Weekend Trips and Nice Cool Dips

I am taking off work early this Friday and driving down to Bandera. Nancy's training group are running there on Saturday morning so we're going to camp overnight. Maybe I can get in a training run on Friday afternoon (a first sighting for Cactus Rose and Bandera), maybe not. Either way I'm not bothered - it's Gavin's first camping trip and we will have a good time. We have to get back to town by midday on Saturday because Nancy needs to rack her bike for the Danskin triathlon on Sunday. My weekends are getting booked up quickly. Next weekend is the Dr Pepper 10k in Dublin, then the following Saturday I am running the Scenic Drive between Bastrop and Buescher State Parks with some friends. I'm thinking about going down the night before and camping out but we'll see how Gavin does this weekend first. The day after that Nancy is doing the Pflugerville triathlon and the following week is the final race in the Rogue Trail series. Then we're into July.

We're going to visit the swimming pool at Walnut Creek tonight. Gavin loves the water, and I'm looking forward to teaching him how to swim - that is going to be one of our special father-son things. I used to be a competitive swimmer in my younger days and I want my boy to be as confident and "at home" in the water as I am. I need to start swimming more too - it's a great cross training. I wish the pools here stayed open longer - with our climate it seems such a waste that most of them close in August.

I went to the Hill of Life last night to run repeats on the big hill. Man, it was hot. I set my goal for 4 repeats and managed it, but had to have recovery breaks between repeats (and walk part of the uphills). And I thought I was good at hills too - I guess I have some work to do!!! I figure it took me on average 10 minutes to complete one down and up. By the end, I was sweating like a politician on a lie detector - I could wring the water out of my shirt (yuck). Here's the odd thing though - it felt good.

I'm thinking of doing one of the Capt'n Karl's 12 hour all-night runs - either the August one at Perdanales or the September one at Inks Lake. Can't do "Mule Shoe" in July as it clashes with El Scorcho. Never done a timed race like that before - should be fun. Any advice on which park would be the better to run at?