Easter

Well the week after the XTerra I wasn't feeling too great but I guess it was good enough to overtrain. What I was thinking... I'm not too sure. Lot's of running, swimming, and hard biking. I got into a pretty good habit of getting up early to run and then getting my swimming and riding in after work. Doing all of this, however, was not conducive to getting rid of the sinus infection/cold, whatever the hell it was, or to getting enough rest. That being said, Friday I took an off day in preparation for a long ride on Saturday. The ride was good, I went and pushed myself a bit with the shop ride and then met up with Sonia, did some viaduct intervals and then hit up the parking garage for some 'hills'. Good times.

After 4.5 hours of riding I took the best nap ever then went and celebrated my friend Johanna's birthday. A bit of laser tag and watching some go-kart racing followed by good food and a couple beers make for a good Saturday.

Easter came around early. I made it to church, first time in Htown, and then hit up some breakfast with friends. Delicious!! The afternoon was finished off with some nice relaxing slacklining at Memorial Park. Very relaxing, great Easter.

The swimming is definitely getting better.

Piece #2

I was very unmotivated to ride today but I did. The weather is nice so the ride was good once I actually got out there. I was kind of just meandering around through the route I normally do and I did a couple of laps at Memorial. I was surprised because several cars actually gave me the right of way which is nice because typically they wait awkwardly and then I go and they go at the same time and they almost run me over. Some lady on a bike also told me I looked "profesh" so she let me by, I think she mistook me for someone fast. Other than the ride it's a pretty lazy day. Lauren is watching some stupid show about models or something on Lifetime, lame.

Yesterday was a good mountain bike ride and I discovered some crazy trails at Memorial, borderline unrideable but I tried anyways. Maybe it would be a good paydirt effort to get them into shape. While I was out riding Lauren chopped 9 inches of her hair off and she's gonna donate it to Locks of Love.

I'm not sure what else I was going to write, I while ago Lauren and I saw this snail crossing the sidewalk so I took a picture:

and we took a picture of the inside of Seu's mouth: and we volunteered at an animal rescue (Friends for life)and we ended up feeding ferrets, odd little animals:

Racing Report

Last weekend was a race at Stephen F. Austin state park and was the first race since I've been here from Wisconsin. I wasn't sure how the course was so I went out on Saturday to pre-ride and found out the course was pretty easy.

Sunday came around and Kathy and I had talked Lauren into racing. Early start but we made it with a little time to warm up. The start went out around a paved loop and then into the singletrack. I kept with the middle of the pack around the loop and then made a move to get into the front of the group right before the singletrack which was a good move since people behind me crashed and slowed everyone down. I was in the top five about two miles in and hanging on pretty easily. About a third of the way through the first lap (5 mile laps) I decided to go and was in the lead for the rest of the lap. At about the same point on the next lap two guys that were behind me just took off and I never saw them again. Stupid Cat 1 sandbaggers!!! I kept on though but I was hurtin' a little, some other Cat 2's had caught up so I was in about third and then fifth and then like 10th. I started recovering a little and then started passing some of the guys that had passed me and by race end I placed seventh. Not too bad, would have liked to place higher but I felt ok.

Tuesday I met up with a kid and rode Memorial Park. Forgetting the Yetti cross race on Wednesday I decided to push it and do intervals. It was a good workout and I got to scare some roadies and make them mad when I passed them "really close" according to them. Ha ha, there wasn't even contact.

Last night was the first Yetti cross race of the season. Running late, I spaced any money that would actually enter me into the race so I ended up just riding but at race effort. It was a hard effort after pushing it hard the night before but I didn't let up. 45 minutes is a long time to go hard, too. I started with the C's since I wasn't officially in the race and even though I wasn't contesting anyone I did end up lapping about a third to half of the C field. The barriers were certainly interesting, should probably do some work in that area, but it was still a sweet race. I definitely need to look into getting a 'cross bike (Lauren rolls eyes now) so if you have any connections or know someone selling a 54 cm let me know.

Crazy Afternoon

So this afternoon was pretty dang crazy. Firstly, on the drive home, I was super-close to being in an accident. There was a car in front of me and we were going about 65 and all of the sudden the car front tire blew and the driver decided to slam on the brakes. That's not what you are supposed to do when you blow a tire. But anyway I saw the car at the last second and swerved around them. As I was going around the front of the car it was about 6 inches from my car. Whew!! Then I realized how lucky I was there wasn't a car to my right when I swerved and I'm really glad I didn't rear end them.

After I got home and calmed down a bit Lauren and I went to Memorial Park for some mountain biking. Not know for sure what to think as I've gotten several reviews on a wide range from "don't waste your time" to "you probably won't be able to ride it your first time because it's so technical" I wasn't overly impressed nor severely disappointed. We also showed up and didn't really know where to go so we ended up riding the "Black" loop, the most technical trail. Lauren had previously told me she wouldn't ride that part but since she didn't know I made her.

Lauren also pulled out one of Seu's baby teeth. Sick!

I hope the Dirt Derby is going well. If you ride a bike and you are in Austin or the surrounding area you should definitely go check it out!