Journey to IM Tahoe Weeks 10 – 11 - 12

I travelled to Austin, Texas for Valentine's weekend for two reasons – First, to do Cupid's Undie Run – the fundraiser for the Children's Tumor Foundation – and second, to do the Austin half-marathon. As a bonus, my coach Brian lives in Austin, and I was able to stay with him and get in some additional training while there!

Since my last post, I've been much better about the swimming. The highlight for this was absolutely swimming at Barton Springs in Austin – an open water "pool" where a natural spring has been dammed up and set up as a park. It was free, and a wee bit breezy, but a great place to get in 2000 meters of swimming on the Friday before Sunday's race.

[Pic of Chris and Brian here]

On Saturday, Valentine's Day, I went down to the Rattle Inn, where the Run took place. Took. Yes, sadly, THIS year Austin's undie run was on February 7^th, and I missed that when I was doing my planning. But since my friends and family contributed almost $750 for me to run, I felt like I should go ahead and do it. Running with 500 other people in your underwear is one thing. Running by yourself is another thing! But although I got some strange looks, Austin is a pretty weird place and everyone was cool.

[Videos of CUR group and Solo]

On Sunday, Brian and I went downtown for the race – it was a brisk 40 degrees, on its way up to the mid 50s – pretty good weather for a running race for me, I don't like the heat! Brian's training regimen wasn't really where he wanted it to be, and per my last report I hadn't been doing enough long runs to really go hard for this, so we both agreed to take it easy and make it a long training day. That meant running 9 minute miles – very hard for Brian, who usually runs 7 minute miles! But we took it slow, enjoyed the day, and read the funny signs held by spectators along the route.

"A long way to go for a free banana!"

"Admit it, you thought they said Rum,"

 

"If this was easy, it would be your Mom!"

 

We finished just over 2 hours – my left calf started to bug me at mile 12, so we didn't even bring it in too hard at the end – pretty much according to plan. Good times.

Coming back, I took some time to recover, and now am back to getting on the bike, running, and hitting the pool. I haven't made it back to bootcamp lately, but I am planning on in this Saturday!