Video - Open Water Swimming and Adventure Paddling in Lake Travis, Austin

Several of us hit Lake Travis in Austin for the inaugural ZenTri open water swim clinic.  This video is from the shore, with some amazing views.  The lake was a fantastic location, and we had a blast.

We didn't just swim, but also did some paddling on top of surfboards.  It's much safer than swimming, you go farther, and the mechanics work the same muscles as swimming.  Below is the GPS track from us paddling all the way across the Lake.

"Hey, let's see if we can get murdered by a Jet Ski."

Once we had our confidence up, we thought it would be a crime if we didn't act like aquanauts and go exploring the coastline on our fiberglass spacecraft.  Should we go north towards the unknown or east towards the naked beach known as Hippie Hollow?  

"Naked people! ...Ew, naked people."

Of course, we went east.  As you can determine from our GPS track stopping as soon as we got there, there is much truth to the saying, "The people who hang out at a naked beach are usually the ones that shouldn't."

With our swim shorts securely in place, we paddled back and then went home.  We came back for a second day of swimming (the day the video was shot) and totaled around 6 miles of swimming for the weekend.  Big thanks to @BrucknerChase for the heads up on the paddling trick.

POP Your Way Through Workouts You Don’t Feel Like Doing

We have a real treat today, rockstars! Below is the first guest posting by our friend, Bob Calabritto.  He is a guest columnist for Cosmopolitan Magazine ("A Guy's Perspective") and has a very knowledgable athletic background.  Let's dive in!

POP Your Way Through Workouts You Don’t Feel Like Doing
Bob Calabritto, exclusively for ZenTriathlon.com

Every athlete has been there - facing a training session dead in the eye, dreading the thought of what’s to come, walking the psychological tightrope that separates getting it done from “I’ll make up for it tomorrow.”   Often times we are able to clear that hurdle and begin the training, only to have that monster of mediocrity continue to cast uninspired waves of dread within our heads, allowing even the smallest unplanned event - someone jumping in our lane, a red light that refuses to turn green, a foot plant in dog poo - to cause us to pull the pin on the session and think “it’s just not meant to be today.” 

Every athlete has been there, yes. Every athlete has also been in that place where we didn’t feel like getting to the gym, or doing that run or swim or bike, but we did it. We felt we were never going to pull it from within us to begin the session, let alone finish it and it turned out to be one of the better session we had. The lethargy turned to energy. The energy turned to enthusiasm and the enthusiasm turned into a high. You experienced what I like to call a SODA “POP”. 

All those wonderful ‘feel-good’ chemicals in your brain - Serotonin, Oxytocin, Dopamine and Adrenalin - which were previously suppressed because of your mental state, popped to life after you began and finished your work-out.  Finishing those training sessions, the one’s you didn’t feel like doing in the first place, are some of the most rewarding.

So next time you are on the fence, contemplating aborting a particular session or if things aren’t exactly going as planned during a session or even a race, think about that SODA POP feeling you will get when you finish. Imagine the words SODA POP written on a huge sign in your brain and feel that feeling whenever you look at that sign.   POP your way through that workout and pat yourself on the back for behaving like a champion. 

Zen Running - The Line where Two Worlds Meet

I often wish I lived somewhere else, but the rural Texas scene does have its upsides.

I was out on a two hour run in the evening heat and had to stop and take the above picture; Endless quiet blacktop laid out in front of me and cows and horses grazing all around.  

There was a profoundness of the moment that struck me. I used to despise running. Actually, most swimmers do. But with a different viewpoint and some experience, I was not only enjoying myself, but I could understand a little bit of the Dean Karnazes mindset.

Being able to run long distances and having the venue to do so represents freedom, and every step you take is immediate biofeedback confirming it. In front of you is the Unknown in the shape of pain, heat, dangerous animals, and traffic. Behind you is experience, knowledge, wisdom, training, momentum, and Karma. Where they meet, well that's the firebranding of the Truth.

Truth is when you test your mettle and see what it's actually made of. You have every opportunity to quit, to turn back, and to give into fear, so every step forward is reaffirming that you are indeed what you thought you were.  

Long runs become a dance between what you think and what is.  Where you are right, that's how far you go.  It doesn't matter if it's Texas, Australia, or Antartica; the discovering of where is that line is exactly the same.

Enjoy your run.

Podcast - Nutrition Tips from HolisticGuru

Alert! Urgent! Heck YEAH!  Just a quick note before we get into the show - We are having a FREE ZenTri open water swimming clinic at Lake Travis in Austin TX. this weekend.  We'll be doing open water swimming both mornings, that's May 29th and 30th, at Lake Travis, at Windy Point Park, at 7:30 AM.

Regular listeners of ZenTri know that swimming is a specialty of mine, so I'll be giving a bunch of tips on techniques and then we'll hit the waves.  AND we'll have some surfboards and paddleboards with us for people who want to go reeaaally far out there. You know you want to hang out and enjoy the fun, so c'mon! Follow zentriathlon on twitter for more details as we get closer, and stay tuned!

Ok, on with the show.  Let's dive into a great interview with the incredibly knowledgeable Christine Lynch, a.k.a HolisticGuru, about nutrition.  We cover many topics and I bet you'll find at least some of them incredibly important to you.

Shownotes:

• The real deal on gluten.
• Caffeine and other food sensitivities.
• Are superfoods worth it?
• How to buy organic and whole foods cheaper than regular foods.

Click HERE to listen!

Dude swims Everest, ZenTri swims Lake Travis

How do you swim Everest?  No, you don't swim up the mountain; you swim across the lake just below the peak.  Lewis Pugh swam 1000 meters in water just above freezing at an altitude of 17,388 ft.  Holy crap, that's nuts.

Want to do something crazy but maybe just a tad warmer? Join the ZenTri gang at Lake Travis in Austin this weekend for a lot of open-water swimming!  We'll be at Windy Point park, swimming around both mornings, and also cruising way out on paddleboards for some bigger mileage and adventure.

If you want to join in, throw down some comments after this post and we'll make sure we meet up.

Also, there's bound to be some biking and running around Austin after the swimming.  I'll be there most of the weekend, so come hang out!