Some alone time in the pool

    Hurricane Alex and the weather associated with it is making it fun trying to schedule some swims. Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon swims were canceled because of thunderstorms. I did get in a really good bike ride Tuesday morning. I peddled out to Shoal Creek to do some up tempo rides down Great Northern Blvd. For those who have not had the experience of the wonder and spectacle that is Great Northern well, you are the lucky ones. I know a lot of people that view that road with disdain. It is the northern most point of the Austin Marathon and it's a long, straight and uneventful road that goes nearly a mile and a half with just a slight elevation. I actually like going up there to run or ride it. I did my tempo ride down it and recovered back up Shoal Creek. After 5 loops of this and an easy ride home it added up to a 35 mile ride.
  Today was an early morning 4 1/2 mile run with Rogues newest coach, Josh Baker and his friend JP. Funny guys to run with who both have excellent running stories. I am working on a bio entry for The Rundown on Josh so this was a meet, run and informal interview kind of thing. If anyone lives or work up in the Pflugerville area, Josh is coaching an Austin Marathon training group starting mid August.
  After the run I headed over to Barton Springs to finally catch a swim in between thunderstorms. At 9 am the free swim ends. They make everyone get out of the pool and pay. Since the weather was looking ominous nobody but yours truly was there to swim laps. I had the entire Barton Springs Pool to myself for the first 1/4 mile. It was awesome. I did a 1/4 mile at an east pace and then the next 1/4 mile I did fartleks (speed play) from lifeguard stand to lifeguard stand.  Oh besides me and the lifeguards the only other thing in the pool area was this rabid racoon I saw near the shallow end. I totally forgot to tell somebody about him.

If you look closely at the pic you can see him foaming at the mouth.



Workouts were finished early in the day. Tomorrow is a recovery run with my friend Tony and hopefully another swim like this morning.