Posts

Every year when the heat sets in, I feel like one of us learns the lesson the hard way that you have to a) hydrate appropriately and b) get enough electrolytes. This year was apparently my turn. The past couple of weekends on my long runs on Saturday mornings, I have just been destroyed afterwards. A week ago, I took like a 2.5 hour nap after my run and my stress level on my Garmin never went down. This Saturday I felt ok during the day, but when I woke up Sunday I felt exhausted (though staying up to watch Texas lose at baseball didn’t help). I was really wondering what the issue was. ...

I brought my sourdough starter with us to Baton Rouge this trip because I wanted to make some bread. My sourdough starter’s name is Chad. I was given Chad by a friend many years ago, and it has gone through many periods of being asleep in the fridge. But he is back. The first loaf I baked the other day came out… ok. It was too dense. It tasted good, but it just didn’t rise like I wanted. Today I made an olive loaf, and I will bake it tomorrow. ...

I’ve told people before that one of the things that I forget I miss about Baton Rouge and south Louisiana in general is the trees. Austin has trees. But they’re not the same. They don’t get as big. They don’t get as grand. There are definitely some parts of town that have better canopies, but it gets sparse pretty quickly. Heck, they named the soccer team after oak trees, but they don’t compare. ...

We’re back to Baton Rouge for a bit. The days leading up to us switching spots always stress me out, but once we get on the road, it’s crazy, but all that stress just goes away. We got the cats in the cage as soon as we woke up, so that made the process less stressful as well. The drive was good, and it’s always good to be back in Louisiana to spend time with our family and friends. ...

I will post a recap of NI Connect over on LinkedIn, but with that in the rearview mirror, and us heading back to Baton Rouge next weekend, Sunday was the one chance I was going to have get out on the kayak. I headed over to Water E. Long lake (also known as Decker lake). It’s been lowered to work on the dam, so there’s no “big” boats out there, and it’s apparently one of the big kayak fishing places in town. I probably got out on the water finally around 9:30 or 10. ...

I’m in Fort Worth this week for NI Connect. I’m looking forward to getting opportunities to talk with our customers. I will also be speaking as part of the keynote on Tuesday morning. This will be the first time I’ve ever gotten to do this and I’m very excited. I love speaking in front of people. I find it very energizing. I’m only out there for a small bit, but I still think it is going to be cool.

[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“4032”] Carrie and I at Sherwood Forrest Faire [/caption] We had a great weekend. Friday I flew back from a work trip. I managed to keep myself from getting stranded in Denver by switching to an itinerary through Houston while I was literally on the plane that had gotten delayed going to Denver. Thanks, United Premier 1k service line! ...

I went out on Lake Austin this morning as this is probably the only day in April I will be able to get out there between Easter and NI Connect. And the best part… I caught the first fish in the kayak! The skunk is off! I mean, they weren’t giants, but it was great to actually get bites and get them in the boat. The first two were on a drop shot with a 4” Missile Magic Worm in Blueback Secret. The third one was on a 2.75” Swammer on a Dirty Jigs Tactical Mini Underpin 1/8oz. From that point on I couldn’t get anything. ...

When I went to run yesterday I was expecting a 53 minute run. But the Garmin had updated my suggested workouts overnight, so I had a 1 hour 6 minute run waiting for me. But honestly, I was glad it did. I felt great. That’s the best feeling longer run I’ve done yet since I’ve been running these past few months. I felt strong beginning to end, and I didn’t feel like my hear rate ever spiked when I was going up any of the gradual hills around the neighborhood. ...

Today we transitioned back to Austin. The transition days are always stressful, but today’s was pretty seamless, honestly. The cats did well in the car, and we made it back in 7 hours flat with a stop for gas and lunch. My run on Saturday got way harder than I expected to, given that I had done the same distance on Wednesday and felt great. I ran 5 days this past week, taking Friday and today (Sunday) off. I ran 18 miles total this week - that’s the most miles I’ve ran in a single week in probably since before we got married when we were training for the 2004 Austin Marathon. ...