Keep it on the DL

So I'm a week behind, so I will write about both weekends here. First, Double Lake (DL) week. I got some great mileage on the bike that week: 1hr recovery ride on Monday and then a 2hr tempo session, both down on the Fruit Loop. Its been easy to distract myself by hooking up to pacelines and logging some quick miles that way. I feel really strong now. Can't wait to see how I match up in competition. Went to training only once that week because the other night was Valentines Day, and for once I actually had a date that night. Good times. Then came the weekend. Saturday, we decided to get our Red Bud Team together for some hill training. So Nick and Weihan the Warship met up with me at Double Lake. Jaunda decided last minute to join us. It was a nasty, cold weekend, so none of us were looking forward to it. We decided Double Lake because there was a HART training session going on later that day and I agreed to help Rick out.

We reluctantly suited up in the 30+ degree weather, with wind gusts in the 20s and drizzle. We decide to take a loop in Coldspring: 2025 to 150 to 156 to 224 back to 156 to 224, etc. It is mostly rolling hills on 224, similar to the Red Bud course, so it was really good training. But the weather made it a lot tougher. At a point it actually felt like it might snow! After a couple of loops, we decided to call it, especially since the training session at DL was about to start. So we got back, all beaten and worn down by the weather. I was ready to help out, but all Rick had me do was watch for the racers at one turn off during a run leg...that was it. Then he sent me home. I was a little disappointed because that was the whole reason we moved our training session to that location...but then again, we discovered that good training loop, so I wasnt too sad about it. Since I still had time during the day, I decided to drive back into town and over to Memorial and do a short run. I did the jogging loop and my knee didnt act up. So I was happy about that--it looks to be on the road to recovery.

Next week was much of the same. Went to HART on Monday and Wednesday, doing some running. Good signs. 2hr tempo work on Wednesday. All throughout the past two weeks I have been continuing my Total Immersion swimming lessons. I am now doing zipperswitches, which is just about almost to full freestyle swimming. It is weird at first, but then the motion actually flows really well! I can't wait to tie it all together and see how I do. Saturday I was supposed to go to Muleshoe to do some recon for Eco Lonestar, but Ross called me early that day warning me it was pretty muddy from the rains. So I stayed in town. I actually tried to paddle on Buffalo Bayou but the trail riders were in town and they had blocked off most of Memorial Blvd, so I couldn't get to any of the put in points. So it became a lazy day at the house, which was nice for a change.

As a form of punishment, I went to Jester on Sunday to see if my new set of compact cranks would help me up the hill...the Warship foolishly accompanied me. We had an ambitious plan to do Jester a few times and then do a 40mi loop in the area. Boy, that didnt happen. Without Nick to insanely push us along, we only did Jester a couple of times and bailed on the hilly route on 2222/360/71/620. I was content that the compact cranks worked, so I didn't feel like pushing it and the Warship oddly agreed with me. So we spent the rest of the day touring Austin's bike shops and hit 6th street for food. But on our way back from Austin, guilt set in and we decided to do a short ride in Brookshire. I knew a 30mi route by heart out of there, so we did that. It was actually a pretty good tempo ride--we had a headwind, but still pushed really hard and kept it around 20mph. Then heading back we were around 22-23mph for the most part. Feeling good about ourselves, we went home.

The best news of the past week is that our team Gander Mountain/HART is now #1 in the nation! I'm so stoked about that!