rode it I had forgotten to fill my water bottle and so I stopped at my old office in Rosslyn, where I knew there was water available in the bike room. Since my time they've apparently added a card reader to the door, but the old mechanical pushbutton lock is still there. It still opens the door, but if you open the door this way without badging in it sets off an incredibly loud alarm. Oops. I only wish the card reader had been there in the old days, when half the time the door wouldn't even latch. Once the alarm went off I quickly left the premises without taking the time to fill up my water bottle. 

This trip was much more uneventful. Nice weather for November, wound up sitting outside and having coffee at Peet's.

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4319754180

Mileage: 19.5

Beverage: I still order drinks as "skim", though Millennial baristas refer to it as "non-fat" (maybe it's their training rather than their age). In any case, large skim decaf latte and a Tosi snack bar, something I'd never tried before (thumbs up!). Decaf because ... well, I think you get it by now.

Ride #7:

Destination: Green Lizard Coffee/Bike Shop. Herndon, VA. Living nearly adjacent to the W&OD means I do a lot of riding there, and I know the destinations to achieve certain mileages pretty well. Thirty mile ride? That's Green Lizard. 40 mile round trip? Rt. 28. And so on. 

I sat at one of their (new, COVID era) outdoor picnic tables and got into a conversation with a fellow sitting at the other end of the table. It was one of those weird, only in Washington conversations that two people working in national security have - never mentioning anything specific or classified, of course, but using a sort of weird verbal pantomime to be able to talk about those worlds in a safe way. I would say with 90% certainty that I know what agency he works for and in what particular domain of spooky technology - though he said nothing beyond that he worked for the government.

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4332460979

Mileage: 31.7

Beverage: Genuine coffee. The stuff with caffeine. Because every once in a while I love the rush you get from consuming caffeine when you no longer have a baseline tolerance for it. I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs! Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs! Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy fun fun fun fun fun!

Week 6: 11/14 - 11/20

No rides. How'd that happen?

Week 7: 11/21 - 11/23

No rides. I had planned on doing a combined accordioneuring/coffeeneuring ride on the 23rd, but the weather turned out to be funky - cold and very windy. Oh well, some day I'll have to do an "Always Be Accordioneuring" ride.