Practice Tri and Greenbelt running

  Blogger just added some new templates and design features for the blog. In keeping up with the spirit of my training and mental focus as of late I have chosen an aquatic theme to set the mood here. Let me know what you think. Now back to the the task at hand.

  I woke up early on Sunday morning to head up to Lake Pflugerville for a practice triathlon put on by T3. I arrived around 7 ish to park, unload my bike and gear and meet up with my friend Craig who extended the invite for the free practice. They set up a couple of racks to hang our bikes and arrange our transition mats like we would at an actual race. There was probably only about 10 of us there who were practicing and a few T3 coaches but I only caught the name Maurice who was very helpful and very nice to all of us.
  The swim course was a 500 meter loop that Craig and I decided to do twice for some extra swim practice. The water was warm and comfortable and all of the practice sighting in Barton Springs is starting to pay off. We got out of the water and headed to the transition area to gear up for the bike section. Although we weren't blazing through the transitions we weren't going slow either. It was just practice. The bike course was a 12 mile loop forming a rectangle east of the reservoir. We began and then declared we would double up on the bike as well to get a longer ride in. At about mile six in the middle of a hilly climb and a stiff headwind I shouted over to Craig that I thought one bike loop would be about right. Thankfully he agreed  and we parked the bikes back on the rack 6 miles later. A quick change of shoes and then we were off for the three mile run around the Lake. Wow was I hurting for the first mile. Even after I caught my breath I was still dragging the last couple of miles to the finish. T3 had set up a Gatorade cooler at mile two and I was so glad for the breather. We finished the morning and I can't say I took away any specific tidbits of knowledge about the event which I could recall but I can say for sure the body definitely got some work in that morning. I was E X H A U S T E D.
  Monday began early for me but for some weird reason that I don't fully understand Oskar and I weren't on the trail running until about 11:30 am that day. That was unfortunate because I think we both were suffering from the heat. We ran the six mile out and back on the Greenbelt and I let him swim four or five times but he was still not a happy puppy. I am betting that going up and down the Hill Of Life had something to do with it. When we got to Twin Falls at the end of the run we both got in and swam around for about 30 minutes to cool off. It was a nice way to end the run for sure.