Camping with Lisa -- Round 2 -- at Buescher State Park

Well, I think I'm really enjoying this camping stuff. Lisa and I did our second camping excursion this year, this time at Buescher State Park in Smithville. We had planned to go to Pedernales Falls State Park, and had even paid for two nights (Friday and Saturday), but when Lisa got sick Thursday night, we decided to bag the Friday trip and just go on Saturday. Unfortunately, when we didn't make it on Friday, they gave away our reservation and we were screwed out of Saturday night, even though we'd already paid for it. Now we know better, I guess.

Anyhoo, it worked out for the best. Buescher was great, and we had a wonderful time. The picture above is Lisa and the boys at the trailhead for the hike we did on Sunday. More on that later. Also, you can read Lisa's take on it on her brand new blog located at www.lahatten.blogspot.com. She has a great take on it. Anyway, on to the rest of the story.

We arrived at Buescher at about 3:45 PM and immediately set up camp. I set up a "zip line" across the camp and attached the boys' leashes to it so they could follow us around the campsite. Lisa and I put up the tent and got all the pots and pans and things out and set up. After we had the campsite set up, I set about cleaning the drive train on my triathlon bike. I brought it along to do a ride/run brick on Sunday morning.

Our campsite was pretty cool. There were only about 15 or so other campsites and only about half of them were filled. A couple were filled up by a group of cyclists who had biked in with all their gear and then rolled out again the next morning around 9:30 AM. But, while they were still there, they made some pleasant conversation, and were very complimentary of my Guru bike. They really stroked my ego! It was fun!

As the sun started to go down, Lisa and I made dinner. Okay, Lisa did all the hard work. She had prepped some bratwursts and soaked some corn in beer. We also bought some potato salad (the warm kind) and some sauerkraut. Although we forgot the buns, we had a great dinner of boiled (then roasted) brats, kraut, potatos, and corn. We washed it down with some yummy Shiner Blonde beer. It was a feast fit for a king! I almost felt bad that the boys got nothing but run-of-the-mill dog food! Oh, it was heavenly!

At night fall, we roasted marshmallows in our fire and made s'mores. What a perfect dessert! After the fire burned down, we went to bed and chatted for a while before falling asleep.

I never seem to sleep well on the ground. AJ got me up at 1:30 to go pee. I took both boys out and they did their business (as did I). I slept fitfully again until about 6:30 AM when AJ got me up again. So, we went for a short walk (both boys and me). They did their business again and I brought them back and fed them. At about 7:15, I pulled on my bike stuff and went for a ride.

Lisa had been to Buescher before and told me there was an 11-mile road (Park Road 1-C) that connects Buescher and Bastrop State Parks. I decided a nice out-and-back would be perfect. So, I headed out after doing a warm-up lap around the park circle (about 1 to 1.5 miles). Let me just tell you that the road between the two parks is HILLY! It was generally uphill from Buescher to Bastrop and I didn't get much speed going. It was rather tough going! However, by the same token, on the ride back, it was speed town! I was pretty tired when it was done, but I wanted to do some running too, so I slipped on the shoes and did a lap around the Buescher Park circle. It was a good run.

After breakfast (Lisa made pancakes and bacon), we cleaned up the dishes and then loaded up the backpacks with water and a dog bowl and hit the trail for a hike with the boys. The rest of the pictures were taken on the hike.

Here's a picture of me pretending to be the Crocodile Hunter. As we were walking along this stretch of the trail, there were numerous warning signs for a gas pipeline. I'm pretending to be Steve Irwin sneaking up on a sign. Imagine me in my best Australian accent saying: "Crikey, here we have the elusive albino pipeline sign. You don't see many of them in these parts, mate." We had a good laugh about this one.


This is a nice photo Lisa took of some Indian Blanket flowers. There was a whole field of them along the open part of the trail. We thought they were pretty.

This is one of my favorite pictures. The boys LOVED this waterhole. AJ is so cute!! He actually plopped down in the water and refused to move for several minutes. Reese doesn't seem to take to water quite the same way, but he sure liked wading through this pool. You can't see it in this picture, but to the left is a larger pool back into the woods. The boys kept trying to get over to it, but we weren't supposed to go off the path, so we had to say no. Even with the 15' extendable leashes, the boys couldn't reach the big pool, so they made do with this one.


Here's a good picture of the open part of the trail. Reese and AJ loved running through the tall grass.




You should really check out Lisa's blog. We ran across a copperhead on the trail and Lisa got a good photo of it. Apparently, I almost stepped on it and never saw it until Lisa gasped as it slithered off the trail just behind me. When I did finally see it, it scared the heck out of me. Reese and I both almost stepped on it and neither of us saw it. It was a bit unnerving!

The rest of the hike (supposedly 7 miles long, but I doubt that!) was rather uneventful, and we got packed up and headed home in the late afternoon.

It was a really great time, and the boys were bushed after the long hike. We have GOT to make sure they get that kind of exercise more often. It's nice when they're too tired to get hyper!

Anyway, go check out Lisa's blog. You'll love it! She's so much better with these things than I am.

Back to the triathlon training later!

Training Week Ending April 28, 2007.

This week was another run-focused week. I did about 15 miles of running this week in preparation for adding in a "long run" day. I'm planning to add Sundays as my long run days and skipping a bike workout whenever I have a Sunday race. So, without further ado, here's a quick summary of my week's workouts:

Monday - 4/23:

Sadly, an unplanned off-day. I was kind of sore from my 7-mile run with Steve on Sunday. I had planned to bike, but work got in the way. It was just as well, though. I needed the break.

Tuesday - 4/24:

This was a run day. I got up early and drove down to Town Lake. I did two laps around the 5.5-mile stretch for an 11-mile run. I took it very slow and worked out a good bit of the residual soreness from Sunday's run.

Wednesday - 4/25:

This was a two workout day. At lunch, I went to a spin class at Pure Austin gym with my co-worker Shelley. I had planned to ride, but I just couldn't justify all the time it would take. The spin class was good enough to get my legs warmed up, and that's all I needed. I also got a 2-mile treadmill run in after the spin class.

In the evening, I had my swim group with Texas Iron. It was another good workout and remains my best swim training. All in all, we did approximately 2600 yards. I wasn't too exhausted afterward, either. That's always a good thing!

Thursday - 4/26:

Thursday was an unplanned off-day. Again, I intended to ride the bike, but just couldn't get out of work to go do it. I guess we'll call this a taper week!

Friday - 4/27:

Friday was a short run day. Lisa and I had planned to go camping Friday evening, so I planned a quick run. Unfortunately, Lisa was pretty sick Thursday night and we cancelled the camping Friday night. I got in only about 3-4 miles of running at lunch.

Saturday - 4/28:

I finally made it back to the ATC Taco Ride on Saturday. There was a pretty big group this time and it was a really great ride. I won't bore you with details, but suffice it to say that the pace was fast! I did the whole ride in about 1 1/2 hours, and that included a bit of a slacker recovery return trip with Jason. I averaged 21.5 mph for the ride and for the first time ever was the first person to pull into the Jack Brown's parking lot (the turn around). Don't get me wrong . . . there were about 12 guys ahead of me, but they went on for the 50-miler and didn't turn into the turnaround. Still, it was thrilling!

Saturday afternoon, Lisa and I packed up and headed out for camping. More on that in the next entry.

Training Week Ending April 21, 2007.

This was another NOT a run-focused week. In fact, I didn't do much running (or training) at all. I did manage to get in one run and one swim, but only three bike work outs before Saturday, which is the focus of this entry.

On Friday night, Steve flew into Houston for a law school class reunion. Lisa and I drove down that evening so we could see him and so that Steve and I could get in a training ride with Hao on Saturday morning. We got in around 9:30 PM and stayed with Steve at his hotel that night. The following morning, Steve and I got up and met Hao at Starbuck's and then cruised over to the ride. We were a bit late getting there, though, so I didn't have time to get all my stuff together before we rolled out. In fact, the group rolled out without me and I had to sprint to catch up. Turns out, I forgot my sunglasses, but it was cloudy enough that I didn't need them.

Steve got to ride my Guru tri bike while I rode the Colnago. In fairness, I offered him the opportunity to ride the Colnago, but he thought the seat was too high and we didn't have time to adjust it before we left on the ride, anyway, so it worked out for us. For the record, Steve was right. The seat was a bit high, so I ended up lowering it a bit.

This was Steve's first time on my Guru. He seemed to like it okay, and if he didn't, he was too polite to say so! In any event, I have to admit I was a bit concerned he might get dropped on the ride. It was a 50-mile out and back ride with a fairly fast group, and Steve had been talking about how out of shape he was, practically begging me to "take it easy on him." Needless to say, I think Steve must have been sandbagging me. I checked on him a lot, but he was doing just fine, barely breathing hard at all as we rolled on at a 21-22 mph average. In fact, on the way back to the start, he took a few turns in the pace line pulling the group along. I was duly impressed! He'll tell you it was the flat terrain and the dense Houston air, but I'm not buying it. He's in better shape than he let on.

Anyhoo, the ride was great. It was fantastic to see Steve, and Lisa and I had an absolutely fantastic time hanging with him.

Lisa and I spent the rest of the day with her friend Becca and her husband Grant in Pearland. They had a small get-together that evening to celebrate a friend's graduation from grad school (in Genetic Counseling) and we just hung out and chatted most of the evening.

On Sunday (today), I got up early and went running with Steve at Memorial Park. I don't know exactly how far around the loop we did was, but we ran for about 55 minutes at a decent clip. I'm going to guess that we did about 7 miles total in two loops. It was a good workout, and again, Steve seemed to be faring pretty darn well. He's been totally sandbagging to make me ease up a bit! I'm on to you, pal!

After the run, we headed over to IHOP for breakfast. We tried to go to the Kolache Factory, but the only one we knew about was closed for remodeling and we were starving! So, we hit IHOP for some pancakes. The waitresses were staring at us when we walked in as if they'd never seen twins before. It was a little bit unnerving.

Afterward, I dropped Steve off at the hotel and drove back to Pearland. Lisa and I got cleaned up and then headed out in the early afternoon. We stopped by the Johnson household in Katy and chatted for a few hours with Courtney, Cliff, and the girls. It was a nice visit, but too darn short! Courtney and the girls had made some dewberry muffins that were REALLY good!

Lisa and I rolled back into Leander in the late afternoon, just before dusk. The boys were REALLY glad to see us! It was a great weekend trip!

Training Week Ending April 14, 2007.

This week's training re-cap is LOOOOOONG overdue. In fact, it's been so long, I can't really remember all the details of my training week. I do recall that I spent more time focusing on the run this week. In fact, I ran about 16 miles this week, up more than 6 miles over my previous high. I'm good about talking about running more, but I'm not so great about actually doing it. Only 5 months until IMMoo and I really need to start upping the mileage. Talk is cheap!!

Camping at Inks Lake State Park -- 3/31/07 - 4/1/07. I promised a separate blog entry on this trip and here it is. This was SUCH a great time! I hadn't been camping in probably 25-30 years and I think I'd forgotten what I was missing. Luckily, Lisa is an old pro at this stuff so we didn't appear nearly as green as the couple that had the campsite next to us!

We got to Inks Lake a little after 2:00 PM, which was check-in time. Lisa had made a reservation for us, so we stopped at the park headquarters and got our campsite assignment, then headed over to set up. We picked a site that was a VERY short walk to the restrooms (which had showers in them, by the way! How cool!). It didn't take too long to set up the camp. We put down a stake and hooked the dogs up to two 30-foot cables so they could roam around a bit. Then, we pitched our tent and the "dining tent" that covered our picnic table and was supposed to keep bugs out. Note to self: That only works when you keep the tent flaps CLOSED!

Here's a picture of our campsite:

As you can see, the boys and I are really enjoying the "porch" on the tent. It's funny, Lisa and I did not realize how big the tent really was when we got it. We knew it said that it sleeps 5-6 people, but, it's really HUGE! We had plenty of space. If only the dogs hadn't slept on our legs all night! Next time, they get a slumber ball to sleep on.

So, anyway . . . after we set up, we discovered that Reese and AJ had somehow gotten into and completely devoured our hot dog buns and danishes, so we had no buns for dinner and no breakfast for the next morning.

That was odd, because they were behind the doggy gate in the back of the van. Best we can figure, they managed to get a snout on the box and dump it to the floor. We decided to load 'em up and head back into Burnet to HEB and replace the "lost" items. We weren't too happy with the boys for this, but, as you can see, they weren't too concerned about it.

After we got back from the store, we took the boys on a little hike to the Devil's Watering Hole. We couldn't let them swim because they weren't allowed off the leash, but here are a few pictures of the walk:

The bluebonnets were looking SPECTACULAR after all the rain we've had.

So, anyway, after the walk, it was time to roast hot dogs. Lisa did an expert job getting a fire started in our grill. After the coals got white hot, we slapped the dogs (not Reese and AJ!!) on the grill and had AWESOME grilled hot dogs and potato salad. After it got dark, Lisa made a fire in the fire pit and we made s'mores for dessert Yummy! Then, we sat in the tent and Lisa taught me how to play poker and we did a crossword puzzle, and finally just got tired and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, sleep didn't go well. AJ got sick during the night, probably because of eating the hotdog buns and danishes (as well as a LOT of grass). We managed to get him positioned over the dog blanket, so clean-up was easy. Also, the ground was pretty darn rocky and sloped downward a bit, and BOTH dogs just kept wanting to lie on our legs all night. I finally got up around 7:30 or 8:00 the next morning and started getting some things together for breakfast.

There were some ducks that invaded our campsite, too. Lisa got a couple of pictures of Reese observing one of the ducks. Here's the best one:

After breakfast, got ourselves cleaned up a bit at the nearby restrooms/showers. Our neighbors, a young couple from Dallas, were having trouble starting a fire, so Lisa scooped out a bunch of our coals (we'd already started a fire a bit earlier -- it was COLD), and gave them to them. Apparently, it worked, because they had a nice fire going after a few minutes of stoking the coals we gave them. After we'd cleaned up and finished off all the breakfast stuff, we packed up the tents and all the camp gear and then took the boys out on another hike -- this time on one of the hiking trails at the other end of the park.

Here are some pictures of the second hike. In case you're wondering, yes, I wore the same shirt that day because I only had one clean one, and I wanted to be able to change into it after gettin' all sweaty on the hike! Here are the pics:

It was a FABULOUS trip. I can't wait to do it again!

Weekly Update -- 03/28/07 - 04/04/07. Well, my training just keeps plugging along. I must admit that I'm feeling rather unfocused lately. I really need to sit down and make a true training plan and stick to it. I firmly enjoy all the biking I'm doing, but I'm afraid my running and swimming will suffer in the long run. And, quite frankly, I can't hope to do more than just survive at IMMoo unless I really start upping the swim and run volumes. That said, here's the rundown from last week:

Wednesday, March 28.

Wednesday was a swim day -- my regular swim night with Texas Iron. Of course, since I ride whenever I can, I decided to do a lunch time ride with Jason. Despite my better judgment, we decided to do a hill workout on Lost Creek. Good thing I had the Colnago road bike instead of my Guru. Those hills eat me alive. I just HAVE to get better. Total stats for the ride are 22 miles, six climbs (down Lost Creek from 360 to Barton Creek and then back up the route in reverse). Average speed was about 18 mph for the ride. My legs were tired after the climbs, but not as bad as I thought. This will be good practice for IMMoo.

At swim practice, it was a relatively easy practice since so many of the participants were going to be racing at the Lonestar Triathlon Festival in Galveston this weekend. We warmed up with a set of 1 x (100 + 200 + 300). The 100 was alternated 50 swim, 50 kick. The 200 was alternated 50 swim, 50 pull, etc., and the 300 was alternated 50 swim, 50 drill, etc. The main set was a fairly simple drill designed to work on drafting technique. We swam 8 x 200 trying to stay on the feet of the person in front of us. Hard to do when you have flip-turns every 25 yards. Then, we worked on simulating the start of the swim race. Jamie had us line up 3 and 4 to a lane with folks similar in size and ability. We then did 8 x 25 as hard as we could, but all of us had to leave at the same time without pushing off from the wall. You can imagine that in a narrow pool lane, 4 people abreast is a bit tight! But, it was a good simulator and at least I didn't whack anybody with my elbows (or get whacked, either). We cooled down with an easy 200 swim. I liked this workout a lot!

Thursday, March 29.

Today was going to be another bike-at-lunch day followed by the Texas Iron bike/run brick workout. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate early on. It was rainy and nasty all morning, so Jason and I did not ride at lunch. By about 1:00 PM the sky had cleared somewhat and the rain stopped. I was fairly sure we wouldn't have the Texas Iron group workout, but after multiple checks of the website and phone calls to the Texas Iron "weather hotline" there was no cancellation. I was a bit disappointed by that because Lisa and I had plans to meet at Freddie's Place at 7:00 PM to have drinks and dinner with her friends Gabriel and Clare, whom I'd heard a lot about, but not yet met. Anyway, since the workout wasn't canceled, I called Lisa and told her I'd be about 30 minutes late to dinner. One of the reasons I love her so much is that she was just fine with that arrangement. It gave her a little time to catch up with Clare before I arrived for the introductions! You're the best, Sweat Pea!

Anyway . . . the Texas Iron brick workout was a pretty simple workout. We met at Dick Nichols Park in Southwest Austin. Andrea explained that we'd ride a simple square loop of about 3.5 miles that ran from the park parking lot out to Beckett Road, south to Davis Lane, west on Davis to Escarpment Blvd. north to Convict Hill Road; then, east on Convict Hill back to Beckett south to the park entrance. Once we got back to the makeshift transition area, we were to transition from bike to run and do a 1.1 mile loop on the park's jogging trail. Andrea and Jamie wanted those of us NOT racing to do the loops 3 times. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time for that. I ended up doing it twice (including our warm-up laps). It was a great workout, though, and I hope to do it again soon. The ride was fairly flat, so it was conducive to good speed. The only downer for the day was that when I got back from my last run loop, my bike, which had been leaning against a big rock, had been blown over by the wind and had slid down the rock scraping up the paint pretty badly on the seat tube. It's nothing a little touch-up paint won't fix, but after I contacted Guru about getting some paint, they said I'd have to call back in about 3 weeks because they were in the process of moving their manufacturing facility and wouldn't have access to the touch-up paint bottles for sale until the end of April. So, for now, my bike is a bit scratched! Oh well . . . it still rides like a dream!

Friday, March 30.

Not very eventful. I had intended to ride easy with Jason today to actively rest our legs for the ATC Taco ride the next day, but the weather was rainy all day and Jason had a training session, so I bagged the ride. I thought I might run instead, but I couldn't get motivated to do it. So, I took the day off from training.

Saturday, March 31.

I always love the Saturday Taco Ride. The rain didn't let up until the wee hours of Saturday morning, so when I got to ATC at 8:10, there weren't many people there and not many more showed up. It was a stark contrast to the previous couple of week's rides when we had larger groups. Nevertheless, it was a fast group. The ride went well. I hung in with the lead group until I got dropped at the same hill on Southwest Parkway that always gets me. There, I settled in with the second pack and we zoomed up to Hwy 71. I was a bit disappointed with this part of the ride. Usually, when you get in with a pack, they do a nice pace line with alternating pulls so everybody gets to take turns hammering and relaxing. That didn't happen this time. I pulled the group up the short, shallow hill before the descent to the light at Barton Creek, but after I dropped back, everybody else just kind of stayed put and let the next guy pull us all the way up the rest of Southwest Parkway. Basically, everytime we caught a solo rider, we'd pull in behind that person and let them pull us along. It was a bit frustrating, but I did conserve a lot of energy just sucking a wheel for most of the rest of the way up to the halfway point. I waited for Jason for a while at the cleaner's parking lot, but he never showed. I learned later he'd had a flat and was way behind. So, I took off on the return trip alone and cruised back into the ATC parking lot at about 10:15 AM.

After I got home, Lisa and I rounded up our clothing and camping equipment, as well as the dogs, and headed out for an overnight camping excursion at Inks Lake State Park. It was a great time, and I'll do a separate blog entry on it later with some pictures.

Sunday, April 1.

No April Fools jokes today. This was camping day. More to come in another blog entry. I ended up not training at all today. Had planned to get in a short ride/run brick when Lisa and I got back from Inks Lake, but the morning hike coupled with all the clean-up and yard work when we got back left me too tired to work out. So, we just ordered a pizza and vegged out!

Monday, April 2.

I almost bagged working out today, too. But, I just couldn't let myself do that. Instead, I skipped the lunch ride with Jason (he was out anyway), and just worked through lunch. I left work early to stop by AustinPCTech to pick up my computer which had had a hard drive crash last week. (Oh yeah. Forgot to mention that! We lost all our pictures from the previous year, plus our music files and my bank account records. Major bummer!) Anyway, the computer wasn't quite ready, so I went home and pulled out the Guru to go for a solo ride on my Parmer Lane route. It was pretty windy, but it turned out to be a really great ride.

I always hate the first (and last) 2 miles from Crystal Falls to Parmer. The road is HORRIBLE, and is only one lane in each direction, so car drivers get pissy when they get in behind me. Anyway, I was pretty lucky today because there was a crosswind that was slightly behind me on the way out to Parmer. I cruised out at about 23 mph and then turned right onto Parmer and directly into a head wind! Funny thing is that despite the headwind, I made pretty good time. I checked my speedometer often and I was averaging over 20 mph into the headwind, which was generally about 10 mph with occasional 20 mph gusts. I'm guessing that the wind was a bit more cross than head (even though it didn't feel like it) because I don't think I could have gone that fast into a direct headwind without really blowing up my lungs quickly. Anyhoo . . . I hit the turnaround at MoPac (15 miles) averaging about 20.3 mph. After that, the ride was awesome. The tailwind pushed me up to 25-28 mph with minimal effort, and even on the uphills (which aren't terribly steep or long anyway), I was over 20 mph most of the time. The only bad part was turning back onto Crystal Falls and battling the headwind/crosswind for the last 2 miles. Regardless, I got back home (30 miles) with a 22.4 mph average feeling pretty darn fresh! I should have done a short run, but Lisa was home and was doing some cleaning up, so I felt guilty and bagged the run to help out a bit.

Tuesday, April 3.

Today was another no-train day. I intended to, but I wasn't feeling quite right all day, so I bagged it. Besides, I managed to get my computer back today and had to spend some time rebuilding a few necessary files. Also, Lisa had gone to work out with a friend and I thought it would be a nice gesture to cook dinner for her, since I hadn't done that in a while. So, I did!

Wednesday, April 4.

Again, another swim day. This time, however, I did a little biking, too. Jason and I didn't hook up for our ride again because he had a training session. So, I worked through lunch and then left at 5:00 to drive out to the West Austin Athletic Club where we swim. There, I hopped on the road bike and got in a one-hour ride before the swim group at 7:00. It wasn't too exciting. I just went south on Bee Caves to Hwy 360, and then south on 360 to MoPac and turned around and came back the same way. It was a nice hill workout, but I took it pretty easy. I got back to WAAC about 12 minutes before swim group started.

The swim workout was another good one. I'm telling you, I really like this group. I'm not sure if I'm getting any faster yet, but that's probably because I only swim once a week, not because Texas Iron isn't effective. Here's the workout we did:

Warm up

4 x 25 backstroke
4 x 50 (25 backstroke, 25 freestyle)
4 x 75 (25 backstroke, 50 freestyle)

Main set

300 at 70% effort, 30 sec. rest
200 at 75% effort, 20 sec. rest
150 at 80% effort, 15 sec. rest
100 at 90% effort, 10 sec. rest
50 at 100% effort, 5 sec. rest
50 at 100% effort, 5 sec. rest
100 at 90% effort, 10 sec. res
150 at 80% effort, 15 sec. rest
200 at 75% effort, 20 sec. rest
300 at 70% effort

100 easy

Cool down

8 x 50 kick (20 hard, 80 easy)
100 easy