Lake Travis Triathlon

Today I competed in my first "official" sprint-distance triathlon (the Lost Pines Triathlon wasn't exactly sprint distance), the Lake Travis Triathlon. It's put on by the same people that do the Capital of Texas Triathlon on Memorial Day, which is the race I'm really trying to train for. When I signed up for the race (just last Sunday, although I'd been thinking about it for a couple of weeks before), I was hoping to finish in the 1:15-1:20 range. But then, on Wednesday, I pulled my left calf muscle somehow, and considered not racing. I adjusted my target time to 1:20-1:30 accordingly, and while I'm hardly ecstatic about at 1:24:35 time, I think it went okay for my first open water swim race and with the injury.

Pittsburgh/PA-MD-WV highpoints

As I have the past few years, I flew up to Pittsburgh this week to take part in Carnegie Mellon's Spring Carnival. I figured this year, I would go a little bit earlier to take a little road trip to pick up the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia high points. It was a pretty good trip, but ultimately left me completely exhausted trying to relive my college years.

Pedal Power Wildflower Ride

Yesterday I participated in the Pedal Power Wildflower Ride, benefiting the Hill Country Children's Advocacy Center. I did the full distance, 60 miles, through the lovely hill country. I even tacked on a couple of miles at the end to make it a full 100 kilometers, aka a metric century. Despite this being one of the worst years for wildflowers since I've lived in the area (due to drought conditions), it was a nice ride and we had good weather. I survived the ride, maybe a little worse for wear, in just under 4 hours.