In March 2015, I joined my brother John Kenny and good friend Charles Bender as the staff of the Austin Tri Camp. John and I arrived in Austin Sunday afternoon, had lunch at Torchy's Tacos, checked into the house, and went for a swim at Big Stacy Pool (an old outdoor 100 foot pool, which is 33 1/3 yards). It is a different experience counting laps: instead of 25, 50, 75, 100, etc it goes 33 1/3, 66 2/3, 100. 200's are nice because that's just 6 laps. After swimming, we stocked up on groceries for the week, went back to the house, and Charles arrived in the van with all the bikes in time for dinner.
Monday morning before everyone else arrived, I spent some time prepping fruit salad and pasta salad for lunch, kale and sweet potatoes for dinner. Alyson, Rebecca, and Gale arrived on Monday afternoon. We had lunch out on the back porch as soon as everyone got in from the airport, then went for a 33 mile bike ride, mostly through the neighborhoods then down Old San Antonio Road, as its name suggests, a country road heading out of Austin to the south, heading toward San Antonio. The house was located in Barton Hills on top of a short steep hill, so we had a nice climb to end the ride.
https://www.strava.com/activities/273084149
Then we did a run/swim/run, running from the house to Barton Springs for a swim, then running back afterwords. The van drove there, giving campers the option to skip the run and also to carry our swim gear. The run there was about two miles, but we took a shorter route back. Barton springs is a very cool swimming hole, created by a dam in the Barton creek and fed by an underground spring. They had a little museum that showed a bunch of videos about the history of Barton Springs. I watched one where Buddhist monks "swam" there and spoke of it as a sacred place. There are definitely cleansing and healing properties to that water, certainly an ice bath in this instance. It was cold enough that I had enough after about 1/2 mile of swimming without a wetsuit. We had fun sitting in the sun for a bit and taking in the scene. By far the weirdest moment of the whole trip was seeing a very large, topless woman walking right down the stairs into the water with goggles and all. But the bumper stickers say "Keep Austin Weird."
https://www.strava.com/activities/273130102
Tuesday started with some yoga and a short run, then the first "long" ride, starting from Fitzhugh Rd and heading for the hills. I rode for the first 20 miles, then we got to a creek crossing in the middle of the road. I stopped and dismounted the bike because I wasn't sure how it would be to ride through at least 4 inches of water covering the road. Charles and I swapped there, and I drove the van for the rest of the ride. Driving behind the group with the blinkers on was very helpful when we got out to a busier road. The hills picked up, and I remember John riding next to Rebecca and reaching out his arm to help give her a boost up the hills. Eventually, Hunter called it a ride and put his bike in the van (after logging some miles with John before the rest of us started). He was looking at his phone at said "uh-oh, there are switchbacks ahead." Yes, Alyson and Rebecca were troopers that day, riding up some insane hill with switchbacks at the end of a 60 mile ride. Hamilton "pool" (aka swimming hole) was closed to swimming due to high bacteria levels, so we didn't get the refreshing post-ride dip that day. I hope we get a chance to swim there next time. Tuesday night I stayed in cooking up tacos/burritos while the rest of the group went to Big Stacy Pool for a swim technique session with video analysis.
Wednesday, we rode the Ironman 70.3 Austin bike course. I rode in the van for the first 20 miles of the ride, then parked the van and joined the group for the middle part of the course, then Charles drove the last 20 miles or so. There was great scenery, so I had to stop and snap a few pictures while I was driving the van. This was probably my favorite ride of the week because it had parts that were really rural and more rolling hills than any major climbs. From this ride, I have the Strava 2015 QOM on the segment "Here live angry dogs and brutal men." There were a lot of ferocious dogs on that ride, maybe that's also why I liked it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/274007072
Wednesday continued to be a busy day, as we did a sunset swim at Deep Eddy Pool, another old 100 foot pool. Afterwords, we went out to dinner at what was basically an open air bar with a BBQ food truck outside. Very laid back, good food, drink, and fun.
Thursday, the group collectively decided to take a break from biking. There were cooler temperatures and rain in the forecast (don't think the rain ever came), so we decided it would be a good day for a long run. After a leisurely morning with a nice breakfast and some yoga, I started off from the house with Hunter for the first two miles, and we met up with the rest of the group who drove to Barton Springs. Alyson and I did a few miles easy on trails, then a mile or two at a decent pace along the river, then a few more miles easy on the trails. We stopped and spent some wading in the creek, admiring the real estate overlooking the park, and enjoying all the dogs on the trail and in the creek.
Thursday afternoon, a few of us took a touristy trip into downtown Austin, toured the state capitol building, walked around, and went to a coffee shop. It was a bit of a history refresher about Texan independence, and some new lessons about the reconstruction era government and the female governor in the 1920's.
Thursday night was our one indoor SCY swim practice for the week with a masters team coached by Tim Sandfort. At first, we were crowded in a lane with a wide range of speeds (Alyson and I in the same lane with John, Hunter, and two other guys in between). Then, we did a workout of repeat 200 yard "serpentine" style swims. Starting of the block, we swam up and down each of the four lanes and got out at the end. We went in the order from fastest to slowest, so that you got pulled along by a really strong draft. I did all of my 200s under 2:40 and even matched by fastest ever 200 in that workout. After the 200's, we had "stations" to choose from. One lane was a kick set, one lane was an IM set, etc. Tim did a great job of managing a crowded pool and making it a fun and challenging workout. Afterwords, Tim spoke to the group about his experience competing as a pro-triathlete and coaching other athletes. One of the most memorable things he said is how triathletes tend to be one-dimensional and talk to each other only about their training and what races they are doing. A lot of times, people will ask a question like "how's your training going?" really just hoping that the question will be reciprocated and they'll get a chance to talk about themselves. He encouraged us to not get so hyper-focused and obsessed that we forget to be human, and to actually get to know other athletes on a more personal level. This really resonates with my own experience with the triathlon community.
Friday was probably the toughest day, with a hilly bike ride mostly around the residential areas in and surrounding Austin. On the first hill, which didn't even look that big, I almost had a panic attack when I felt myself losing momentum, slowing down to about 2 mph, and I was terrified of just falling over from slowing down too much. Charles explained to me that I was not actually standing up on the bike (which I thought I was since my butt was off the seat), that I needed to bring the full weight of my body directly over the pedals. Eventually I figured out how to do this, and was able to get up some of the smaller hills. I did end up walking my bike up a few hills. We didn't bring the van along for support on this ride, so we all had to ride the whole way or find our own way back. I was jealous to hear that Gale and then Rebecca turned around and rode back; I would have gladly joined them. There were moments of this ride that ranged from scary to miserable, but the last stretch was really nice, once the worst of the hills were over. We rode along scenic drive, which goes through a beautiful waterfront residential area, basically yacht club kind of territory. My strava recorded 33 miles with 3800 feet of climbing, but others did a few more hills than me.
Learning how to stand up and ride was really helpful, although I didn't master it that day. I gradually worked on it throughout the following months and have gotten better at balancing and staying up for longer if needed. Later that day, we did a run/swim/run, and my legs felt like lead, almost the way I would feel the day after a marathon. I think that bike ride literally used muscles that I had never used before. So for me, it was a recovery run/swim/run. The workout John had intended for us to do is one of his standards: alternating a hard 12 minute swim with a hard 12 minute run as many times as you can, for at least an hour.
On Saturday, we joined Tim Sandfort and some athletes he coaches for a ride of about 44 miles. Originally, the plan was to do the ATC Taco ride (a non- no-drop ride), but most of the group was in the mood for something a little more relaxed and less competitive at this point in the week. A small part of the ride overlapped with a flat section of Friday's ride, the Capital of Texas Highway. It is actually a highway with a bike lane. It was a little intimidating at first to ride next to traffic going so fast, but it is well designed and there is plenty of room for bikes with a good surface. This ride did include a stop at whole foods for some coffee and snacks, which was nice. The scary part of the ride was biking by the dam that holds back Lake Travis. There was a big downhill approaching the dam, so you picked up a lot of speed, then there was a pretty strong wind coming from the side while you were actually crossing the dam, then right back uphill on the other side. After quite a bit of climbing, we stopped at a scenic overlook that looked down upon Lake Travis. In the group shot below, you can see "sometimes island" in the background, named as such because sometimes it is above water and sometimes below. Well, apparently water levels have been low because it's now more of a peninsula than an island.
I flew back home on Saturday afternoon, but the rest of the group got in one more swim and went out to dinner for the last night in Austin.
Overall, the week was some solid early season training for me. I would not have done nearly that much biking at home in March. It was really the first time all year that I had ridden outside, since early March continued to be very cold at home. I really took pride in sharing my love of food and making sure that everyone was well-fed all week. In addition to healthy meals that included vegetarian options for me and gluten-free options for John, we brought lots of healthy snacks along for every workout and also had some great indulgent treats, such as homemade guacamole, nachos, brownies, cookies, and ice cream. I was happy that we squeezed a little bit of time into the busy schedule for some yoga, which I really believe most triathletes could benefit from practicing more. Flexibility to promote range of motion and muscle recovery, core strength, body awareness, and breath control are just some of the benefits of yoga that I tried to share with the group. Swimming outdoors at this point in the year was really wonderful, and exploring a new place by foot and on two wheels is always fun. Ultimately, the time spent with old friends and new ones made this a memorable experience.
We will be back in Austin for two weeks in March 2016. If you enjoyed reading this re-cap of last year, please consider joining us next year: https://www.athletepath.com/austin-triathlon-camp/2016-03-21
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