Meet Myles, my new running buddy

Meet Myles, my new running buddy
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

He just arrived tonight, so no running for a while. Working on some basic training tips like no chewing the towels. He's doing good so far.

Important (to me) Idea of the Day

Broken lines, broken strings, Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads, People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken.

from 'Everything is Broken' by Bob Dylan

Brokenness is everywhere. That's a fact. I should know, I fix things for a living. On top of that, I own a house and I am married with 3 kids. There's a lot of stuff in my life that can and does need fixing from time to time including physical objects as well as moods, emotions, and relationships. Hell, there's a lot of my stuff that's broken right this second. I look around and it feels like there's enough broken crap around that I could spend the rest of my life fixing it.

Here's the big idea though. It's ok that a bunch of stuff is broken, well the fixable stuff anyway. Broken things are blessings in disguise. To wit:

1. Have you ever let something that was broken get on the corner of your nerve and gnaw away until you're really irritated and discouraged and don't even know why? Let me turn it around: have you ever finally fixed something after that period and it turned out to be much easier than you ever thought it would be to fix, to the point where you're a little exasperated that you didn't just fix the damn thing when it first broke? Fixing stuff sets you free from the insidious nature of broken stuff in your life.
   
2. There was until recently a problem with my front door. The latch wouldn't pop out and catch the door for what seems now like forever. You could only keep the door closed by locking it. Irritated everybody in the house. I finally fixed it by replacing the mechanism and it makes me happy every time I close the door and the latch keeps the door closed. Fixed stuff (that you fixed, anyway) is more satisfying than stuff that never broke.
   
3. You do more to help overall by fixing stuff, because you help foster a culture of fixing stuff. In my case, I'm showing my kids how to fix simple problems by example. This is a skill I hope they will always have in life. Fixing small things can create big changes.
   

The more I roll this idea around in my head, the more meaning it starts to have for my life. Here are my philosophical outcomes of the ideas above....

• Accept brokenness as an opportunity and maybe even a blessing
  
• If something is broken and its irritating you, FIX IT or at least start working on fixing it.
• Even small fixes can be greatly satisfying and so are a great start
  
• The very process of fixing things will fix you in ways you didn't imagine
  

That's all I got for now. Getting late. Happy fixing!

Family trip to Phil's Ice House

Family trip to Phil's Ice House
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Cute kids....I has them

spooky run

Went on a 9-mile ramble around my neighborhood yesterday morning. This was a new kind of craziness for me as I got up at 4, was out the door by 4:30 and back at 6:30 before anyone else in the house was awake. It was also the first time I've gone on a serious run in my neighborhood. The plan was to run down to Walnut Creek Park and do some trail running for the bulk of the run, then head back for about 10 miles. I even broke out my headlamp for the first time since it those trails were going to be so dark.

Here's the thing...  running in an empty park (well, there were some moths) at 5 in the morning is friggin spooky!  I did just under a mile, eventually getting to an empty swimming pool that must be closed for the winter.  Something about the look of the pool contributed to the overall sense of being in a scary movie, so I booked out of the park and did the rest of my run on the road.

I still plan on doing that kind of run again, although hopefully not alone.  It's looking like we're getting a family dog this weekend.  I'm going to lobby for a running buddy....  a big one, preferably with big pointy teeth.

I am shamed....a little at least

So Cassie and I argue every once in a while about the footprint my running has on her life. I tend to feel like my watching the kids every Friday night pays for my Saturday morning run. Then again, I also sometimes stay late after work for a running workout. Perhaps she has a point. :-) At any rate, I follow this guy's blog . In the article, he talks about his philosophy that runs must be completed before 7:15AM on weekdays and 9AM on weekend days to ensure he still has family time, doesn't impune too much on the spouse, etc. We're a lot alike in that we both have small children, a full time job, and both are runners.

Here's the critical difference: he has the philosophy while training for the Western States 100! I'm training for a race that's a quarter of that. I am shamed. I better brake out my head lamp and get ready for some early runs. :-)

First Long Run Since ATT Marathon

Technical details are here

My first workout with the Spring Marathon group. The group is much much smaller than ATT, but there's about the same mix of faster and slower (my speed) runners. Some folks are training for Marathons in the beginning of April (London, Paris) and so were doing 20-22 while the late April marathoners were doing 16-18. Although I'm less than 3 weeks out from ATT, I elected to run 18.

I did see a few familiar faces. Mary and Dee from the Brew Runners were there this morning to run about 6 miles easy. We ran together for a bit and it was good to catch up.

This was the first long run where I've tried to keep my pulse down in the 130-140 range. Man, it was annoyingly slow and I was almost the last person in behind even the 22 milers. Took me 4 hours to run 18 miles. I guess that's ok. If nothing else, I'll get used to being on my feet for a longer period of time. My pace was somewhere in the 11's whereas my ATT Marathon pace was in the high 10's. That's actually good, since long run pace is supposed to be slower.

Other nuggets:

I decided to use the mp3 player, but it had no juice when I first tried to turn it on several miles in. Thankfully, I had some money in my shoe pocket and was able to get a battery at the Walgreen's on 45th and Guadalupe. The woman in front of me in line at Walgreen's was taking forever buying stuff for herself for the Heart of Texas Regatta. Her daughter's team is racing. Brought back old times.

Evidently, Saturday morning at the intramural fields is when the Chinese folks in Austin play softball. Part of the run involved a loop around the inside of the fence of the fields and I ran past at least 4 games/8 teams of all-Chinese softball teams. They could have all been students I guess.

I ran the Mt Bonnell hill about 11 miles into the run! These spring marathoners aren't playing around. The Mac Special is a challenging run. I'm feeling pretty beat as I write this. Gonna make it an early night.

Snowing in Dallas

Snowing in Dallas
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Here for a business trip. No jacket. Yay!

big weekend

Friday - Picked my sister and her friend from the airport, lunch at Veggie Heaven, and explored the UT Art department. Then, picked up the the kiddos for a trip to Whole Foods for Shopping and then to Chick Fil-A for kid food.

Saturday - up at 6:30 for Jillian's first soccer game. She did awesome! I'm so proud of my little athlete! After soccer, we went and saw the Sea Monsters 3d IMAX movie with the kids, then to Freddie's for lunch. Then home, personnel change, and we took Jillian to run the 1K Hawk Hustle. She was pretty tired. Then, out on the town with my sis and her friend for beers, sushi, sake, and more beers.

Sunday - Trail run. Went and explored Walnut Creek park for the first time. Couldn't believe how convenient it is and that I haven't been there until now. Probably didn't do more than 3 miles or so, tho. My run was interrupted painfully by.....erm.....digestive issues. Got back home and it was time to feast again. Met mom at Trudy's for breakfast buffet. Then home for various activities with sis, friend, and kids. Then an airport dropoff followed by a disastrous visit to Veggie Heavan with the boys (you may be wondering why twice in one weekend. I'm hooked on coconut bubble tea...its the sh!t). Then home. I did a 10K erg piece, which I feel got my cardio work in just fine, and then dinner with Cassie's grandma, brother, sister-in-la, and two nieces.

Whew, can't believe I made it through all of that. What's more, I just read my marathon training regimen for Big Sur and there are a LOT of miles in it. In fact, I'm supposed to run 5 tomorrow. I got my stuff together to do a treadmill run tomorrow morning, but now I'm thinking better of it. Better do some yoga instead.

Sleepy time.

First 30 minute erg piece in years

First 30 minute erg piece in years
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

My buddy Jon let me borrow his ergometer for the next 2 months for Big Sur cross training. Did 30 minutes at zone 1. Feels good.

at least my photos are getting better

Me and Jill after Marathon
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

like this one of me and Jillian after the marathon. Looking a little better than the picture of Jillian and me after last year's. Gotta find the bright spots. :-)

Other news.... Just signed up for the 20K trail run at Camp Eagle on March 30th. I'm going to take the kiddos and will meet my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and my two nieces for some camping and general outdoorsiness. The kids have never been camping before. I'm really stoked!

In other other news, in addition to her soccer game (Go Pink Storm!), I signed Jillian up for the 4th annual Hawk Hustle (the kids k) . Thinking about getting some custom "Team Hawk" t-shirts for the extended day of cheering. We'll see.

Jackson with straw action

Jackson with straw action
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Damn Fine Day in Austin

Man, the weather was nice today! Ran about 6 and half miles on the trail ...

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=16172&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=5040395

Just beautiful! Per my new training principal, kept my pulse between 130 and 140 bpm, which means I was running sloooooooooow. That's ok though, I fet great, had great form, and took in the scenery... flora and fauna ;-) . The hope is that keeping the long runs slow means I'll be able to increase the overall weekly miles and feel less beat up at the same time. I also hope to be able to increase the speed at which I can run and still maintain an optimum heart rate.

Got home and weighed 142. Woo hoo! Now, hopefully I didn't ruin that with my lunch trip to Phil's Ice House where I had beer, cheeseburger, and ice cream. Oh well.

I was thinking on the way down to the trail that I can't wait to get back in to a group training environment. Brew runners rock. Will need to consider my options over the summer to run with those guys if I can swing it.

AT&T race report

Good:

• Parking at my building for free, warming up in my gym, and popping out of my building 5 minutes before the gun went off
• Finding friends at the start and running the first few miles with them
• Meeting Lindy for miles 14-20
• Chad's tailgate at mile 18 or so - next year, I'm definitely stopping for a mimosa
• Running the last couple of blocks with Jillian
• Post race canneloni - Cassie made it from scratch
• I feel better after this marathon than I did after last year's
• after getting home and having eaten, the scale said 243. Haven't seen 243 in over 5 years.
  

Not as good:

• 7 minutes slower than last year. This sucks the big one because I trained way harder this year.
  
• slow death over time....started out great, but got slower and slower and slower
• headache starting at mile 15
  
• survival shuffle from mile 20 on
• seeing the 4:15 group pass by, then the 4:30 group....shit, almost got passed by 4:45

Takeaways

• Eat more the last two weeks before the race. Don't try to lose weight.
• Get real about what pace you can actually hold for 26 miles. I don't think its in the 9's even on a good day.
• It was a tough day for a lot of folks.

Goals for Big Sur

• Run the last 10K faster than the previous 20 miles
  

3M recap and diet discovery

Wanted to quickly recap the 3M Marathon. In short, it went really well. We came in at 1:56:03 (Lindy and I) and put together a strong, disciplined race that was a PR by about a minute. I think I probably could have run it faster, but I'm glad I didn't as my real focus is the marathon.

I've been reading this book called Body, Mind and Sport - by John Douillard and one of the suggestions in the book is to eat your largest mean mid-day and de-emphasize breakfast and dinner. I decided to try it this week. I've been eating a pretty light breakfast except when I'm hungry after a run and need a breakfast taco. I eat huge lunches (Hoovers one day and Roaring Fork another day..mmmmmm) and then just a protein shake for lunch. I'm also trying to get to bed by 9, which helps because I start to get hungry :-) . I feel pretty good this week, but the crazy thing is how the pounds are dropping off. I was 244.9 on the scale this morning. I haven't seen that side of 245 in a LONG time. I didn't start this to lose weight, but its definitely having that effect. The weird thing is that its not accompanied by a lot of effort. I'm more going with the natural flow of what my body wants. That this would be so effective flies in the face of a lot of modern 'wisdom' on diet (like 6 meals a day for instance), but that conventional wisdom has never brought me much in the way of results. It has me thinking about next year's marathon and being 30-40 pounds lighter. Can you say eight-minute miles?

The one down side is that I'm a little worried that the weight loss might be killing my glycogen reserves. I'm not hungry during the day and I feel good. I guess we'll see how tomorrow's long run goes. That's usually when you can really tell if you screwed up your diet.

The night before the 3M half

Everything's pretty much ready to go. Kids are in bed, my gear is all laid out or already in the car. I've read my coach's race advice/plan. Coach Karen always writes up a good plan for us. It really helped me for this race last year. About 6 hours from now, I'll wake up and fix myself some coffee and some malt o' meal (really works well for a pre race meal....for me anyway). I'll probably watch a little sportscenter as I eat and dress, then I'll load some really sleepy kids in the car and drive to my mom's place, stopping at Taco Cabana on the way for their breakfast. After the kids are safely ensconced with their Grandma, I'll head over to pick up Lindy (it's her first ever half....awesome!) and we'll get to the race starting area in time to join my Rogue peeps for a warmup. Weather should be in the 40's. Easily gonna be shorts and long sleeve shirt weather by the time its all said and done.

Running is a good time. Well, actually, there are times during a run that are at least temporarily miserable. But overall, I'm pretty much addicted. I'm going to run until my body won't let me any more. It's not just the running, but its the whole ritual of getting ready the night before, feeling a little nervous, getting up early when the rest of the world is asleep, and then going to battle. The modern world doesn't have a lot of physical challenges. Most of us are sheltered, warm, and well fed. We lack for no physical comforts. We also lose out on a lot of beauty of the world when you're exposed to the elements and your own lack of invincibility. Running gives you a little taste of that back.

Another reason I run is the community. There's nothing like it. No community out there is both so stratified (you are constantly reminded who is faster or slower and how much) yet so collegiate. As a runner, you feel just as much a part of the day as the fastest person out there. Runners delight in sharing the love of running with other runners no matter what their relative speed and skill level are. It's enough to be doing it.

I have some pretty specific goals for tomorrow and I feel like my training and preparation is going to get me there. But, regardless of my race time, I'm going to have a really fun time tomorrow sharing the joy of running a half marathon with Lindy and everyone else out there. I look forward to what the day will bring, even those rollers on Burnet road.

Longest training run of the season....check

Just got it uploaded.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=4822890

Was a really good run. I got a late start and so didn't see anyone I normally run with for a good while. Starting at the corner of LAB and Enfield, I got going on MGP. Finally caught up with Brian at about the 8 mile mark and we ran the rest of the way together. I was happy to be able to consistently keep a 9:20 pace all the way to campus, about the 18 mile mark. Oddly enough, although it was the longest run of the season so far, it wasn't the worst. It was nice, especially after the sun came up. I feel a lot more confident now about the Marathon.

Next week is 3M. I'm going to have to run pretty fast to beat my last year's time of 1:57:09. But, I'm confident that I can do it.

craziness....pure craziness

was going back and reading some of my first posts on this thing. I was really impressed with a 6 mile run at a 12-minute pace. This morning, I did 6.5 at pretty close to a 9-minute pace. That was actually a really easy Thursday workout. Saturday will be the last long training run for the Austin Marathon. It will be 24 miles, which will only be the second time I've run that far, ever. I've done three 20 mile runs and one Marathon before.

One could say things have changed quite a bit since late 2005. I've changed jobs twice, the kids have gotten a lot older, and I've run a Marathon and am about to run another one.

Not only that, but it doesn't seem to be changing, rather increasing. I've just registered for the Big Sur Marathon on April 27th. I'm really looking forward to that one. Should be a fun time with my Dad, and also (it appears) my sister and her boyfriend.

Don't know why I must take bubble bath pics

Don't know why I must take bubble bath pics
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Jillian gets a spin from Dad

Jillian gets a spin from Dad
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Yeah, I know. Not a lot of running stuff lately. I promise that I am running....a lot. 10 miles tomorrow AM and then 16 on Saturday in fact. This was just worth sharing.

Went a little crazy on the tree this year

Went a little crazy on the tree this year
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Not sure what we were thinking. My usual flter wasn't in place. It is magnificent though and a steal at $24!