Endurance Ranch: Week Two

Here is a delayed summary on our second week at the Austin Endurance Ranch.  We are so busy being awesome that it was hard to find time to finish this blog post.  But here goes…

Monday 18 Jan: A few drop-offs at the airport – sad to see the guys go but happy to meet the new folks. AM swim at Stacy Pool including some weight belt work and push-ups! Former pro Rip Esselstyn was at the pool and joined us for the push-up set. Morning ride to S MoPac, including a stop at TacoDeli where they hooked us up with free breakfast tacos!  Evening “fun ride” with a subset of the group on Old San Antonio Rd.  Chris/Nick/John got a bit excitable at times and the pace was quicker than it needed to be!

Tuesday 19 Jan: Longhorn Day. AM swim at Stacy Pool, then French toast and scrambled eggs and bacon at the house. Longhorn 70.3 bike course plus a little out-and-back that took us on a fabulous dirt road.  Ask Kate and Victoria how fabulous the road was!!  Okay, so maybe it was a bit rough, but at least we got to ride with a horse and some goats and a bunch of other animals.  Brick run on the Longhorn run course.

Dinner at the house including pork, rice, kale, salad and cookies.

Wednesday 20 Jan: Long ride to Enchanted Rock State Park.  Almost exactly 100 miles.  One wet creek crossing, a few inches deep.  We were again accompanied by our awesome Endurance Ranch van with its forward-facing speakers.  Sadly this was our last ride with Chris’s van before she started having some issues.  Luckily John’s van was also available and very capable at filling in.

We had dinner at Rudy’s Country Store & BBQ, a no-frills establishment where you order everything by the pound, you might get mocked by the staff, and you can wash your hands in a state-of-the-art sanitizer.

Amy’s Ice Cream for dessert!

Thursday 21 Jan: Omelets for breakfast, then swim-run multi-bricks at Stacy Pool and Stacy Parks. Each camper did swim & run distances that were appropriate for their goals, like (600-yard swim + 1.5-mile run) six times through.  John Kenny was the big winner with 12k of swimming and 12 miles of running.  I did about 8k of swimming and 14 miles of running.  I also got a bit of chafing from running in my speedo.  Somehow I traveled to Texas for three weeks’ worth of tri camps and didn’t bring any tri shorts. Ooops. 

Thursday evening we went to the Alamo Drafthouse and watched the "Old School Quote-Along.” There was a keg in the theater, a chugging contest beforehand, kegstands afterwards and a bit of gunpowder-powered pyrotechnics during the movie. A good time was had by all. The Alamo Action pack guys added subtitles for their favorite lines so that everybody in the theater could quote along.

Friday 22 Jan: Gingerbread pancakes and scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. One lap of the Couer d’Alene bike course on the CompuTrainers at Austin Tri-Cyclist, plus a brick run.  Movie night at the house: Superbad.

Saturday 23 Jan: A few of us did the Austin Tri-Cyclist shop ride in the morning. Then we all went for a swim at Stacy Pool and did a very hilly evening ride in northwest Austin.  We climbed up Courtyard, Jester, Adirondack and Mt Bonnell. It was a bit of the cold side, but sunny.  Dinner of ground turkey and greens and rice and all that.

Sunday 24 Jan: Morning long ride around Town Lake. Migas for breakfast. Optional afternoon “chill” ride on Old San Antonio Rd while some folks went souvenir shopping.  Visits to Austin Tri-Cyclist, Mellow Johnny’s and Whole Foods.

Monday 25 Jan: AM swim at Stacy Pool, then breakfast tacos from Torchy’s.  Staff outing to the Alamo Drafthouse for Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash.

Endurance Ranch: Week One Summary

Our first week at the Endurance Ranch is now over, and it has certainly been a memorable week. Ben Greenfield took a bunch of video clips at many of our activities, so you can check out this awesome video summary below:

For those of you who are more into “thousands of words” than pictures, here is a summary of what we did all week:

Monday: camper arrival, “chill” 30-mile ride including Shepherd Mountain climb, Turkey Dinner at the house

Tuesday: Longhorn 70.3 Day – morning swim at Stacy Pool, breakfast tacos at the house, ride the Longhorn bike course with support from the Endurance Ranch van, run one loop of the Longhorn run course, soak the legs in Lake Walter E Long – a chilly 50-something degrees.  Of course John Kenny tried to swim some laps:

Tremonte Family red sauce for dinner:

Wednesday: swim at Deep Eddy, run on the Ladybird Lake trail and a bit of the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Chill afternoon ride south of town on Old San Antonio Rd.  Homemade pizza for dinner.

Don’t be deceived by the color of the pool right now – there is a bit of grime on the walls but the spring water in the pool gets refreshed every other day:

Thursday: long ride, accompanied by our sweet Endurance Ranch van – Marble Falls and Cedar Park, 115 miles, lots of hills! Snack at the house afterwards, then off to the Alamo Drafthouse for dinner & a movie.  You really have to see the van to believe it.  We temporarily removed the grill in order to mount the speakers, but we’re working on a fancier approach to mounting them:

Friday: run to Barton Springs, open-water swim practice at Barton Springs, run home from Barton Springs. Brunch at the house – vanilla cinnamon raisin French toast, scrambled eggs, plenty of bacon. Evening swim at Stacy Pool.  “Pre-race Dinner” at the house – catfish, yams, kale, spinach.

Saturday: Austin Tri-Cyclist Saturday morning group ride (30- and 50-mile options), brick run.  Tacos from Izzos for lunch. Drive out to Hamilton Pool for a quick, cold splash and a look around.  Dinner at the Salt Lick.

Sunday: 2-hour run on the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Amazing omelets at the house. Afternoon activity – Chicken**** Sundays at Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon. Evening technique swim at Stacy Pool.  Dinner at the house – two types of chicken breast, two green salads, sauteed peppers & onions, brown rice, …

Here is somebody else’s video from Ginny’s.  We took a few that should be posted soon.

Monday: morning swim at Stacy Pool, 30-mile ride, camper departure

A Few Endurance Ranch Pictures

I haven’t been able to find a replacement cable for my camera and I’ve been super-busy with Endurance Ranch activities, but here a few quick pictures that I took with my cell phone this evening.  Camp has been *fantastic* so far and everyone seems to be having a great time.  Yesterday we did an epic 115-mile ride to Marble Falls and Cedar Park.  Our Endurance Ranch van has exterior speakers mounted in front, so the riders get to listen to music while they ride.  I’ll have some pictures of that to post in the next few days.

First up, here is the sign on our front door.  It is one of the Phil Liggett quotes that decorate the Phil Liggett Bedroom and a few other places in the house:

 

Next up, here are a few shots of our Endurance Ranch van.  I forgot to snap one of the rear or one of the speakers, but here is a taste:

We’ve been going through a lot of delicious and nutritious food here at the house.  Here is my shopping cart halfway through tonight’s trip:

Our ride yesterday (115 miles, 8 riders) used up every water bottle we could find, plus a few gallon jugs and a ton of bars and gels and sandwiches and bananas and … afterwards we needed two loads in the dishwasher to wash everything:

If you happen to get bored at the Ranch, we have a selection of biking- and running-themed books.  You can’t see “Born to Run” on the table right now because somebody is reading it at the moment.  But in general the books haven’t been used as we’ve been busy training, eating and learning from one another.

Finally, a reminder of pacing yourself that each athlete sees when they exit our front door.  Again, this quote is courtesy of Phil Liggett:

Much more to come, once I get my camera cable.  You can see a bit of running commentary about this week’s camp on Twitter here.

Austin Endurance Ranch: Day One!

I can’t seem to find the right cable to upload my pictures, but here is a quick update on how things are going so far at the Austin Endurance Ranch.  Everybody is resting peacefully right now (except for yours truly) after a satisfying first day.  Those of us who were in town early enjoyed a swim at Stacy Pool and a run around Ladybird Lake this morning.  Then once the rest of our campers arrived the whole gang (except tonight’s chef) went for a 25-30 mile ride to check out the view from atop Shepherd Mountain in northwest Austin.

Tonight’s chef was the talented and gracious John Kenny.  He stayed home during our ride in order to prepare a fabulous turkey dinner for the group – turkey with a brown rice stuffing, cranberry sauce, a mix of sauteed peppers… it was all fantastic!  He also made soup from the leftovers.

We picked up our campers from the airport in our super-sweet Endurance Ranch van.  I took a bunch of pictures today and I will upload them as soon as I can find the right connector cable.

The house looks great right now and I’d like to upload some pictures of our themed bedrooms.

The weather has also been fantastic so far.  Our swim was under party-sunny skies and then it was mostly sunny for our ride with temperatures in the sixties.  The forecast for the rest of this week looks very nice, too, with highs in the 70s most days.  In fact, as I write this at midnight the air outside is still 60 degrees.  Awesome.

I hope to post a bit more tomorrow, including some photos and some video from our handlebar-mounted camera.

Fajitas!

Last night we did another Austin Endurance Ranch prep dinner.  This week’s main course was fajitas, including meats from Bill the Butcher and tortillas that we made ourselves, from scratch.  We also had a bit more Tremonte & Son’s Fine Ale, a giant salad, chips and salsa, margaritas and a few desserts.  Good times.

Ashwin handled the cooking of the flank steak:

I got to demonstrate the proper technique for dividing dough and rolling tortillas.  At the height of our tortilla-rolling frenzy our little sweatshop had five forced laborers working for their dinner:

 

We need to work on using that “red eye reduction” setting on the camera… Myk looks like he is about to come for your soul.

Courtenay and Loren worked on the salad:

Two of us are hard at work.  One of us is hard at work opening his beer:

No Pomerians were harmed in the cooking of this dinner.  “No, I didn’t bring the Pomeranian bowling.  I didn’t rent it shoes.  I didn’t buy it a beer.  It’s not gonna take your turn!”

  

All of the rolling and cooking took a bit longer than expected, so by the time the food was ready everybody was very eager to eat:

We finished off with a variety of desserts.  Ritz made these oat-berry bars and Ashwin brought some fresh berries and a chocolate cake.

Sadly we didn’t get a photo of the awesome salsa that Nat made for us.  We put it out with the chips as an appetizer and it disappeared quickly, despite the generous portion.  It was a green salsa with a delayed but powerful kick.  Tasty!

Loren wears his sponsor gear everywhere he goes, just in case.  Sort of reminds me of Barrett and Andrew and their PowerBar Team Elite gear that they wear *everywhere.*  The first day that I met Andrew he was ironing PowerBar patches onto everything that he owned.

Ben discovered the “creepily lit self portrait” settingon my new camera:

He also discovered the “two goofy guys gazing off into space” setting:

Of course, nobody could be as goofy as that goober in the pink hat.  But check out his awesome t-shirt!  It is made of bamboo!

If you haven’t booked your Austin Endurance Ranch trip yet, you are missing out on some mighty fine grubbin’.

Pizza Night

This past Thursday we did another Endurance Ranch rehearsal dinner.  Our main course this time around was pizza with your choice of homemade crusts and toppings.  I made a whole wheat crust and an almond meal crust so that gluten-free and low-carb folks would have options.  For toppings we had fresh mozzarella, basil, three colors of bell peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni, pancetta, and parmesan cheese.  Of course we also included a big salad with a homemade dressing courtesy of Courtenay Brown.

This feast was accompanied by frothy glasses of Tremonte and Son’s Fine Ale.  My dad and I brewed up a batch of a hoppy reddish ale, following a recipe from my sister’s friend Ben.

On to the photographic evidence:

Lots of pizza:

Salad with mixed greens, strawberries, pears, red/yellow/orange bell peppers, bleu cheese crumbles and fresh dressing.  It may be hard to tell how much salad is in this picture – this is a large, party-sized punch bowl.

Delicious Beer!

 

If you would like to eat victoriously with us in Redmond, let me know!

If you would like to eat and train victoriously with us in Austin this winter, also let me know!!

Another Night of Eating Victoriously

Tonight’s Austin Endurance Ranch preview dinner was once again packed with good times and good company, and featured the following menu:

Brisket -- brined and smoked by you-know-who, then finished at home according to his instructions

Couscous & Fruit Salad -- recipe from Lindsay Cotter, but substituted quinoa for couscous

Romaine/Tomato/Feta Salad -- our Minister of Salad was a bit under the weather and had to bail, so we had to do this ourselves based on her instructions

Sweet Potato and Cabbage Coleslaw -- another Lindsay Cotter recipe

Collard Greens -- I found a vegetarian recipe online with no hamhocks

Cornbread -- following the mix/box on this one. I've gotta cut corners *somewhere!*

vegetarian baked beans from a can at the grocery store

Brownies and Tiramisu -- courtesy of Susan and Dave

Mac & Jack's African Amber -- 2 growlers, picked 'em up yesterday at the brewery

We have a few friends bail at the last minute, leaving a lot of extra food for our crowd of five people … but everybody pitched in with preparations and we sat down to eat very close to 8pm.

The main course:

 

The collard greens were a crowd favorite.  Here are the before and after cooking pictures.  You can actually see the edges of the pot sneaking out from under the raw pile o’ greens:

 

Giant salad.  It is hard to grasp the giantness in this picture.  This salad is in a party-sized punch bowl:

Gluten free corn muffins with a honey butter dipping sauce.  My cell phone camera can’t quite capture the awesomeness that is honey butter.  Check out that glare!

 

Quinoa with fruit and almonds and all that awesomeness:

The sweet potato and Savoy cabbage slaw gets a bit of a kick from the jalapeno:

Vegetarian baked beans.  You can’t eat BBQ without baked beans!

A tasty liquid accompaniment to our meal, brewed right down the street in Redmond:

Dessert!  Brownies and tiramisu!

I am exhausted after another awesome early-morning workout, a busy day at work, and an awesome evening of cooking/eating/conversation.  Time to go to bed.

If you like what you’re seeing foodwise, join us for a training camp in Austin this winter.  Yay!

We have a house!

I am proud to say that we have locked down on our house for the Austin Endurance Ranch this winter.  The house is located in the Travis Heights neighborhood in South Austin, and is very close to everything that we wanted to be very close to:

• Stacy Pool is 2-3 blocks away -- a short walk!
• South Congress Ave is 0.7 miles away
• the nearest point on the Ladybird Lake running trail is 1.1 miles away
• our bike shop partner, Austin Tri-Cyclist, is 2.3 miles away
• the famous Sixth Street entertainment district is 2.6 miles away
• the flagship Whole Foods Market is 3.2 miles away
• the nearest grocery store, HEB, is 1.0 miles away
• the back entrance to Barton Springs Pool is 3.1 miles away
• Austin-Bergstrom International airport is 6.2 miles away

We have ten beds plus some inflatables for the staff, four bathrooms, a nice kitchen and (of course) wireless ethernet!

Exterior pictures:

 

Kitchen and dining:

 

Living areas:

    

If you have questions about our training camps, check out the website or drop me an email.