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Austin 70.3 Training Update

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Hey.  It’s me.  Mike the Triathlete.  You may have seen my counterpart, Mike the Eater, here a lot recently.  Well fear not, I’ve been working just as hard training as he’s been eating.  Thought I’d check in to let you know how all this exercise is going so far.

We’re about six weeks away from the big day (October 28th) and the workouts have really ramped up.  In particular this past weekend I completed a little personal triathlon, though “little” probably isn’t the right word.  A 30 minute swim, 2 hour bike, and 30 minute run made it the longest triathlon of my short multi-sport career.  In distance it racked up about 1400 meters swimming, 35 miles on the bike, and 4 miles running.  And it couldn’t have been more fun.  It renewed my excitement for race day while proving to myself that I could tackle some longer distances.

Overall my training has been going very smoothly.  Over the past 14 weeks, I have missed exactly zero workouts.  That’s 132 workouts in a row, averaging 9 workouts per week.  It’s been tough, but just scheduling everything has been harder than the workouts themselves.  Yesterday was a work of art, planning my swim and bike back-to-back, and then running in the evening.  More of that is expected as we get into the most demanding block of the training plan.

With all this progress I’m starting to define my goal of the race too.  Back when I signed up I said “For now there are no goals but to finish”.  Ha!  That doesn’t even sound like me, but sure enough, I said it.  Well that’s bunch of garbage.  I’m definitely going to set a time goal.  Right now here’s what I’m thinking, relatively realistic and moderately conservative:

Swim (1.2 miles) – 0:44

Bike (56 miles) – 3:02

Run (13.1 miles) – 1:45

Of course add a little in for transitions, as much as a total of 8 minutes?  That comes out to 5:39.  A little slower than what I think I’d like, but it is what it is.  The swim isn’t going to set any records, and the bike is not an easy course.  The main place to make up time will be on the run, but we’ll see.  I haven’t exactly run a half marathon after a 3 hour bike ride before.

August’s Trailer Food Tuesdays

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Trailer Food Tuesdays has come and gone for the second time.  Just like last month, ten trailers set up shop on the back patio of the Palmer Events Center overlooking downtown Austin.  With six new trucks (Lucky J’s Chicken and Waffles, Woodpile BBQ, Kebabalicious, Loveballs, Little Fattys, Bahn Bahn) and four repeat offenders o’vendors from last time (The Peached Tortilla, The Seedling Truck by Royal Fig, Dock and Roll Diner, & Chilantro BBQ), the lineup offered a little (or a lot) something for everyone.  Ev and I were joined by our partner in crime, Hazel, and our friend Brett with her furry buddy Archie.

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Curly’s Perfect Pig

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Texas is BBQ country.  Beef barbecue to be clear, but you already knew that.  You find your classic beef brisket, chopped beef, and beef short ribs basically anywhere you go.  So what happens when a little Carolina ‘cue comes to town and starts making waves?  Well Curly’s Perfect Pig is doing just that, bringing Carolina barbecue, aka pork barbecue, to the cattle-hungry Texans of Austin.

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Audible!

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Triathlon training isn’t all that different from marathon training. Wake up early, blindly do some ridiculous

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workout because an online training plan said so, repeat. The only difference lies in juggling three sports instead of one. The great thing about running is there are very few variables that can mess up your plans. With triathlon training you have to deal with things like pool hours, rainy weather on the bike, and generally finding time to work out twice a day several times per week.

Today I was ready to rock a 22 mile bike ride before work. Got up early (go to heck, 5:45am alarm), had a little snack, and went to prep my bike. I’m pretty neurotic about my bike’s tire pressure, so even if I just filled them for yesterday’s ride, I’m going to top them off again today. So this morning at 6:15am, in my garage, ::pump:: ::pump:: ::pump:: ::pump:: ::pump:: PSSSH. Tire 1 is good to go. Next up, back tire ::pump:: ::pump:: ssssss ::pump:: ::pump:: sssssssss ::pump:: sssssssssssss :: pssshhhhhhh. I tried the front tire again. sssssssssssssssssssssssss. And now it was flat too.

What!? I’ll spare you the profanity drama. My bike pump broke. It broke so much, in fact, that it did the opposite of

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its normal job; it unpumped my tires. So, no air in my tires. 6:25am. Get back in bed? Never! Time to roll with the punches. With a quick change of clothes I was in my car and heading down to the pool. Rather than give up on the day I cranked out Friday’s swim workout this morning. Win!

During lunch I swung by Freewheeling Bicycles who told me it was the tube in my bike pump that was leaking. Ready to drop some money on a new pump, he slid a pen and paper across the counter and asked for my name and number. He then gave me a brand new bike pump and said he’d file the old one as a defective unit still under warranty. Score!

I got it home, pumped up those flat tires, and hopped on the bike after dinner for my ride. Not too bad after a shaky start.

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Why The Face? – Austin Public Pools

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Younger me would be very proud of the amount of time I’ve put into my swim training for the Austin 70.3 in October. Just last week I swam six times in seven days, including the longest swim of my life! All this was made possible by Austin’s free public pools. Case in point: there’s a pool just 2.5 blocks from my house and another less than a mile from my office, so the logistics of my tri training have been a non-issue.

Well, all that’s a-changing. Starting now the pools are closing

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for the season. And by season I mean the entire year until next summer. Maybe it’s because the weather here in Central Texas gets too cold to be outside after mid-August. Or maybe it’s because everyone who had enjoyed swimming all summer have suddenly and in unison decided they don’t want to swim anymore. No, it ultimately comes down to budget. The city only budgets for the pools to be open a certain number of hours, and once the money is gone, the gates are locked. Only two pools remain open year-round, neither of which are near my house nor my office. Alas, some early morning commutes to the pool are likely in my future.

I can think of some ways these pools could stay open longer. For one, charge an admission fee to use the pool to make each pool self-sustaining. I mean, who closes public pools when it’s still 100*+ every day, and will be for the next month?

WTF?!

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JMueller BBQ

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Just seven days removed from trying a brand new BBQ trailer, I knew it was time to visit an old name in Texas barbecue. John Mueller (pronounced Miller) of the Mueller dynasty is remaking his name after a decade of being out of the barbecue scene. A lot has changed since he closed the doors of his popular Austin spot in 2001, namely the meteoric rise of his former pitmaster Aaron Franklin. He’s been back in full force since October 2011 with a trailer in South Austin turning out all kinds of smoky goodness and looking to reclaim his spot at the top of the BBQ food chain.

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Woodpile BBQ

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Since moving to Texas I’ve become smitten with barbecue. I know, nothing special, but it’s true nonetheless. I’ve had my fair share, ranging from the disappointing to the divine. With a brand new barbecue spot opening (a trailer, no less!) in Southwest Austin I rallied the troops for a day of fun starting with a visit to Woodpile BBQ. Hope you’re hungry!

The “Establishment”

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Hey!… You Gonna Eat or What?

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Fresh ingredients, simply prepared, generally make fresh, simple sandwiches. At Hey!… You Gonna Eat or What?, you will not find one of those sandwiches. From the snarky quote bubbles, garish red paint job, and bold menu, you get the feeling that this bus plays by its own rules. No doubt you’ll find fresh ingredients, but HYGEoW works some dark magic to create unexpected twists on classic sandwiches.

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Burger Way of Life

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Summer.  The season of burn bans, watering restrictions, mosquitoes, sunburns, drought, heat stroke grilling.  And nothing says “grilling” more than burgers.  If you disagree, well you can just leave.  However, for as much as I love grilling burgers, we don’t do it often enough.  So when we invited friends over for a good ol’ fashioned cookout, it was little more than a formality to discuss what we’d cook.

Because burgers happen only every once in a while, we go big*.  That means cutting no corners.

To the meat grinder!  

I grabbed some steaks at Central Market (a pound of chuck and a pound of sirloin), butchered them like a pro, and got the grinder ready for the carnage to come.  It’s one of the easier things you can do, but I wouldn’t recommend inviting any vegetarian friends over to parttake in the fun.

*We’re already home, so “go big or go home” only leaves us one option anyway.

At this point I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.  I’ll say that the burgers, topped with hatch chiles, were a big hit and devoured by all.  The process takes more time for sure, but no question it’s worth it.  It’s just the burger way of life.

Preparing for battle.

The aftermath.

Taking shape.

The result.