30K with Austin Fit

On Saturday I did a 30K run with AustinFit. The course was meant to mimic some of the AT&T Marathon course. It was a pretty challenging course, with many upward inclines and hills on Exposition. I was not sure how well I would do..or if I would make it at all, but I kept a positive attitude. Seriously, it has been less than a month since the marathon!

I ended up doing pretty well overall. The assistant coach position with Austin Fit doesn't entail too many duties, but one of them is to stay back with people who are having a hard time. On Saturday a fellow Austin Fitter was having some knee issues, so I stayed back with him for about 4 miles. At mile 15, we were a good quarter mile or more behind the group. By this time, the guy was in pretty bad shape, so he decided he was going to walk back to the Austin Fit parking lot (about a mile away if you didn't follow the course). So I decided to speed up and try to catch my group! For two miles I ran a sub 8 pace and came within 20 seconds of my group. I was able to maintain this, but I never got any closer. Around mile 17 I started to get pretty damn weak.. I basically hit "the wall" and struggled to the finish. Someone was nice enough to provide beer and champagne at the end, that was yum!

It was still a good run for me, my legs feel good and I fell like I am getting my cardio back!

The rest of the weekend was great, mostly spending time with Hava. Yesterday Hava went to a wedding expo with Tracy (she just got engaged to Raul) and she won a 5 night cruise!!!! We're going to try to go on our 1 year anniversary in September. Last night we met up with Thon, Richard, Stephanie, and Stephen to see Children of Men. It is a must see.

My new hero

I've heard of Dean Karnazes before, even read of some of his exploits, but until I read this article from Wired magazine I never realized just how much of a true superhuman he is. So now I have found a new hero and fresh inspiration. He went from a 30 year old 9-5 family guy (who also drank too much) to a superhuman ultramarathoner.

I have no wishes, hopes, or even dreams of attaining the level of fitness and dedication he has achieved (he only sleeps 4 hours a night!!!), but he serves as a great role model for myself and anyone who aspires to make themselves better people.

The article has many great tips, make sure to check it out!

Cheers, Mr. Karnazes!

Running report: My first run of 2007 was decent, 5.3 miles through my hilly Lantana neighborhood. Mentally it feels great to be back!! Hava and I will be doing a fartlek run tomorrow. I also signed up for a online running log so I can keep to one of my goals this year! It is a pretty neat web site called Running Ahead.

2007 Goals

My fellow Gazelle/blogger Frank published his running and personal goals for 2007. I think that is a great idea, so here goes:

• Stay healthy (this is Frank's first goal too, makes sense to me!)
• Continue to strengthen my friendship and love with Hava
• Continue to keep a healthy balance between running for pleasure and running to attain goals
• PR in the 3M half
• Run the AT&T Half with Hava (it will be her first!)
• Train hard and consistently through the Spring and Summer to keep my base fitness and increase my speed. Strengthen my core.
• Keep a training log so I can actually keep track of my weekly, monthly, and yearly mileage!
• Run 1-2 marathons this year
• Get out of my comfort zone in Gazelle's and make more friends!
• Make my current Gazelle friendships even stronger

Happy New Year! I hope all of you reach your goals, whatever they are.