A Different Kind of Ride

I met Shannon dark and early on Friday morning at Barton Springs for a return to the adventures of aqua-jogging. We ended up "jogging" for about 1 hr 15min, which is a pretty damn good workout. She was in a normal bathing suit and I was in my full wetsuit--and still bitching about being cold. I'm such a wuss.

After we finished our aqua-jog, I had planned to swim at least two laps. I'm not sure if it was a combination of factors, but after 1 1/2, I was mentally and physically done. I think the jog took more out of me than I thought. Plus, it really had been a hard workout week. My time for the first lap was still good for me (9:06), but it was a harder effort than I was hoping. It didn't help that the water quality measured "icky" on the scale clean to murky. Time to start working on endurance. We even suggested the idea of swimming first next time to see how it goes.

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Saturday was a new adventure all together. I suspended my usual Saturday morning long run routine for a different adrenaline flow all together. We are the new proud owners of a "gently used" Midnight Blue Vespa LX150 and both Shawn and I took motorcycle/scooter beginner rider courses all day today! We were in the same class as people learning how to ride a motorcycle, so I looked pretty goofy on my borrowed bright yellow scooter, but I truly didn't care! Once I got over the initial fear of the bike weight, throttle and turns, the day turned out to be pretty darn fun. It kinda was like learning to ride a tri bike while clipped into the pedals. Once you get used to the feel, everything becomes second nature. It made us both feel like kids again and I know we're excited to hit the roads of Austin soon enough. And when I say, "hit the roads," I don't mean that literally. That would not be good. It just makes perfect sense since we live so close to downtown, the Hike and Bike Trail, my job, etc. Pretty much everything I do is within a 3 mile radius so hopping on a scooter to go downtown makes perfect sense--especially for parking purposes. Can't wait!!

Learning something new like that is mentally and physically taxing, but it's no marathon. At 7pm tonight, we went out for a 5 mile run to unwind from an adventure-filled day. We have 5 more hours of controlled riding and lessons tomorrow and then it's all up to us!