50 miles!

As of today’s swim, I have now swum 50 miles (50.77, actually) since I started with the Master Swim program at the beginning of August.

I really need to enter some triathlons next year. I did a few mini-triathlons a few years ago, but have only really done biking events for the last few years. Of course, I’ll need to get more serious about my running if I plan to do more triathlons.

Speaking of biking, Marci and I did the Wurst Ride this past weekend:

For this ride, we usually have my parents bring our kids down to Wurst Fest after the ride and get a ride back to the start with them. This year, however, we had other plans for the evening so we needed an alternate way back to the truck. I eventually realized that the short portion of the ride that we were doing was short enough that riding back to the truck was only a small stretch for me and I decided to do it. Marci rode back part of the way and I picked her up at the last/first rest stop. It worked out well.

I did another ride back at the beginning of October with Travis and his son:

Now it’s becoming winter, so nothing more ’til spring, probably.

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Wurst Ride and Wurstfest

Last Saturday Marci, Travis and I participated in the Wurst Ride, a 100K ride from south Austin to New Braunfels. New Braunfels is the location of the annual Oktoberfest celebration, Wurstfest. For Marci and me, this was the third consecutive year to participate in this ride and it is one of my favorites.

Last year there was a bit of a headwind, but this year the weather was great, including some nice cloud cover for the first couple of hours. We are currently experiencing an extended period of perfect weather in Austin. It happens most years in both spring and fall, but varies greatly in length. This fall’s nice weather has been wonderful and I hope it continues for a few weeks, at least.

The cost of the Wurst Ride includes tickets to Wurstfest, so we headed there after enjoying the post ride amenities (beer and brauts). Additionally, my parents had driven down, with my kids and grandmother, to join us at Wurstfest and to provide transportation home. We didn’t stay as late as we have some years, but the kids still got in plenty of carnival rides.

Now, for the first time in months, I don’t have an organized bike ride to anticipate. I guess I should see about finding one….

Flashback Friday: Action, No Action

Because I’m having trouble coming up with a topic, and in honor of the fact that we’re doing the Wurst Ride again tomorrow (third year in a row!), here’s my post from after the ride last year. Again this year we’ve been pretty bad about training for it, though at least we managed a ride last weekend. Marci in particular hasn’t been riding much, so she’s going to do the 42K route again this year, though she’s not accompanying anyone and so is likely going to wait for us to get to her starting point.

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As I mentioned previously, this weekend I participated in the Wurst Ride, a 100 kilometer bike ride from Austin to Wurst Fest in New Braunfels. I did this ride last year as well, and I must say that it was more difficult this year. I attribute this primarily to the fact that I hadn’t ridden at all since the Outlaw Trail three weeks prior, though I think the wind may have been less favorable this year as well.

Marci was originally going to do the full 100K with us (as she did last year, which may be her longest ride), but a friend of ours decided to join us for her first bike ride so Marci did the 42K route with her instead. After the ride, my mother brought our kids down and we hung out at Wurst Fest for several hours, including spending some time with some friends that we hadn’t seen in quite some time. Lots of food, lots of people, lots of fun.

Not surprisingly, our Sunday was spent sleeping and veg’ing in front of the TV. I really need to make a better effort of at least kicking my kids outside for a while even if I’m not joining them. The weather was so nice this weekend that I’m now feeling guilty that we didn’t take advantage of it better on Sunday.

Action, No Action

As I mentioned previously, this weekend I participated in the Wurst Ride, a 100 kilometer bike ride from Austin to Wurst Fest in New Braunfels. I did this ride last year as well, and I must say that it was more difficult this year. I attribute this primarily to the fact that I hadn’t ridden at all since the Outlaw Trail three weeks prior, though I think the wind may have been less favorable this year as well.

Marci was originally going to do the full 100K with us (as she did last year, which may be her longest ride), but a friend of ours decided to join us for her first bike ride so Marci did the 42K route with her instead. After the ride, my mother brought our kids down and we hung out at Wurst Fest for several hours, including spending some time with some friends that we hadn’t seen in quite some time. Lots of food, lots of people, lots of fun.

Not surprisingly, our Sunday was spent sleeping and veg’ing in front of the TV. I really need to make a better effort of at least kicking my kids outside for a while even if I’m not joining them. The weather was so nice this weekend that I’m now feeling guilty that we didn’t take advantage of it better on Sunday.

Outlaw Trail 100

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Travis and I did the 100K bike loop of the Outlaw Trail. It was a good ride with nice weather and “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!” afterward. The night before, my parents and my family went to the pre-ride pasta dinner. Little did we know that we would be the opening scene of the promo video. I also found an image of Travis and me at the starting line:

Travis and Ren at the start of the Outlaw Trail bike ride

Next week, the Wurst Ride followed by Wurst Fest. Yum! They have a pretty cool interactive ride map, and they even let people embed it thusly: