Open Water Swim

This morning Katie and I drove over to Pflugerville Lake to check out the situation with open water swimming.  Access to the lake is free and they have buoys set in the water.  There's really no fast way to get over there from North Austin, but its only about a 20 mile drive, so its slightly closer than driving up to Georgetown Lake.  And an added bonus is there's no boat traffic, so the water is a bit calmer than up in Georgetown.

We parked and walked over to the beach area and dropped out stuff off.  The swim out to the area with the buoys was pretty weedy, but once you swim past that, the water is pretty clear of debris.  I'm not sure what the distance is around the buoys, but you can pretty much swim it all day if you want.  There was only one other person swimming out there and she left shortly after we arrived.

If anyone in the Austin area is looking for a good place to do an OWS, I highly recommend heading out there and checking it out.  There's also a 3 mile jogging trail on crushed gravel, but there doesn't appear to be any shade out there.  Tip: take a bottle of water to rinse off your feet after you get off the beach area, as there didn't appear to be any sort of faucet, shower, or anything to rinse off.

Another Long Run

Katie and I logged another long run tonight training for El Scorcho.  We hit 3 hours and 15 minutes tonight at LSD pace.  It was my first time to run the entire 10 mile loop at Town Lake.  Other than the short stint on Riverside Drive, its a nice loop that  I'm sure we'll get very use to during marathon training season.  After completing a loop (with a few detours), we came home and finished off the run with the hilly 5 mile loop and some time on crushed gravel.  It was over 90 degrees for most of the run, which resulted in a lot of fluid loss, but  I felt like I did a pretty good job of hydrating.

We've got one more really long run and a few "medium" distance runs, but El Scorcho is getting close.

Bull Creek Greenbelt

I decided to explore the Bull Greek Greenbelt trails for a decent chunk of mileage tonight.  I did 90 minutes on the trails, Katie did slightly less.  I seem to be getting use to the heat.  I can't run fast, but I'm getting my endurance up in the heat.  Bull Creek is only about 6 miles from the house, so I'm sure I'll be using these trails quite a bit as training kicks up in the near future.

I'm loving the multitude of trails I can get into around Austin.  I'm hoping the trail running will pay off come race day.  Just over 3 weeks until El Scorcho and then the real training begins!

No Sleep 'Til....Austin?

For the past three years, I've joined Coach Cane and City Coach for the Annual No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn Century Ride on June 21st (Summer Solstice).  The ride starts at 7 pm in Prospect Park and consists of 30 laps of the park, resulting in 102 miles.  Every year, I've both loved and hated the ride.

Being in Texas, I knew I needed to challenge myself to a solstice ride.  While helping Katie get more comfortable on her bike at the Veloway, I realized it was the best case substitute with the loop being 3.1 miles.  I couldn't start at 7 pm b/c the veloway closes at dark, so I figured I'd start at sunrise.  I got up at 5 am, loaded the car, and headed down to the Veloway.  I started riding at 6:29 am, which was listed as the sunrise for the longest day of the year.  My original plan was to not only ride a century, but to set a new distance PR for myself.  However as the morning wore on, the heat, humidity, and wind really took a toll on me.  I struggled to finish the ride, but I stuck it out and did 33 laps to log 102.3 miles.  Riding solo definitely made things more difficult, but I did my best to carry on the City Coach tradition.

Katie also challenged herself today.  She's still working on her cycling strength and feeling more comfortable on the bike, but she logged a metric century and set a new distance PR for herself by 42 miles!

Long Run

Katie and I were a bit lazy over the weekend, so the long run got pushed to tonight.  We went out for a 2 hour and 45 minute run at an LSD pace.  We started at night to try to simulate El Scorcho a bit.  I felt pretty good and felt like I was getting stronger as the run went on.  I wanted to go ahead and run an extra 15 minutes to make it a 3 hour run, but decided to play it safe and quit at 2:45.

Earlier today, we also went to the pool and I knocked out 30 minutes in the pool.

5K River Relay

Hardware! 

Katie and I drove up to Georgetown and participated in the Georgetown Running Club's 5K River Relay.  It was only a 1.55 mile run for each of us.  It was 100 degrees when the gun went off and the run was on a crushed gravel surface, so our times weren't blazing.  However, it was good enough for 2nd Place in the "mixed" category.  Katie ran the first leg and had us securely in 2nd  place in our division.  About a 1/4 mile in, I passed the first place team to put us in the lead, but about halfway through my leg another runner blew by me.   I tried to keep him within reach to try to close strong, but I just didn't have it.

We're still both pretty happy with making our way onto the podium in our first races in Austin.

Changes

I'm settling in to a new life and training in Austin.  Finding new running routes, new rides, helping Katie feel comfortable on a bike, and dealing with stifling heat.  Oh, and recovering from IMTX (which I still owe a race report for).  As I try to digest all the new things, I'm trying not to forget that in about a month, I have my next race--El Scorcho 50K.

I miss my team, my training buddies, and resources from NYC, but I'm excited about new opportunities in Austin.