Jillian at the Great Wall

Jillian at the Great Wall
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Ok, not the real one, but thought this was cool.

Adopting a Running Lifestyle

I read recently that to do really well in running, one needs to adopt a runner's lifestyle. Duh, but bear with me. One needs to get enough sleep, do quality recovery, have the right diet, in addition to putting in quality training. Up until now, I really haven't been doing that. I've increased my training, but my diet stayed the same and I didn't pay enough attention to sleep. Well, I'm working on changing that. This season, I'm going to make a conscious effort to get more sleep. My diet needs some changes too, and I'm going to work on slowly bringing my diet around to where it needs to be. Less to no booze. Much better pre-run and post run meals, in addition to trying to generally upgrade my diet so I'll lose some weight. The good news is that there's a lot of room for improvement and all of it will make me faster. Will provide updates on how it goes.

New pics on flickr

Jill wearing helmet
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

There was a block party on my street on Tuesday to kick off the neighborhood watch. Some firefighters came by in the truck and let the kiddos climb up inside. More pics here

Bath time

Bath time
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Sure, you get bags under your eyes, your body, free time, and disposable income go to pot.....but they're pretty cute sometimes.

Moonlight Margarita Madness

Fun race! 5K, started right at 8:24 when the sun was setting. Good crowd. Ran from the north end of the Mopac foot bridge up Stephen F Austin drive, around by the Pound, before turning around right before Lavaca. It was muggy but not too hot. Ran about a 25:20, definitely not a PR. Still, it was a good one. These two guys wearing Zen (the restaurant) shirts pulled a third in a rickshaw. I *barely* beat them. They were in good shape.

After the run, there was a party with Maudie's fajitas and margaritas. Folks in front of Travis and me gave us their drink tickets. Score! I had an awesome time, but I'm dragging ass today. Gonna have to get my sleep because tomorrow morning is the 'Run from Hell'. That's literally what they call it.

Jillian at Keep Austin Weird Fest

Jillian at Keep Austin Weird Fest
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Cute, huh?

love me those breakfast tacos..had to stop this AM

Cute pic

Cute pic
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Testing out some new flickr->blogger functionality. Wish it would just post straight to the blog. Will have to work on that one....

Long silence

Well, its not like I haven't been busy. I didn't stop running. In fact, I've become a runner. I finished the marathon in February per plan (4:37 was my time...not bad for the first time, but I'm going to get a lot faster). I then took a 10K PR class where I did exactly that. I took three weeks off but could already feel myself gaining weight, so I got back on the horse and am in the middle of the summer long run again. Just signed up for Marathon training again, but this time, I'm upping the ante and doing a performance project. It has three coached sessions per week instead of two. The idea is more gains, more focus, harder work. We'll see if it can get me to my goal of a sub 4-hour marathon.

Gosh, what else has happened? I've got a new job as of four weeks ago. Its going great and is downtown. I actually ran during lunch today. Hot as hell but still cool that I could make it work. Trying to upload the data to Motionbased now so I can show off. :-)

That's all for now.

Motive Half Marathon...Check!

Completed the Motive Half Marathon yesterday with a time of 2:04:53, which is a 9:32 pace. It felt pretty good, considering the serious hills involved in that race. This was my second half marathon. In February, I ran the Freescale half marathon in 2:21:02, which is a 10:45 pace. That race was pretty consistently down hill. So, overall, we're talking about a vast improvement.

Here's the Motionbased link to the race data.

Another big difference is how I felt after the races. I was totally beat up after the first half marathon, and about to freeze my butt off. I was an invalid all day and couldn't walk without limping for several weeks. Now, after all my training, running the half marathon yesterday really wasn't too bad. I took an ice bath when I got home, and felt just fine after that. In fact, I did housework all day. Training is a good thing.

News

This marathon class is going to be challenging but a lot of fun. Yesterday's quality workout was a 2-mile time trial to guage your current fitness level. I ran the first mile in 7:30 and finished in 15:19. My goal was to run it in 15 minutes, so I feel pretty good about it. Not sure where I got 15 minutes from, actually, but glad I'm about where I think I am, speed wise. Also, we can take our current 2-mile time and feed it into a running calculator to get a calculated marathon time and pace, which is pretty cool. My goal in my head has been to finish the marathon at a 10min/mile pace, but based on the calculator, I think that's too slow. I should be pushing for something closer to a 9 minute mile pace (given that my speed will improve by February). Very cool!


On another note, I've just signed up for the Austin Distance Challenge and am excited about the first race, the IBM Uptown Classic in two weeks. Last year's classic was the first 10K I ever ran on my journey out of couch potato land. I went back and looked up the results for last year's race and compared them to my projected time (based on the mcmillan calculator) for this year's race. Pretty dramatic difference a year makes...

Date Overall Time Mile Pace
10/2/2005 1:13:36 11:51
10/1/2006 51:43 8:18

Additionally, I was wiped out after last year's run, needing several weeks to recover. This year, I expect to take only a couple days off from my training, maybe starting back up on Tuesday or Wednesday. Well, we'll see about this last part.

Marathon Season is here

I started my new marathon class. The first run was last Saturday and it was super crowded on the trail. Everyone and their dog just started training for something. Anyway, the group I am running with in the class is called the Brew Runners, how cool is that? Karen, my coach sent us all some questions to answer about our running history. Thought I would post the answers...

1. How many marathons have you run? - The Austin Marathon will be my first
2. What is your PR (for marathon if you have run one before) and when did you run that - See above
3. What is your goal for this marathon- eg… time, % improvement, BQ, achievement, feeling …? - I guess I "should" just be trying to finish. However, I'd really like to get it done at a 10 minute mile pace
4. Why are you training for this marathon? (What is your commitment to..) - I feel driven to run the Austin Marathon and other marathons after that. Some day, I'd like to run ultras. Not sure why. Maybe because I'm turning 30 this coming January and I'm tired of being out of shape. Plus, running is cheaper than therapy!
5. Are you planning on doing all of the Distance challenge races? - Yes
6. When you get tired, frustrated or bummed out- is there anything that you do that helps you get out of the rut? - Long runs with the MP3 player on loud. A Grande Vanilla Latte and Cranberry Orange Scone work pretty well in some cases, too.
7. Do you have any current or past injuries that you are concerned with? - Not that I'm concerned with. When I first got back into running (August 05), I tried to do too much too fast and my knees weren't ready. In fact, I had to stop for a little while and start back more slowly. But, I've been running without the knee braces for the past 6 months or so and feeling pretty good. I've been doing the foot drills, core workouts, stretching, getting sleep, etc and it seems to make a difference.
8. Do you belong to a gym or have acess to alternative workout equipment? - I'm a member of the YMCA (try to do one spin class a week) and I have a stability ball at home for core workouts.
9. What do you do for a living, and do you travel for work? - I'm a software person. No travel.
10. What life issues do you think are going to cause you the most time conflict with training? - the biggest issue is that I have 3 kids under 6 and a wife that works full time too. My schedule is pretty tight. Thankfully, we've worked out our schedules to the degree that I'll be able to make all the workouts.

After my first aborted attempt to start running again, I started back slower and ran the last year's Turkey Trot and several more races before doing the Austin Half Marathon this February. My running buddy at the time was also a large person. I started up a running blog called irunwiththebigdogs.com which I still maintain. My buddy kinda dropped out while I signed up for the Summer Long Run course, which I really enjoyed, and which helped me feel better while running longer than I thought I would be at this point.

Ran a Summer Sunstroke 5K

Went up North Yesterday to Brushy Creek for the 11th of this summer's Sunstroke 5K's . Its a pretty nice way to have a race, I thought. Small group of folks running on a well groomed trail. Only 10 bucks to enter, but you're chip-timed on a certified course. Worked out well for my training too, since I'm counting this as my mid-week quality workout. I think I'll do it again next week, since they alternate locations and its on the hike and bike.

As far as results go, I did ok for me. I'm still waiting on the chip results, but my overall time was right around 26:30, which would put the pace at about 8:30/mile. The goal was 9 minute miles, so I'm happy about that. I still think I could do better as I didn't really get into a kick because I didn't have a good feel for how much farther there was to go in the race. If I do these again next year, I'll definitely run a lot more of the races so that I can get more familiar with the course.

Speed Breakthrough

Justin couldn't make it the other morning so I decided to go ahead and run balls out to see how fast I could go. Well, I went pretty fast. 4 miles in a little under 36 minutes. 8:51 minute miles.

The training is working. I'm getting faster. You'll see that if you look in my motionbased digest. I'm knocking significant time off of my pace, even over long distances.

On the 4th, I'm going to run a 12K as part of the marathon relay. I'm going to skip the Saturday long run, so that I'll have plenty of energy for the Tuesday race. My goal will be a 10-minute mile pace for the 7.4 miles, although maybe I'm being too easy on myself. After all, I just kept that pace on a 9.5-mile run. We'll see how it goes.

an old friend returns

I got my garmin forerunner 201 synching data again. Had to order a new cable for it. So, now there are some new runs on my motionbased site including the Texas Roundup 10K. I ran it slower than the half marathon for a couple of reasons...

1. I was pushing Jillian in the jogging stroller
2. It was HILLY. Started out at the capitol and went south to Oltorf. It was pretty much all up hill for the first couple of miles. Then, when we got back into downtown, it was more hills. By contrast, the half marathon was a very subtle, but steady downward grade the whole way.
   

I'm stoked about getting the garmin working again. I want to see how much all the extra running and spin classes and core classes have paid in terms of increased speed. Its just in time for the 8 mile run I'm doing for the Rogue class tomorrow morning. I'll post the results tomorrow when I get home.

Other than that, I'm constantly sore. In addition to the extra classes, Justin and I have started doing a full body circuit halfway through our 4 mile runs. Pushups, pullups (kinda), step ups on a bench, leg lifts, and some starfish jumps (kind of a retarded looking jumping jack). Oh, and I almost forgot that we changed our splits to 8 minutes run/1 minute rest instead of 5/1. So, all in all, I'm training a lot harder than I have up to this point. If I could just get my diet a little more under control, things would really be groovin.

That's all for now. Like I said, more data tomorrow.

Cool front rolls in and life is good

This has been the first week of the stepped up training required by my new class.

Monday - Spin class at lunch (this is tougher than it sounds)

- HOT HOT MUGGY WEATHER -

Tuesday - 4 mile run (sweating gallons)

Wednesday - 3 mile run in AM (sweating gallons...felt like 6 miles), Core Class at Runtex in PM
- COOL FRONT BLOWS IN....YEAH!!!! -

Thursday - being really really sore, but eating lunch outside :-)

Friday - 4 mile run that felt a lot better. Actually helped with the soreness since the muscles got stretched

Tomorrow at 6AM is the second meeting of the class, but the first long run. 7 miles on Town Lake trail followed by a pot luck breakfast and talk on Periodization. Looking forward to getting to know some of the folks in the class. Hopefully, there will be some slow-asses like me, although most people in that class look scarily fit.

My Week 1 workouts

Week	Week 1
Program	Rogue Summer Long Run Program 06
Group	Summer long run, all levels
Date	Monday, May 08, 2006
Workout	XT (XT = crosstrain. Read essay for more details.)
Date	Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Workout	Easy 3- 6 mile run
Date	Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Workout	Easy 3 mile run
Date	Thursday, May 11, 2006
Workout	Off or XT
Date	Friday, May 12, 2006
Workout	Easy 3 - 6 mile run
Date	Saturday, May 13, 2006
Workout	Group run at RunTex Riverside annex at 6am: 7 miles on the Town Lake trail Afterwards: potluck breakfast in the annex and seminar by Steve on Periodization
Date	Sunday, May 14, 2006
Workout	Off

Not bad. I'm definitely going to have to get my Z's. The 7 mile run on Saturday is longer than I would have run otherwise, but its good to be challenged.... right?

I went to my first class last Saturday, but the run was called off due to the lightning storm. Everyone in that group looked pretty damn fit. It was a little intimidating. That said, a lot of the folks in the group were in this other class that's training for a marathon in the near future, so I don't feel too bad. I was already up on a Saturday morning at 6AM, so I wanted to get a workout in. The YMCA was closed until 8 so I headed back home. By the time I got up North, it looked a littel clearer so I decided to head over to the running trail at Riata. I invented a little workout for myself -

• Jog around the track (about 1/3 mile), then running the last 200 feet at about 80% max speed
• 15 leg lifts
• 10 incline pushups on the bar

I did that cycle 4 times in the light-to-moderate rain and I was pretty worn out. This fitness thing is tough. Not sure its good for you. :-)

Texas Roundup 10K, and the future

Took Jillian to the Texas Roundup 10K last Saturday. It was a lot of fun but it kicked my butt. Starts at the capitol and goes south along congress all the way to Oltorf (pretty much all up hill after you get over the bridge), then turns and comes back north on 1st street to 15th and back around to the capitol. It started out cool, but got pretty steamy once the sun came up. Results are here. I did an 11:09 mile pace which ain't too bad considering I was pushing around a five year old up and down hills. During the race, I wish I had had a camera with me. Gonna have to get a camera phone one day. Anyway, I got one more bib for my cube wall at work. Only 4 of them now, but its growing.

What's next, you ask? Well, I bit the bullet and just registered for a running course to keep me motivated through the summer. Here it is. I'm looking forward to it, as I think it will help make sure I'm ready to do the Austin Distance Challenge this winter. Crazy to have goals like that, but I do.

Word.

Notes from the Capitol 10K

The race was a lot of fun. So much different from the half marathon in terms of convenience. For one thing, Justin and I arrived about 15 minutes prior to the start, so there was no waiting around. Secondly, the weather was absolutely beautiful. We kept a decent pace throughout the race and just enjoyed the experience. Bands played music at various spots along the course. There was plenty to see, since the course took us through some cool spots in downtown. Actually, I remember thinking it would have been a great race to run if you had grown up in Austin but had moved out of town. We had a great view of the Capitol, House Park, and Austin High. Almost like a high school homecoming tour. We also saw some crazy costumes. One guy was running in a UT Tower costume, complete with a little sniper action figure. Another lady wore a flesh tone body stocking, pasties, a fig leaf, and black masking tape strategically arranged to form a butt crack. Nice.

Anyway, Justin and I are still running. We're trying to figure out our next race. We're open to suggestions. :-) Later.

Been a while, on the Cap 10K

Justin and I have been training (albeit somewhat sporadically ) for the Capitol 10K, which is this weekend. Here's a good article I saw on running the race.