Julian and I rode along beautiful bike paths and through charming little German villages for most of the way. Here are some of the highlights of our tour:

• Rode though and near the Naturpark Schönbuch and several other Nature Parks.
• Stopped in the village of Mauren to view an old monastery, and also to decide if we wanted to return home or continue for another ten miles, adding a loop to bring our total mileage from 30 to 50. We decided to continue, of course.
• Stopped in the picturesque old walled village of Weil der Stadt for some good German pastries and coffee.
• Rode through the American Army base on the outskirts of Stuttgart. Not exactly the scenic highlight of the tour, but somewhat interesting for me, since I know a few people who have worked there.

At the end of the ride, we returned to Julian’s flat, and his charming partner Julie, who is a nurse, took care of the bad cut on my leg, which I received in a fall about half-way through the ride. I certainly appreciated her professional cleaning and bandaging job, which was far better than I could have received anywhere else. Thank you, Julie!

For more pictures of the ride, find the link on the garminconnect web site under export and select Google Earth. When Google Earth opens, zoom in on our Garmin-marked path and look at the pictures along it. I especially like the pictures from Weil der Stadt.

I made it to the trailhead about 1 PM. It was a very nice crushed granite trail at the start, and gradually changed to a single dirt track (today it was a mud track) through the woods. My hiking boots did not do very well on the ice in Colorado last winter, but they worked well today. Here is the my Garmin path:

The trail was still very wet from the previous rain. Here is a picture of some of the flatter sections of the trail.

After about two and a half miles I came to some old farm ruins called Crockett Gardens; a short distance away was Knight Spring. Here are some pictures of the farm ruins.

Follow this link for more information about the farm.

Here is a link to all the photos. (Sorry for the poor quality. My good camera was on the fritz so I had to use my cell phone. The sky was too bright, so I was pointing and shooting without seeing what was on the display.)

Today’s race started at seven AM with a short speech from the race director. Then we were off. First we did two loops of the running trail in the park. The trail consisted of concrete, dirt, board walk, and rock.

I started out at a fast pace: about a 9 and a half minute mile. After about a half mile I started thinking that I had better slow down, since I had a long way to go before the race was over. So I slowed down to about an eleven minute pace.

The next part of the race was the bicycle ride. It took about a mile to get my legs working. They don’t like going from running to biking. Especially my hamstrings; all I could do was press down on the pedals. If I had ridden the first lap as fast as I rode the second lap I would have averaged close to twenty MPH. (But of course I didn’t, unfortunately.) It was a nice course.

I made a major mistake at the start of the bike ride. I was planning to grab a couple of Cliff Bars from my equipment stash at the change point, and eat them while I rode. I had them ready at the transition to put in my back pocket; I just forgot to do it.

The second three mile run started out well, but about two miles into the run I was regretting not having taken my Cliff Bars. I ended up walking about half the last mile.

I am still trying to get my Garmin to give good results for a multi-sport. I set it up for simple distance and time run. I recorded the entire race, which is better than what I had last time, but it doesn’t show what I am doing at each stage of the race. Another thing to work on…

In the end, I won third in my age group.

Here is the Garmin account of the race.

So I had ridden about one lap when I noticed that a rider whom I had passed earlier had started wheel-sucking behind me. Then, when we started up a hill, he fell behind. So I slowed down to to let him catch up, and we started talking. He turned out to be Lyman Grant, Dean for Arts and Humanities at ACC, a good friend of Light and Bob German.

Lyman started biking about two months ago and is planning to ride in the Hotter’n Hell Hundred towards the end of August. He has been training on the new tollway out east of Austin. It sounds like an ideal road for riding. He says the traffic is light, shoulder smooth, and the hills are not too bad. His longest ride so far is a little over fifty miles. Way to go in just two months of riding!

When we parted I told him that my group would normally ride on Wednesday nights about 6 PM and he was welcome to join us. I also told him that over the next month we might not be meeting too regularly, what with vacations, travel, and other summer things. Hope we meet up again; Lyman’s abilities seemed about the same as mine–a good riding buddy.

Here is my Garmin charts:

I have not been very good at posting my exercise for the last week. Larissa has been visiting and I have changed my schedule so that I am running in the morning. I do a lot better when it is cool, I am rested, and I have eaten breakfast. Here are the morning runs I’ve done:

We decided to turn around several miles after we crossed Highway 29. The land had become very flat. It was farmland, with corn growing off to the sides. We went for about a mile in this terrain. Then suddenly we reached a large valley and the road dropped away for what appeared to be several miles. Since we had only planned on going 15 miles each way and we were approaching that mark, we decided to turn around a mile early, giving us a 28 mile total instead of 30.

After we finished the ride, we retraced our path in the pickup. Since this is all new road and it is not on Google maps yet, we wanted to see what the hill we avoided was like, and what was at the end of the road.

The road continues for seven more miles and ends at RR 2338, about four miles from Andice and about seven miles as the crow flies from Florence. Ten years ago, who would have thought that I would be riding my bike to Florence! That was the last major town before Killeen, which is the home of Fort Hood. My perception of distance has changed significantly since I first began riding my bicycle.

On a future ride, we will have to extend our route into Florence. Maybe we will even make it to Killeen someday.

The ride north:

Exploring in the pickup:

Here is the Motionbased report:

The first half of the run was over part of the same path we took last week. But where we turned down towards highway 360 last time, today we continued following the trail. Eventually, we hit a new road that had been bulldozed into the side of the hill. It was tragic; one moment we were in the thick woods, running along, and then suddenly we were in a rough road cut out of the forest. At this point we turned and headed back for our pickups.

We still have not found a trail to get down from the cliffs to the main parking lot at Bull Creek Park. We will have to continue searching next week.

Here is the Motionbased account of the run.

My very first Du and to be able to pull this off. Yippee! Guess all my running and biking has trained me better than I thought.

Now I need to start planning and training for bigger and better duathlons. This one was a small one, with two 2 mile runs, plus 10 miles on the bike. The next one in this series is two 3.1 miles and an 18 mile bike ride.

I had gotten Yankz! to put on my running shoes in preparation for the event. These are stretchable shoe laces that allow you to slip your running shoes on and off during the race. I also got a big orange Homer bucket from Home Depot to hold my shoes and helmet at the transition area. Plus it was really handy for transporting things!

Some of the things I need to think about getting in the future:

• A lighter weight jersey, perhaps even a sleeveless one. (The one I used was hot and it covered the numbers they had marked on my arm.)
• Nipple guards to make things more comfortable during and post-race.

Some of the things I need to do to make the race better:

• Go out and drive or preferably ride or run the course.
• Practice my transitions.
• Do some brick work outs.
• Go someplace where we can practice with long stretches of road way.

It all started off on a sour note. On Saturday I rode my Cannondale bike down to Jack and Adams to get my package of race day things. My numbers, tee shirt, and instructions on how to get to the event. Of course I wore my Garmin – I wear it for any exercise – and it worked flawlessly. When I got home, it had been about a twenty mile trip. I connected it to the computer to download the route. Motionbased kept telling me that it could not connect to my Garmin. I tried several times testing to make sure the Garmin was in the cradle, changed where the USB connector was plugged, finally rebooting the computer. All to no avail.

About this time I noticed that the text that is normally displayed was not on the screen. So I tried to power up the unit and it would not power up. At this point I was pretty bummed! I was counting on using it during the DU, to pace myself and record all the details of my first duathalon.

I talked to Marilyn and she reminded me that I had got the Garmin at REI just over a month ago. So we took the Garmin back downtown to the REI store. They exchanged it with no problems, since we had bought it with our membership card. To say that I was very relieved was an understatement.

This morning started on a much better note. I set my alarm for 4:30, and then I woke up several times in the night just to make sure that 4:30 had not already passed. When at 4:30 the alarm went off, I quickly started getting ready. The first order of business, of course, was coffee followed by my oatmeal mix.

I planned to leave at 5:30 to arrive at 6 AM. However, I was about 15 minutes late in getting off.

When I got there I was very happy to see Andrea, Daniel’s wife, there. It’s good to have someone who knows the ropes in helping you get set up and ready. She is in serious training for the Sacramento Marathon so she was not going to do this race. She was there simply as our cheering section, picture taker, and support crew. I am not sure how many triathlons she has done, but she is quite experienced. She has been training with some of the best athletic training programs in the city. It was really nice of her to come out and lend support to us newbies. Thank you, Andrea!

At 7:15 we had the pre-race talk, where the officials explained the route, the rules and introduce various people. At 7:30 they start the people who were doing the Double Du, and five minutes later the people who were doing the Du.

Daniel and I ran together for the first two mile run. Then at the first transition he got ahead of me and slowly pulled away on the bike. I probably should have reeled him in on the first hill, but there was several people I was jockeying with and I lost track of him.

When I got back in from the bike ride I was feeling pretty good. I probably should have pushed harder. But this is where having ridden the course ahead of time would have helped. I never really knew what was ahead or how much more to expect.

The second two mile run was a different story from the first. I don’t think I had run over a quarter of a mile when my legs became dead weights. My feet did not want to turn over but I plodded on. The only time I stopped to walk was at the turn-around and at the water stations.

Finally, about a quarter mile from the end I heard them announce that Daniel had crossed the finish line. A few minutes later I crossed the finish line.

We hung around and ate breakfast and a short time later they posted the results of the race. Andrea noticed that I had finished first in my age group and Daniel was fourth in his age group. So I hung around for the awards ceremony. I don’t get many awards.

Yippee!

Here is what my Garmin recorded. Unfortunately I did not get the last running leg and I did not change to biking mode until I had gone for about half a mile on the bike.

Run

Bike

Time: 01:27:09
Chip Time: 01:27:09
Bib: 144
Place: 49
Name: Gary Pickens
Gender: M
Age: 61
City: Austin
Class: M 60-64
Event: Dad’s Sprint Du
Class Pos: 1
Gender Pos: 33
Run 2 Mile Rank: 48
Run 2 Mile Time: 21:42
Run 2 Mile Pace: 10:52/M
T1 Time: 01:58
Bike 10 Mile Rank: 45
Bike 10 Mile Time: 40:14
Bike 10 Mile Pace: 14.9mph
T2 Time: 01:28
Run 2 Mile Pace: 10:51/M

This evening I was also experimenting with the Multisport setting on my watch so the run is broken into three sections. I wish the Multisport was integrated into the Training Center. It seems to be a powerful feature but lacking in many ways. For example, it would be nice to use courses or advanced workouts with particular legs of the run.

Here are the Motionbased reports:

Earlier in the week Daniel and I decided to go to the Dad’s Day Du in Leander, TX. This will be our first duathelon so we wanted to practice a little. We decided to run one mile, ride about ten miles (3 laps), then finish with a one mile run. Everything went pretty much as planned.

The first mile was brutal with the temperature about ninety-eight in the shade, and we were not in the shade for most of the run. Things got better on the bike, perhaps it had cooled down a bit or more likely we had faster air flowing around us. My average speed for the three laps was sixteen miles per hour, unfortunately I slowed down a lot toward the end. I suspect that the run before the ride had taken its toll or perhaps the temperature. In previous rides I have been able to spin up the final hill and lose very little speed. This evening I just could not make it happen.

On the final run I wimped out, we did half a mile and when we ran past the pickup I decided I that I had enough. It felt like I was hardly moving but as it turned out my pace was similar to the pace I did on the first mile.

In summary, I think we are in pretty good shape for the race. Hopefully the weather will be a lot better. The thing I will have to watch out for is not to burn out on the first two races. Save some energy for the last race and pour everything into it.

I need to get my Garmin to do Multi-sport mode. I have read how to set it up and how it should behave. This evening I need to practice with it.

Here is the results of my workout:

It was a hot day for running (97 when we started out, down from 101 earlier in the day). I will have to consider getting a second hand water bottle. We both just about went through our bottles of water.

We started out following the creek north and east until we reached Spicewood Springs road. At that point there was a trail that headed uphill, so we followed it. Rather than following the canyon valley, it climbed up and along the cliffs that line the south side of the canyon. For the most part the trail was in trees and shaded; occasionally there would be an opening where you could look out across the canyon and see large parts of the Texas hill country. It was beautiful!

There was one small canyon along the way that was particularly secluded. I bet the temperature dropped 20 degrees in the canyon. It sure felt good.

Now we were pretty much lost and running low on water; we came to a fork in the trail and were unsure which trail to follow, but we met a walker with his dog. We stopped and asked him directions. He told us that the trail we were taking would take us back to highway 360. The other forks would take us further southwest and there would be several more forks along the way that we would have to figure out. So we opted for the 360 route, and had to run on the shoulder for about a mile to get back where we parked.

Daniel and I talked about doing the Dad’s Day Du this weekend, its part of the Texas Du Series. It is in Leander, about 20 miles north of here. It looks like a small duathlon, perhaps a good one to get started doing triathlons.

1) I want to be able to get down to the river to run early in the morning. I really don’t want to drive a vehicle down to the river when gas is four dollars a gallon or more.

2) I want to figure out a way to Mozart’s coffee shop that allows me to ride my bike there. Mozart’s is used as the starting base for numerous bike ride these days, including a ride to the farmers market and several rides out of town, to Lytton Springs and Creedmoor, for example.

Today I wore my new florescent-green jersey, the one Marilyn says makes me visible blocks away. I normally dress in quiet colors, but not on a bike!

For some reason Motionbased is down so I can not upload my run. I will do it later.

Finally at 10 PM I was able to upload the file:

As a side note; Daniel and I are planning to ride the ACA Ride Saturday morning along Parmer Lane, the ride’s called There and Back hosted by Somer. Hopefully, the wind will not be like today. It would make the first half the ride nice, the ride north. However, when we turn and head south again it would be another story.

Here is the Motionbased report (Motionbased seems much better today; it has been really sick for the past several days):

Then on Saturday I rode the Cannondale bike down to the ARC meeting in the city hall complex (we actually met at the Fit City space in the complex). They elected new officers and gave out the awards for the Spring Sprint Series. I came in fourth in my age group so I did not win one of the ribbons, however, I did get a new technical tee shirt and a cloth bag for storing things in. Which will come in handy for carrying things on the bike. I used a plastic bag for the trip down town. (1899 calories on the trip!)

I left my bike at Mellow Johnny’s bike shop today while I was at the meeting. It worked out very well; they charged one dollar for the bike “parking” and they also provided a changing room and a place to leave my belongings. So I rode down in bicycling clothes and changed into something more appropriate for the meeting. (The meeting was for runners, not bicyclers!)

Mellow Johnny’s was a busy place. I’m not sure what was making it so popular, perhaps it’s the location adjacent to the farmers market, and just a few blocks from the meeting I was attending. They did say that there were about half a dozen other people who dropped off their bikes were headed to the same meeting I went to.

The next day, Sunday, I attended the Pfinally Pflugerville Hosted Bike ride sponsored by the Austin Cycling Association(ACA). The group leader was Eileen Schaubert and helped by Monte Morast.

We rode twenty-four mile route, with the last half into a strong head wind. I guess the wind was probably doing about fifteen MPH. Unfortunately, Motionbased has been down all day, so I have not been able to upload my ride.

I think there were about ten to fifteen people signed up for the hosted ride. About halfway though, some of the people went off the front, and so at the end there was only about four or five of us. All in all, it was a good ride. (1536 calories)

On Sunday afternoon I walked to the drugstore, and that burned another 231 calories.

So for the weekend I burned a total of six thousand calories!

I ran the new route one time and cut the second lap a little short.

I think I am getting acclimated to the heat; it was ninety three and it did bother me as much as a couple of days ago.

Marilyn went out for a walk at the same time as I did. I think she did a mile.

Here is the Motionbased results:

Yesterday spoiled me with the cool temperatures, this evening was hot, temperatures in the low nineties. However, there was no wind, thank goodness! We rode for about two hours with a moving speed of about fifteen MPH.

Here is the Garmin results:

Here is what the weather was doing during my run. Notice the drop in temperature at about 7 PM.

Here is my Motionbased report:

I only saw one mishap; a rider was coming down Congress fast on a well-equipped triathlon bike. The slower riders ahead of him started moving to the left. This forced the faster rider into the barricades. After a brief pause, the rider recovered his bearings and continued on.

There were more bike types than I knew existed: New ones, old ones, numerous mountain bikes, comfort bikes, road bikes, and special triathlon bikes. The triathlon bikes came in all sorts of configurations, including some with disc back wheels that rumbled as the rode past, and several bikes that did not have a seat tube.

I watched for about an hour, but did not see anyone that I knew, so I found a coffee shop to refuel for the trip back home.

Here is the Garmin view of the trip:

The route started at 8 AM from Braker Lane and Jollyville road, crossed over to Parmer Lane, then went north to the intersection of Highway 180 and Ronald Reagan Boulevard (just a mile north of 1431). In total it was about 28 miles, at a moderate pace. It’s a perfect ride for anyone new to cycling or anyone who wants a leisurely ride through far north Austin.

The ride leader was Somer, with Billy, Garth, and myself as riders. Both Billy and Garth were from Britain and it was interesting to hear about their home countries. Garth was from Bath, in England’s West Country, and moved to Austin with Dell. Billy is Scottish, originally from a town out side of Glasgow.

Somer said she doesn’t ride a lot, but she has some very interesting rides planned in the near future: tomorrow she will be riding in the Capital of Texas Triathlon, then a few weeks later she will be taking part in the Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). She’s obviously more dedicated than I am!

About halfway through the ride, we took a break, for a cup of coffee, etc.

Here is the Garmin version of the ride today:

Here is the Motionbased record:

Plus this was the first real warm day of the season so I have not had time to acclimatized. I am sure by the end of August it will feel like a cold front when the temperature is only ninety seven.

I walked several times through out the run. I guess both times was when I crossed the river. Here is the Motionbased results:

Today was a perfect day for a run. I woke up at 5:30 AM to get ready. I had decided to ride my bike the seven miles to the race start. So shortly after the sun had come up, I rode down to the start line. This year was a little different than in the past, when the race started at the capitol and went down the hill to the Colorado River. But this year there was some other event that prevented that, so we started on the south side of Congress Avenue,just over the bridge on the Colorado River, ran across the bridge to Cesar Chavez (formerly 1st Street), then turned east and ran one block to Brazos St. We turned and ran three blocks north to 4th street, then turned back west to get to Congress Avenue. Once on Congress Avenue, we headed back to the start/finish line across the bridge.

One of the problems with this scheme was since the same gate was being used for the start and finish, the officials could not start one group until most of the runners from the previous group had arrived. The group that I was supposed to start with was about 15 minutes late and so the officials joined my group with the next group. Therefore, I was supposed to run with the men and women 60+. Instead, I ran with the 40+ group. It was fine; both groups did not have that many people.

The actual race was really good. I did a lot to warm up. First, I rode my bike down to the start area and locked it up. Then, about 30 to 45 minutes before the race, I jogged for about half a mile.

The only problem was that I should try to get my heart rate up closer to my racing heart rate. Which for a race such as this is high. I only got it up to 130, and I think 140 would have been better. Then there was a lot of time between my warm-up run and the actual start of the race. It would probably be better to have the two closer.

At the start, I ran strongly, the same as everybody else, but about two hundred meters into the race my heart and lungs were telling me to slow down. Therefore, I had no choice but to obey. From that point on, I just tried to push as hard as I could, without pushing too hard. When we turned the final corner and started running down hill to the finish line I think I should have dug a little harder and recovered a little more time.

Here is the Garmin account of the race:

Here is the ride down to the start:

And here is the ride home: (Note that I did not start recording for some ways)

I made two stops on the way home. First I stopped at the Saturday-morning farmer’s market and bought a blueberry muffin. I was hoping to meet the group of riders from ACA who were doing the hosted ride. In particular, I was looking for Monte to ask if I could join their group and return to Mozart’s, but I never saw him.

The next stop was Mellow Johnny’s for a cup of coffee. From there I headed home. Well, I guess there was one more thing. Biking through the University of Texas was interesting. There were all sorts of people wearing graduation gowns showing their parents and friends around. The traffic was heavy getting though UT, so I was glad when I made it out of the campus.

I would like to do this run at least once a week through out the summer.

Here is the Motionbased results:

The first interval was a warm up interval where I wanted to get my heart rate up to 125 beats per minute. That I did as can be seen in the graph. On race day I think I should get my heart rate up to thirty and maintain that for a several at least five minutes.

The second interval was the test interval where I ran all out for one mile. The time was eight and a half minutes. Not bad! I hope being in a race and going down hill I can cut some time off that. We’ll see on Saturday.

The last two interval were at seven and a half miles per hour and eight miles per hour and last for a quarter of a mile.

The two main things that happened was I forgot to start the GPS at the start of the run. We had run about a mile when I remembered to start it.

And number two was I fell, at about mile 3, and cut my knee. I continued on running and washed it up when I got home. We’ll see how it’s doing tomorrow morning.

Here is the Motionbased report:

The race course was perfect; it started off with a slight downhill run, then it went slowly uphill for about a mile, followed by a long and gradual descent downhill to the finish. The elevation gain was only about eighty feet in one mile, so it was not something you really noticed, and the elevation change was only ninety feet over several miles.

The weather was almost perfect. The temperature was in the mid seventies, but the humidity at about eighty percent. I was drenched by the time I finished. Here is my chip time.

I finished right at thirty one minutes with a ten minute pace.

This put me at an eighth in my age group out of twelve runners. If I could take off one minute, and get my time below thirty minutes, I could have moved up three places. I was in four hundredth place overall out of three thousand runners and walkers, and eighth in my age group.

I will have to do this race again in coming years, because I really enjoyed it. It was very well-organized by the Special Olympics backers and the course was good.

Next week is the 2008 Puma Congress Avenue Mile, I would like to do it but I will be giving blood on Tuesday and looking at my times from recent events, I think I will be one of the last finishers in my age group.

I’ve not run a mile since high school, but it would be fun to see what I could do. Nine minutes? No matter what time I do it in, it will be a PR, since high school does not count, that was too long ago. It would be running downhill from the Capitol. I’ll see how I’m doing Wednesday on my training run before signing up.

It was my first run with the new Garmin. It worked great, I did have some trouble uploading the files to Motionbased. I think the problem was on the Motionbased side however and not with my Garmin.

The race was on the grounds of the State Hospital, which was established in 1856, with the first patients admitted in 1861. The race started in front of the administration building, built in 1856. It was open for viewing on race day. The hospital was originally called the Texas State Lunatic Asylum but was renamed the Austin State Hospital in 1925. I was planning to visit the administration building and see what it was like, especially since the school where I had my Navy training was an old Civil War era hospital. However, I did not have a chance to do this with everything else that was happening on race day.

The race course consisted of two loops around the hospital grounds with very little elevation change. However, today there was a strong cold wind out of the north.

Yesterday I laid everything I would need out so I would not have to bother Marilyn, as I planned to get ready at 5:30 AM. This included getting my commuter bike ready for the ride down to the hospital. However, when I stepped out this morning I had second thoughts about riding my bike. It was cold (mid 50s) and windy (about 20 MPH gusts.) Therefore, I went back in and turned on the light in the bedroom to find a windbreaker for the ride (so much for my plans not to disturb Marilyn!)

As part of my preparations, I put on my Garmin (the one I was having problems with in my last post) and turned it on. For the most part, it was working okay. However, occasionally it would power down when I would hit the down key (middle button on right). Finally, I stopped using that button and it did not die as much. I successfully got a track down to the hospital, but the track of the race and the ride home were combined into one record.

I used SportTracks to break the track into two tracks, but I lost the heart rate data. Therefore, I have five tracks uploaded to www.Motionbased.com.

The ride down to the hospital went very well, just as it should have been, with a tail wind and riding downhill! At 7:00 in the morning, there is not much traffic on the road so I had trouble getting across some of the intersections because my bike did not trigger the signals. At Koenig and Guadalupe, I had to go over and press the walk button to get the light to change. Also, at the entrance to the Hospital the light never changed and finally, when there were no cars coming from either direction, I crossed.

My Garmin data.

The race started at 8 o’clock sharp. Since I had run the course before I knew where it went, so there were no surprises. The last time they had us go out to 45th street and then double back. This time we ran along the perimeter of the grounds on the northeast side.

I finished in 103rd place overall, fourth in my age group, with a time of 31:08, which translates to a pace of 10:02.8 minutes per mile.

My Garmin data.

The ride home was about the same as the ride down. I had trouble getting across Koenig and had to go over and press the walk button. Shortly thereafter, another bicyclist came along and waited at the light. He was doing a track stand while we waited for the light to change. After a bit, I commented that he was doing a very good track stand. After I complimented him I was afraid that perhaps I had jinxed him. However, he continued to do the track stand. Finally, he gave up and made a loop at the stop light. As soon as his back was turned, the light changed. I was quite a ways down the street when he passed me.

My Garmin Track

Interval one = 1 mile at six and a half MPH.
Interval two = .6 mile at six and a half MPH.

For some reason, at about the half mile point I started occasionally kicking my left ankle bone and it began to get pretty sore. I tolerated it for awhile, but then I started worrying that I would fall on the treadmill, so I slowed it down.

My third interval was a little slower and I only ran half a mile. I added a forth interval that was a little slower yet, and the distance was a little less.

In total I ran about three and a half miles.

After dunking my Garmin in the Barton Creek during my last run it has not been working, so I don’t have a heart rate graph to display.

About a year ago I fell while trying to cross Barton Creek and the watch got soaked, like this time. That time it took about a week for it to dry out and start working again, and I sure hope it starts working better again this time. I have gotten so I depend on it to set my pace, and I have a race which I have been training for all spring coming up this weekend.

I was checking the warranty on the watch and it is for one year only, and of course I have now owned the watch for one year and two weeks. If it does not start working this weekend, I will have to work something out — or maybe I will get the new Garmin Forerunner 405. I bet that baby wouldn’t have trouble taking a dip in Barton Creek!

We entered the Greenbelt at the 360 access point and ran west; about three quarters of a mile the path turned into a narrow ledge along a cliff. The path is slippery and dangerous at the best of times and with the resent rains it was worse, so we decided to turn around and go the other direction, back towards the east.

At about this point we met a guy taking his two dogs for a walk–a mama dog and her four-month old pup. There was a small stream of water near them, about two inches deep and five feet across, and that baby pup just did not want to cross the water. It took all three of us, Daniel, me, and the dog’s owner, to coax the little dog across the creek. After that, the little dog wanted to run with Daniel and me, and I almost wanted to bring him home–I wondered what my wife might say about that… and the cat would probably have some choice words, too.

At about mile two of our run, along the new route, we crossed the creek; the water was about a foot deep and probably two hundred yards across. It felt really refreshing. I would guess the temperature of the water was in the low sixties. It was great until I fell.

There was a good current and the bottom was slippery with a lot of large rocks that required you to place your feet very carefully. The water was very muddy, so you couldn’t see where to put your feet. You had to do it by feel, and the current was strong enough to give quite a pull every time you took a step.

I was about half way across and the current was about at its maximum when my foot slipped and I went down. I was able to quickly scramble to my feet and continue across the creek, but I was wet and muddy.

When I got to the far side I checked my cell phone and wallet and they were dry in their plastic zip-lock bag. I was carrying a bottle of water and it went down into the brackish water, so I did not drink any more from that bottle on the run; I was getting thirsty by the time we got back to the starting point. (The dirty bottle is now in the dish washer, waiting to be cleaned and sterilized.)

Daniel and I continued until we reached the second crossing of the creek and there we turned back to head for our pickups. The crossing on the return trip went much better than the first time–I was very careful!

Here is the Garmin view of the run:

The actual number of participants was somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,500 people, according to Rick Perry, the current Governor of Texas, in his welcoming speech, but not all of them were timed. Governor Perry has been working to get a statewide physical fitness program going, and the Texas Roundup is his Austin event. This was the largest turnout in the five year history of the race. There was a 1 K race for kids and families, around the Capitol complex at the top of Congress Avenue, plus a 5 K (down Congress to the river, and back again) as well as the 10 K that I ran.

Actually, I felt good about the race. I was worried about the two long uphill sections, but I was able to power up those fairly easily. I guess all the training has helped out!

I remember that several years ago, doing the Keep Austin Weird race, I had to to run from Riverside up Congress to about Oltrof and how it about killed me. It’s an elevation gain of about 200 feet in one and a half miles. I guess the main difference (other than my training level) was that on race day the temperature was about 110.

The temperature for today’s race was in the low sixties and a little wind. Almost perfect conditions!

The Round-Up played host to the USATF Masters Race which had really talented runners from all over the nation.

Although the start area, just down from the Capitol, was a very pretty location, it was too really small for the number of people queued up to start the race. There was a section for the eleven minute runners, which I wanted to try, but I was never able to even get close to it. It only took me about two and a half minutes to get to starting line. There was a lot of zig-zagging the first mile, passing slower runners and walkers.

The end was great; we came down 11th street, a steep hill to the south of the Capitol, made a left turn and ran about a half block down Congress. At first I was holding back, but then I decided to let go, there wasn’t more than a block or two to the finish. So I quickly passed the lady that had just passed me and flew to the finish line. For a little bit I was wondering if I could make the corner onto Congress, but I had no problems. I don’t think I have run that fast on the street since high school!

I really liked the race and will try to do it again in the future; the only problem is, it’s the same day as the Red Poppy Bicycle Ride in Georgetown, which I also like.

Here is my Garmin results:

The group was a whole lot faster than I remembered from last year; perhaps it was a different group. Anyway, I enjoyed myself. Bill and I were about the same pace, at least up until the half-way point, so I talked a little with him. He and his wife (who was running also, but she was in the fast group) moved here from Los Angles about a year ago. They come to this run about twice a month and were going to the social hour after the run. This will be their first time to attend the social hour.

I talked to Troy about the run and about the upcoming races. His favorite race is the half marathon, but he did the Daisy 5K recently. Josh will be doing the Roundup this Saturday; he appears to be a strong runner, so I expect he will do well. This will be his first 10K race.

This last week the running group did a hill workout along Stratford Drive; it sounded grueling!

In conclusion, I really liked the run and I think I will go back. Hopefully, it will help get my speed up.

Here is Garmin version of the run. It was a good tempo run.

1. I need to add press lap button to the start of the first 12 minute run. I currently have it set to start the 12 minute run when my HR goes above 130 BPM. Tonight I did not notice when when my heart rate reached 130, so I did not run the full time, and I did an easy pace. Never heard the beep!
2. Breaking the eight intervals into two sets of four intervals: On the first set, run until I reach 145 beats per minute(BPM); and on the second set, run until I reach 150 BPM.

   Tonight I tried running until I reached 150 BPM, I never reached that on the first several intervals, so I finally stopped about three beats short of my goal, and after that I was so tired that I did not run as strongly as I would have liked. About half way through the run, I had no problem reaching that 150 BPM so I thought I would leave the second set of four the same.

Given the short-comings in the program, I felt I did pretty well. Several of the final intervals I was running at eight MPH for at least a minute, and I was able to control my breathing better than in the past. I will have to incorporate several intervals at that speed in the future, and try to extend the time and practice controlling my breathing.

As I said earlier, the first interval was short; it was supposed to be twelve minutes but in actuality it was about nine minutes.

Here are my heart rates during the run:

One of the first things that gave us a clue was the mountain bikes — three of them — that were parked in the creek bed. Shortly after we saw them, we could hear muffled voices coming from the cliff directly ahead. As we progressed slowly up the canyon we spotted a young man standing on a ledge about fifteen feed above the river bed.

So we climbed about half way up the cliff and talked to the guy. He said that he and several of his buddies had found the cave on Google Earth, also and had come out to find it. They had ventured further into the cave than this guy wanted to go, so he had come back out. He described a little of what it was like inside.

After listening to his descriptions of the interior, neither of us were particularly keen on entering the cave, so we continued our run. We continued around the bend towards Zilker Park, going for another one a a half miles before we headed back towards our pickup trucks. The first half mile after the cave was rough going, because we were running on the river bed, which consisted of rocks of every size and shape. Not very forgiving on legs and feet!

Also, tonight I just did not feel like running. I am not really sure what the cause might have been. Perhaps the bike ride the day before wore me out more than I thought, or maybe I was tired because my sleep was so bad the night before. (I tossed and turned until about midnight when I got up and took Extra Strength Acetaminophen PM.)

Link to Garmin data.

The 30 mile ride started at the Regions Bank/Whataburger Parking Lot at the corner of MoPac and William Cannon and went north to the Upper Crust Bakery on Burnet Road, and back again. However, I rode from my house, about 5 miles north of Upper Crust Bakery, down to the start, and then back north with the group, so I did only half the ride with the group.

It was a great ride. We picked our way along the back streets of south Austin and on up to the bakery in North central Austin. The weather was perfect, in the low sixties at the start of the ride, it started misting just as we left, but it soon stopped. Along the way, we added Eileen S. to the group, as we went across the foot bridge which goes over the Colorado River and under the Mopac Expressway.

Eileen is an instructor for the bike safety classes and she was very knowledgeable about riding bikes in auto traffic. I am sure I could learn a lot riding with her; I hope she attends many more of these rides. Also, I think she is one of the instigators of the new ACA hosted ride series — and in a couple of weeks she is going to be working at the new Lance Armstrong store!

It was an interesting trip to see how people traverse from south Austin to north Austin. It was the farthest south I have been on my bike; I have been to St Edward’s University by bicycle, but this was considerably further. It was almost down to the Veloway and Southwest Park Way – near where I work. I have been considering riding my bicycle to work, so I was real excited to see this ride — although it didn’t cover the dangerous last half-mile or so to my job.

My only regret is that I did not ride back to South Austin with the group. It would have been very interesting to see the path that they took. During rush hour, I’m not sure that I would want to take the path to the start that I took today.

Here are two motionbased reports. The first is the ride down to the start, and the second is the ride back home. Interesting, for a first-time journey.

It was great to have a nice long ride near home, so that I didn’t need to drive the pickup miles out into the country. At $60.00 for a tank of gas, plus the carbon emissions from the internal combustion engine, taking a vehicle to a bike ride is getting less “green” every day, so I salute the ACA efforts to start a new sort of biking activity.

Here is the Garmin Data.

Walk to clothes cleaners:

Walk to barber shop:

Bike ride to grocery store and post office:

I have been doing three or four times a week, so I am trying to step it up a bit. The aerobic exercises will not be a problem. The resistance exercise will take a little more work since I have been doing very little of that.

Here is my heart rate for this evenings run:

1. Run until heart rate goes above 130 BPM.
2. Run eleven minutes at 6.5 MPH.
3. Repeat the following steps 8 times:
1. Go until heart rate goes below 120 BPM.
2. Go until heart rate goes above 145 BPM.

The run was OK, but I am going to make the following modifications before my next interval workout.

1. Add a step at the beginning, to get past the hike in heart rate.
2. Modify step 2 to run twelve minutes at 6.5 MPH.
3. Modify the 2.2 to 150 BPM rather than 145 BPM.
4. Add a step after 2.2, to hold the current speed and heart rate for one minute.
5. Add a final step to last 30 minutes.

Here is what the results looked like from today’s run:

One thing that was disappointing was how little water was in the creek. Last year the creek was a beautiful green, running full bank to bank, this year most of the creek was empty, with only a few low spots containing stagnant water. Not a good sign this early in the year!

All the trees today were a beautiful young bright green that comes early in the spring and in a few spots we would get whiffs of honeysuckle. Almost enough to make you want to stop and bask in the sights and scents of the new season.

But alas, we were dedicated runners, and we continued with our training.

Here is the route that we followed:

I did not do as well as I was hoping. I was shooting for a time under 30 minutes, however my chip time was 0:32:21. Considerably slower than last year, which was 0:30:47. I think the biggest problem was I knew the course this year, and the first mile and a half are uphill, so I thought I would take it easy for the first half, than kick it in on the second half. This I did; my split times are:

1. 0:10:40
2. 0:10:36
3. 0:9:11

But it was not enough to get me in on (under) time.

For the first half I kept pace with the people around me. Next time I need to move a little ahead at the start gate or pass people who are going slower than what I need to be doing.

Also, I need to set up my Garmin to report better data or learn to interpret the numbers better. I was using the basic time and distance setting. I was watching the virtual partner and I realized he was getting ahead of me but I thought I could catch him on the last mile of the race.

Perhaps if I set up an advanced workout knowing that the first mile would be slightly up hill, mile two would be over some steep hills and mile three would be down hill. Perhaps, I could work out what I would need to run to arrive in my allotted time.

My heart rate does not appear correct for yesterday’s run so I replaced the battery in the heart rate chest strap. Hopefully, this will take care of all the problems I have been having recording my heart rate.

Perhaps my slowdown has more to do with my giving blood several weeks ago and not with the way I ran. In the future I should give blood at the end of the spring and fall running/cycling season, not at the beginning.

Although at the end of the race I did not feel as exhausted as I generally do. I think I need to learn how to pace myself better so I get to the end with no fuel in the tank.

Here is Garmin’s version of the run:

Here is my heart rate during the run:

I managed to spot the high heart rate on the Garmin while I was running so I checked it on the treadmill and it was what I would have expected. So it appears that the initial high heart rate that I have been seeing on the graphs is an anomaly with the Garmin. Not that I am getting younger. Darn! Now I will have to try to figure out what is happening with the Garmin. I guess I had better get out the manual and do some Google searches.

Before I got to the gym I really did not want to do intervals, yet once I was done I wanted to get back on the treadmill and grind out some more. But my wife warned me not too overdo it this morning. It’s been about five days since she came down with the flu, and if the incubation period is five days, it must be about my turn, and I don’t want it. Especially if I get it as bad as she has it. So I quit and came home.

The trail was under construction at the First Street Bridge so we had to loop back and cross the river at James D. Pfluger Bridge. It looks like the trail will be under construction for some time.

Daniel will be starting Rogue‘s trail run class next week and will not be able to run on Wednesdays. However, he said that, as part of the class, he is suppose to do fartlek on a trail on Monday. So perhaps we can meet up to do that.

Several minutes before the race started, it started to rain lightly. It let up for the start of the race, but it was enough rain to get our clothes wet. The temperature was about 70 degrees, so the rain did not chill us too much. About two blocks up Congress avenue it started raining again, and continued lightly for the rest of the race.

At about mile five and a half, I had to stop for a quick break. This probably added a minute or so to my time.

My official chip time was 1:09:59 at a pace of 11:16.

.Here is my Garmin Results

The route started at Samsung’s new FAB in northeast Austin and headed out eas,t past such such notable cities as Cele, Norman Crossing, Rices Crossing and Manda. (All with populations of less than 100.) In Cele, I rode along with a lady who was wearing a Fat Cycliest jersey. So we chatted about the blog for several miles. She said she is a regular reader. She was going a bit slower than I wanted, so after a mile or two I said good-bye and rode on. Then after that, at each rest stop I would pass her again. I guess I spend too much time eating, drinking and chatting. But that’s part of the fun.

Shortly after Norman Crossing, I started noticing that someone was drafting me, After several miles I slowed down for some riders in front, and a woman went around me. After I got around the next batch of riders, I caught up with her and started drafting her. After a little way, I decided I had better go up and introduce myself. Her name is Susan and she has a son who goes to Rosedale School. So we rode through Rices Crossing and I finally lost her at the Manda rest stop. She was very interesting to chat with, as she has done many of the big rides in the US and Europe. She also suggested that I read a book called Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy—Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley and M.D., Henry S. Lodge. When I got home I showed my wife the books on Amazon, she was so interested that she ordered them–the one for men and the one for women.

The wind was out of the north, probably about 5 – 10 MPH, so the ride back into Austin was really nice. Especially on the four miles leading into Manda, the road was as smooth as glass, no automobiles in sight (and if there were you could have seen them for miles) and no trees or big structures to block the wind.

I averaged 20 MPH on that stretch of the road with no effort. When I turned into the wind, I noticed considerable reduction in speed.

Here is the official record from Garmin:

I warmed up for about ten minutes, then started gradually speeding up. I ran for ten minutes at six MPH, then increased the speed to 6.5 for an additional ten minutes. I then kicked the speed up to seven MPH for five minutes. Finally, I had a spurt of seven and a half MPH before stopping. The spurt lasted half a minute. In total I ran for forty minutes and covered a little over three and a half miles.

In summary, I felt very good about this run. It is the fastest I have ever run in recent history. I slowed down only twice during the first thirty minutes to drink water and those slow downs were only to about five MPH (A slow run.)

I did have problems right at the end of my warmup. I was trying to increase the slope of the treadmill and I accidentally hit the emergency stop. The treadmill came to a halt and I was not able to get going again. Finally I changed to the treadmill that was next to mine. The gym has mounted the audio device right in front of the incline button and I always have trouble getting my hand around the device to increase the incline. The emergency button is a large red button right next to the incline button and the slightest bump will stop the treadmill. Luckily, the treadmill next to me had been vacated just a minute or two earlier.

The weather was perfect for riding, the temperature was right at seventy degrees and the wind was below ten MPH. The first quarter mile I felt chilled but once I got my internal furnace going I never noticed the temperature again.

I guess there was one other time when I noticed the weather. On the back section, where Daniel and I were going 25 MPH, we had a head wind so it was not as easy to get up to the speed that Daniel and I were getting.

Here is Motionbased version of the ride:

I need to ride in the big chainring and force my legs to work harder. I have always tried to find the sweet spot where my spin is fast and the legs are not working too much. For the next few times I am going to try a lap in high. Hopefully, this should help develop the strength in my lower body.

We followed the trail down to the creek, then followed the creek on the south side until it ran out. We then found a place to ford the creek and continued running along the north side of the creek. I was hoping to make it to the hill of life but we decided to turn back before we made it.

It was a challenge to run up the hill at the end but we made it with only a few walk breaks.

Daniel said he twisted his ankle when we were running along the north side of the creek and it was bothering him a little when we finished. Hope it doesn’t get worse, it is sure easy to do. There is rocks and roots scattered along every path we follow.

Here is MotionBased version of the run:

I had two goals: run longer than normal and continue working on speed. So I set the treadmill up for 50 minutes and did about twelve intervals. Some were short with a high speed and others were long with a slower speed. The top speed I did this evening was 7 MPH.

Here is a graph of my heart rate: