While last week was a whirlwind of long work hours and hijinks in Texas, this week was a chance to recover…and by that, I mean try to catch up on all the work and workouts I missed.

It started out with the tail end of South by Southwest Interactive (aka SXSW, or “South By” if you’re really cool). You can read more about it on last week’s two days ago’s post or in the plethora of press articles covering the event (spoiler: POTUS and FLOTUS were there!). Also, here are some more photos:

No trip to Austin is complete without a visit to Whole Foods ground zero.

I returned to DC on a 7 AM flight, went straight to work, then to class, then (shocker) to sleep. Luckily, Friday was my flex day and I could sleep in a bit and catch up on some much-needed workouts. (Isn’t that how everyone spends their days off work?)

Swim: Nothing says “welcome back to the pool after nearly two weeks” like a 5400 yard workout. Thanks, Coach Mary! I used fins for part of it, or else I’d still be at the pool. Sunday also included a long-ish swim (3600), helping me eke out my weekly goal of 9000 yards.

Bike: Aside from the photo below, I didn’t get much biking done in Austin…so why not throw in a bike test?! I don’t know why, but something always seems to go wrong when I do a power test. In this case, it was several things: my Kickr trainer froze at a super high resistance (I couldn’t even move the pedals when standing), Netflix went into a never-ending buffering black hole, and after all that, my Kickr app didn’t record any data (though my Garmin did, based on the Quarq power meter). All this in just 20 minutes! While the outcome wasn’t as I had hoped, I’m still proud of myself for not getting upset or quitting. And hey, now I get to try again next weekend!!!

Run: So happy to be running again! I’m up to nearly 20 miles this week, and while the pace isn’t where I want it to be (yet!), I’m finding ways to keep my attitude in check. On Thursday, when I had worked nearly 12 hours and was feeling lonely running around the empty parking lot, I instead decided to appreciate the chance to have some quiet and escape the day’s barrage of emails and meetings. And today, when the “spring” weather turned to snow flurries and my heart rate soared and speed slowed on a hill, I started to focus on the first, barely visible signs of life appearing on the trees.

Other: Why stop with just swimming, biking, and running? I was also making up for lost time with my ClassPass membership, with a BodyPump class Friday, yoga Saturday, and barre Sunday. Phew!

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to curl up on the couch and sleep until next weekend.