A New Appreciation for Dry Heat

After Buffalo Springs, I took a week-long detour to Austin to work remotely, study for the GRE, and see friends. Hurricane Alex decided to follow me and it's path took it close enough that Tuesday through Friday were incredibly humid and unpredictable in terms of weather. Not that was completely a bad thing, since it was a recovery week meaning I wanted to limit myself in terms of training and yucky weather was definitely a limiter. Humidity was also a limiter, since although I spent 22 years living in humid places (upstate NY, central IL, central TX) it doesn't take that much time to de-acclimate from being able to suffer in the stickiness (and luckily Lubbock is NOT humid). 

My friend I was staying with is a group fitness instructor at Lifetime Fitness in Austin so she suggested I sign up for a week long trial pass. Lifetime Fitness is HUMONGOUS. Oh my goodness. The locker room itself was like 3 times the size of the locker room at the gym here, if not more. So I was able to get a few swims in, and also went to my friend's step class. Turned out to be a good workout as it definitely got my heart rate up. Ran on Lady Bird Lake once, and went to a Bikram Yoga class. Still not sure I could be a regular Bikram Yoga practicer as doing the same sequence of postures every day would get boring sooner than later. 

The weather cleared up a bit on the weekend, moreso on Sunday than Saturday. My friend from the Austin location of work invited me along to ride with him and the couple he rides with. My other friend I was saying with came along too. The drive to the start was raining, I was keeping positive that it would stop at least for the start of the ride. We started at Barton Springs Pool and rode over to 360 and all the way to the end, then back down to Bee Caves and out to 620 and turned around at the high school and came back on Bee Caves to 360. A good moderate, unstressful 50 mile ride. The roads were wet, and it was super humid, but luckily we only encountered one brief rain shower the entire 3+ hours out there. After the ride my friend and I did a short 10 minute transition run. I forgot how fun it is to run with others, particularly ones of the same pace. 

Sunday was more promising weather-wise. My other friend from work picked me up and we drove over to the (above) friend's house for a short hillier (than yesterday) ride and run. Rode out of the neighborhood which was filled with some short, steep hills, and then back onto 620 and Bee Caves. Turned around and came back. Then we all did a short run in the neighborhood. By the time we finished the bike and got to the run it was sunny! 

Going to Austin is also always filled with yummy food from all the random places in Austin. The saying IS "Keep Austin Weird" after all! Probably the most memorable places this time were with K, as usual, to Torchy's Tacos and Holy Cacao in the South Austin Trailer Eatery park thing. The tacos at Torchy's are probably the best tacos I have ever had and the cake balls (cake mixed with frosting stuck on a stick dipped in chocolate) at Holy Cacao were quite yummy. 

The Coco Leches cake at Chez Zee with C and Pat was also delicious. Maybe I should try to make some gluten-free (and possibly grain-free) tres leches cake. 

There was also of course the necessary Tex-Mex. Really the reason to get Tex-Mex is for the chips&salsa and the margaritas. 

And for the first time since 2006, I actually partook in some 4th of July festivity. My friends' grilled at their house for lunch before I left and there was lots of delicious food. Burgers, chicken, watermelon, more chips&salsa, and the best part, bacon wrapped dates! Talk about addicting!

So, all in all I had a fantastic 10 days in the Lone Star state! And in addition, I learned a few things in the course of the week. 

1. I can push harder than I think, maybe I should just stop thinking and go sometimes. 
2. I was correct about gluten foods messing up my stomach if I eat them the night before rides. 
3. I don't actually think I would spend my time that differently if I lived in Austin - ie I would still work, train, and sit in front of my computer all the time - the difference would be I might have a happier mindset BUT I would still be a shitty-ass cyclist. 
4. I really really really miss hanging out with people my own age, particularly if they are also triathletes or I guess just active. It was SO MUCH FUN hanging out with my friends from work in Austin. It is really hard to find engineers with people skills so it was nice to find ones that do. As much as I like my friends here I find that I act older and feel obligated to ask them about their kids and then they all have time constraints due to family. It's a weird set of mixed emotions that I can't verbally expressed other than to say it felt like a breath of fresh air biking and running with the guys over the weekend.
5. I really appreciate dry heat now. I went and rode starting at 11am yesterday and the high was supposed to be mid-high-90s. It actually did not feel that hot. I also like not looking like I got out of the pool when I finish a ride.

I think I realized #4 back in May when I did the Wildflower/Urban Assault ride the first weekend that month. It was just like, plain fun to hang out with people my own age who enjoyed similar interests. And sadly, I just don't know how to remedy that in Folsom. There are young people at work - but they are of the noncommunitive type and like to play video games. That is not my idea of fun, so in the meantime I will continue to train since I believe that is the best way to optimize my time. 

Next up, trip to elevation this weekend for the Death Ride!