What’s better then bringing together some of the worlds most creative, intelligent people, mixing them together, discussing forward-thinking ideas and watching these world changing concepts come to life?  The TED conference is an extraordinary mix of concepts and talent, and if you haven’t heard about it yet, here’s a quick summary from the official website:

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Attendees and speakers are among the likes of Al Gore, Tony Robbins, Malcolm Gladwell, Nicholas Negroponte, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other notable individuals from various fields.  It’s interesting to consider what it’d be like to wander the halls of this conference, striking up conversation with any of these individuals.  Imagine the cross-pollination that takes place in such a setting.

While TED is a private event, any person with an internet connection can benefit from the content provided each year.  I’ve been listening to the TEDtalks series on their website at http://www.ted.com, and thoroughly enjoying the concepts discussed.  You can listen, free of charge, to talks on subjects such as…

• Humanity’s Origins (Louise Leakey)
• A computer that works like a brain (Kwabena Boahen)
• Positive psychology (Martin Seligman)
• Technology, faith and suffering (Billy Graham)
• Studies of the brain in love (Helen Fisher)
• A year of living biblically (A.J. Jacobs)
• The study of biology to make animation (Torsten Reil)
• Institutions vs collaboration (Clay Shirky)
• One laptop per child project (Nicholas Negroponte)
• Engineering and evolution (Robert Full)
• Birth of the computer (George Dyson)
• The worldwide web of belief and ritual (Wade Davis)
• Memes and “temes” (Susan Blackmore)
• Designing objects that tell stories (Yves Behar)
• 6 ways mushrooms can save the world (Paul Stamets)
• String theory (Brian Greene)
• The new open-source economics (Yochai Benkler)
• Creativity (Amy Tan)
• CERN’s supercollider (Brian Cox)
• Connecting the world (Hector Ruiz)
• Germ domestication (Paul Ewald)
• Big questions about the universe (Stephen Hawking)
• Scanning the brain in real time (Christopher deCharms)
• New thinking on the climate crises (Al Gore)
• Rethinking the music video (Jakob Trollback)
• On the verge of creating a synthetic life (Craig Venter)
• As a young rebel (Frank Gehry)
• Building uniqueness (Moshe Safdie)
• Collaboration (Howard Rheingold)
• The mystery box (J.J. Abrams)
• Compassion (Daniel Goleman)
• Thinking deep on design (Philippe Starck)
• How the law is strangling creativity (Larry Lessig)
• Beauty and truth in physics (Murray Gell-Mann)
• The habits of happiness (Matthieu Ricard)
• Our mobile phones (Jan Chipchase)
• Building “self aware” robots (Hod Lipson)
• And a lot more…

You can view these and other talks by going to http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks.  Also, I recently watched a DVD entitled “The Future We Will Create,” which is an excellent overview of the TED conference,  showing speaker highlights from a past year.  I’d highly recommend checking out this DVD if you’re interested in learning more about the conference, as well as hearing some interesting ideas.

3EG originally came into the world as ToolGathering in ‘03, in which we as fans of the band Tool wanted to bring together others who appreciated some of the concepts, art and aural style that the band Tool brought forth.  Early on in our effort, we had serious issues in attempting to work with Tool’s management, who attempted to smother our fledgling event, though I’ll give credit to their drummer Danny who I met a couple times around LA and he was always very down to earth, friendly and cool about our effort.  And while I think Maynard is one of the best singers out there, I’ll refrain from going into details on his, uhm, “support.”

Through the turmoil of attempting to bring something meaningful together, we had met a handful of extremely talented artists, musicians and thinkers who were interested in what we were doing, we realized this was more than just a group of fans of a band, and thus the event was rebranded as Third Eye Gathering, or more commonly, 3EG.  The first 3EG-branded event was a 3 day day and night festival in Irvine, CA in which we had visual effects, art from talented artists such as Cam De Leon (known for earlier Tool album artwork) and Tony Koehl, a roster of talented up and coming bands including members of the prog-rock band King Crimson, as well as presentations on various ideas, movie screenings and discussions.

The concept behind 3EG has and continues to be a synergy of live music, presentation of progressive art and infusion discussion of interesting ideas.  The goal is to stimulate all of the senses and the intellect and to stir the soul.  The 3EG movement has come out as an enjoyable experience with participants from around the world, and because 3EG is a 100% volunteer effort put on by people who fairly busy lives, we only tend to have a 3EG event once a year.  It’s about time for another gathering.

We’ll be having the next installment of 3EG this September the 12th on a private ranch in Paso Robles wine country, just outside of San Luis Obispo county.  This is in partnership with a long-time friend of the organization by the name of Chad Land who is actually doing most of the leg-work on this event.  Chad first played ToolGathering back in ‘03 with his band 00 Metro, and now heads up the band Axia who will be playing this event.  It’s a camping event in which we’ll have rock bands during the day, and electronic as well as acoustic accompanied by visual effects at night.  There will be BBQ, music, art and community.  I’m stoked.

The details should be online shortly for anyone who might be interested.

Much like a wine flight, a tea flight is an educational and sensory exploration in which you are presented with samples of different types of teas, all presented by an expert who explains the process of harvest, preparation and how to enjoy the drink.  Walking in, I had very little concept or interest in tea, but walking out, I found that it was a lot more interesting upon learning about the varieties, the importance in many cultures and the work that goes into producing it.  Living just down the street from Sonoma and Napa wine country, I found tea to be similar to wine in the sheer number of varieties, the micro climates utilized for growing and all of the methods of preparing the tea.  There is some interesting exploration to do in learning more of the science, art and culture behind tea.

We had a sampling from 4 different types of teas.

• White Tea - “White Peony King”
  White tea is known for its very subtle taste, low level of caffeine and high level of cancer-fighting antioxidants.  This type of tea has a very lite and clean taste.  Those who are regular coffee drinkers may not care for the low level of taste, though it is notable that there are health benefits associated with drinking it such as the antioxidants.
• Green Tea – “Dragon Well A Grade”
  Green tea has relatively low caffeination, though it is higher than White Tea.  We enjoyed the tasty, nutty aroma this tea had to offer.
• Oolong Tea – “Phoenix Single Grove Honey Fragrance”
  Oolong tea is prepared in a way in which the tea leaves are balled up and fairly oxidized, and was referred to as the tea connoisseur’s choice.  The oxidation leads to a moderate caffeine level. I thought this one to be very very tasty, with a sweet aroma and taste which was not too much and not too little.  This was my favorite Tea of the bunch.  It was also served in an interesting manner with a narrow, tall cup that you pull up to your nose to smell the honey fragrance.
• Fermented Tea – “Trinity Block”
  This was a fermented tea, aged 8 years and imported directly by a doctor who acquired it in China.  The tea supposedly has medicinal abilities.  It was very dark in color, had an enjoyable taste and gave a little bit of a buzzing feeling.  We were told by a person who frequents the bar that while this tea isn’t psychedelic, it definitely causes a subtle internal shift after consuming it.

Some quick Tea-facts learned:

• Tea can be pricey because of the large amount of work it takes to produce it.
• Rather than spending money on material items, many Chinese families opt to spend their money on quality Tea.
• Tea oxidizes the more the leaf is cut up, and oxidation causes the caffeine release.  This explains why tea bags with chopped leafs within provided a decent caffeine punch as opposed to loose leaf brewed tea.
• Caffeine from tea affects a person differently than coffee.  Apparently tea caffeiene kicks in slower, sustains, then fades slowly while coffee hits hard and fast before dropping quickly.
• Tea called “Monkey picked tea” is not actually picked by monkeys, much to my dismay.  The name comes because the harvest is situated in high and difficult to access terraces.  I think a small part of me still hopes that Monkeys pick tea somewhere in the world.

This fun little crash-course in Tea-ology has given me a few ideas for the future.  I’ll experiment more with Oolong Tea, which I thought to be very enjoyable.  Perhaps I’ll also try more of the Fermented teas, as I am interested in the supposed medicinal properties – as the tea bar patron told me “you’re drinking medicine” - but it tastes yummy!  And last but not least, I’ll see about swapping morning coffee with a caffeinated tea here and there to see if I can have a healthier boost without crashing so quickly.

If you’re interested in trying a tea flight and happen to be in or around the Berkeley, CA area, I highly recommend checking it out.  It’s fairly inexpensive, the aesthetics and product in the shop are top notch, the staff is very friendly and more knowledgeable than I ever imagined a person could be about Tea.  You can learn more at http://www.teance.com.

Austin

It had always seemed as if marathon running was a sport for the hard-core athlete, and until recently, I’d never seriously considered attempting one.  At best, I had run the 2004 Rock n Roll half marathon in Phoenix because I thought it would be an attainable challenge. While the successful 13.1 run improved confidence in running endurance, I vividly recall catching a glimpse of full marathoners blazing down the course, further solidifying my perception that marathon running was an Olympian sport to which only the athletic gods, or Kenyans, could successfully participate.

Flash-forward to 2006, sitting at the bedside of my mother as she fights cancer.  When she ultimately passed, there came a shift in my perspective in terms of how I should interact with this life.  There was a realization that I needed to place more confidence in myself and to invest effort into what interested and inspired me in life, rather than selling myself short. On a deep level, the concept of life being far too short became far too real.  I gained awareness of the sobering reality that it is not out of the realm of possibility that I might also have the threat of cancer in my future.  Knowing this, and feeling it on a very real level, there was an increasing urgency to work on two particular improvements in my life: 1) to take much better care of my mind and body, and 2) to actively and passionately pursue what excites and inspires, in spite of what I might have ever feared or thought unattainable through whatever self-induced constraints.

This realization drove me to consider an attempt at running my first marathon.  Committing to this run could drive me to get in the shape of my life, help to conquer self-enforced limitation and would also open the door to new and exciting challenges in the future.  The marathon also appeared to be a great platform to raise funds to give back to the people who helped us in our time of need.

I thus committed to a training program, signed up for the 2008 San Francisco Marathon and began training in January with the goal of becoming a marathoner by August and raising donations for Hospice along the way. I enjoyed six months of training which taught me all about pushing physical and mental boundaries, ultimately preparing my body to cross the finish line on August 3 in 5 hours. I was also very happy to meet and exceed the chosen $5k donation mark thanks to the incredible support from family and friends, and it wasn’t so bad shedding 15lbs in the training process.

I’m incredibly grateful for this entire experience, and I’m so glad that to have had this opportunity to learn, grow and meet new people. There is a lot that I’ve learned along the way and I’d like to share my “lessons learned” for anyone else interested in running their first Marathon.

Training: 0 to 26.2 in 6 months

I made it across the finish line in 5 hours 3 minutes with a surprising ability to endure the mileage, and the most challenging issues being very sore legs and joints as well as a mental negotiation for the last 6 miles.  This is in stark contrast to my first official training session where a 1 mile run gave me a run for my money.  For me, training proved to be crucial, and for the first timer, I highly recommend joining a training program. I was nervous about my readiness prior to the run, but was shown that training had successfully prepared my mind and body for 26.2 miles.

A program will provide structure based on experience, pacers who will coach you, friends to help you grow with the mileage and a support network to carry you to the finish line and beyond.  It pays to invest in yourself with coaches who will guide and motivate you, as well as peers who provide the all-important social support and accountability.

My group was called Athletic Endurance and was an off-shoot of the San Francisco Marathon.  I’ve also heard glowing reviews of Team in Training.  If you do not have access to either of these groups, you may be able to locate a quality training group by contacting the Marathon organizers, doing some research online, joining a local running club or asking employees at a local sports store.

I can’t emphasize enough about how much I recommend joining a training group. The immediate access to experts for answering questions, the structured guidance and the great conversations I had with my teammates proved of immeasurable value to me, and I’m certain this helped me to have a successful marathon experience.  If you’re sitting on the fence about attempting your first marathon, joining such a group might be just what you need to ease into it.

Gear & Supplements

26.2 is a long, long distance to run, and the goal (for me) was to ease the mileage as much as possible.  Through experimentation as well as recommendations from experienced marathoners, I recommend the following gear and supplements to enhance your mental and physical endurance. I’ve linked up the product names and photos below to make it easy for you to purchase or do further research online.

Running shoes & socks
It’s a given you’ll need running shoes. What is lesser known is how important (and easy) it is to have a professional pair you with the proper shoes for your feet.  Running many miles, it’s important that your shoes have the right balance of support for your specific arches and running patterns, because your feet WILL take a beating.  I didn’t have black or falling-off toenails, which perhaps I can attribute to good shoes & running socks.  If in the Bay Area, I’d recommend Fleet Feet.  They helped me find the right pair of shoes and I didn’t incur any added expense than I would have if I bought the shoes without assistance at a Sports Authority or the like.

Running shorts, shirt and underwear
This is obviously all up to what style you like.  I bought a nice Nike running shirt and North Face shorts for the race.  The shirt was a cool fabric with reflecting material for running near roads as well as little slits on the sides allowing more air in.  The shorts had a nice zipper pocket to place items, though I don’t like to store things in shorts while running.  The ASICS running underwear had no seams on it, which will make sense to you as the miles wear on.

Hydration Belts/Packs
Water and nutrition is essential when running distances, and it is helpful to have a hydration belt or pack of some sort.  What I ultimately purchased was essentially a “fanny pack” with an angled water bottle, the angle allowing me to easily remove and replace the bottle from the pack when needed.  There was also a decent zippered compartment that I filled with my “shot bloks” (described later) as well as anything else that I needed while running.  Some people use a CamelBak Hydration Pack, or in my earlier training, I just carried a smaller waterbottle with a handstrap.

Hat and sunglasses
Keep the sun out of your face with both and it’ll ease the miles.  I wore a runners hat provided by Athletic Endurance which was more streamlined than a typical hat and had more ventilation to release heat from the head.  I wore a pair of Oakley Sunglasses with a safety chord ensuring the glasses wouldn’t fall to the ground.

Music player & headphones
I’d highly recommend that you not listen to music while in a training group, as the conversations you can get into with your teammates can be entertaining and also really helps the miles fly by.  Also, it’s dangerous to run around roads without the ability to hear your surroundings.  That being said, there are also opportune times to listen to music, and I definitely took advantage of it to the fullest extent.  There’s nothing like blazing down a path in rhythmic sync with the song that you’re rockin out to.  My music weapon of choice was an iPod nano using Nike+ secured by a low-profile InCase iPod Nano sport armband.  For headphones, I’ve really enjoyed Sony sports earbuds.  They have great sound, and specifically have a short chord which provides just enough to reach your iPod, but not so much that it’s flopping around while running.  The headphones come with a chord extender as well.

Bodyglide & sunscreen
These are your friends.  Bodyglide is to be applied liberally where you might chafe.  Nothing puts a cramp in your distance running life chafing body parts… yuck.  Sunscreen should go without explanation.  When you start running for 2, 3 or 4 hours, it’s easy to get burnt, even when overcast.  In the spirit of full transparency, I forgot sunscreen a couple of times and thought I’d be ok since often I’d run in San Francisco’s foggy mornings.  Lesson learned, one CAN get too much sun even if the sun isn’t blazing in a cloudless sky.

Heart rate monitor
Now THIS is a fun toy.  My trainer recommended I pick up a Polar F11 and I love it.  There are all kinds of things you can do with it, but I really enjoy its ability to give me my heart rate and calculate my calories burned.  I found the concept of running towards a calories burned goal versus a time goal was inspirational, and I ended pushing myself a bit more in my solo training because of this.  And I have to admit, I certainly enjoyed seeing that I burned 3000 calories in one 17 mile run – not too shabby for those looking to lose some weight, or at least ease your conscience if you want an indulgent dinner.  Additionally, in keeping check on your heart rate, the watch helps tells you when your intensity is too high or too low to meet you goals.  I highly recommend this, or similar products.

Shoe Pouch/Wallet
The shoe pouch/wallet is a sweet little invention.  It’s a little pouch that attaches to your shoelaces.  It’s just big enough to fit your ID card and a debit card, as well as a key or two.  This was a helpful way to carry my essentials without the bother of feeling them in my pockets.

Nike+
If you own an iPod Nano, this is a relatively cheap way to really enhance your running experience.  Nike+ is only $30 bucks for the receiver and it provides real-time feedback and tracking of your mileage.  At any time, you can push a button and know how far you’ve gone as well as how far you have to go for a run.  It was quite helpful in structuring my early runs to specific goals.  When you connect your iPod, it sends the running data to an online site which gives you beautiful charts displaying detailed information on all of your runs.  It’s incredibly cool.  Even better, you can challenge other runners with Nike+ from anywhere in the world.  For $30, this is a steal, and you don’t have to pay for the web service.  The one catch is that Nike would like you to buy their Nike+ shoes into which you’d insert the RFID chip they give you, but a quick search on google will provide instructions on how to attach the chip to your existing shoes free of charge.  To those without the iPod Nano, Nike has released a wrist watch version of this technology which I have not yet tried.

Recommended Supplements

A quality multi-vitamin
Marathon training puts a lot of strain on the body.  You should already be consuming healthy foods, but I found it important to take a high quality multi-vitamin to ensure that I’d have the fuel needed for really pushing my body. My trainer recommended a multi that would be taken 2 or 3 times throughout the day since most 1 day supplements tend to have the nutrients go out when you visit the bathroom.  I’m not a scientist or a doctor and can’t advise specifically, but I can say that I feel the multi-vitamin was a lot of help.  I backpacked through Peru weeks before my marathon, traveled with a lot of sick people (buses, planes, etc) and never caught a cold.  I also religiously took my multi-vitamin, and I like to think that it helped me to stay healthy and strong.

Sports Gels, Shot Bloks, Powerbars and the like
Your body will require refueling during runs, and there are many options in how you supply this energy to your body.  Everyone has a different opinion on what’s best, mostly based on either taste or how well their stomach takes to the product.  Gel or Goo packs are tiny packets of, well, gooey stuff that you squirt into your mouth and provides electrolytes, caffeine, etc.  I tried them for a while, and Powerbar has some decent flavors.  I discontinued use of these pretty quickly when I found out about Clif Shot Bloks.  Shot Bloks are little “gummy” cubes of the same kind of stuff, electrolytes, caffeine, etc. and come in flavors such as Cola, Pina Colada and even Margarita.  I find that you can pop in a Shot Blok every mile or so, and I’ve found a lot of success with them.  During my marathon, I used one at each mile marker and don’t recall feeling any lack of energy during the run.  Some runners also prefer something more hearty such as any one of the plethora of sports bars on the market.  Again, choice in this area is often up to what does not make your stomach feel sick when you eat while running.  Shot Bloks have become my defacto choice and I’d recommend them.  I find the goo to be funky, and bars seem so bulky.

Also, please note:  For the love of god, NEVER try out gear or supplements for the first time on race day.  You don’t want to find that something doesn’t fit right, or doesn’t work for you and have to endure that pain in addition to high mileage.   Recommendations are based on my own trial and error, and some things may work for me and not necessarily for you.  Luckilly, training provides the opportunity to test out what works best so that you don’t have to worry about it when race day comes.

Fundraising:

This was the first major fundraiser effort I’ve run, and I’m grateful to have seen it meet and exceed the $5k goal I had assigned to it.  Due to my internet marketing background, I leveraged the interactive channel as much as possible, and it worked well.  I also owe a large portion of donations to interviewing with fitness potcasts, one of which was my father’s show Motivation to Move.  Here’s a list of what I attempted in terms of getting the word out about the fundraising.

Website & Blog
I set up austinhastings.com initially as a quick online donation form.  I eventually added a video in which I explained the fundraiser and cause, then added this blog.  There were many comments regarding how the video positively influenced donors decision to give.  The Blog made it easy to get the word out on fundraiser and marathon updates.  The video was thrown together using the built in camera on my MacBook Pro and hosted at YouTube.com.  The website was launched in a day leveraging WordPress for blogging and content management and hosted on Media Temple.  Media Temple is a great host, though if you’re looking for something a little cheaper ($7.95/mo), I also recommend checking out MidPhase.com.

Email
I went through every friend & family email I had ever communicated with previously and created a list to which I sent a message updating folks on the marathon and fundraiser.  It opened up a lot of email communication with old friends and drove a fair amount of donations.  I did this the basic way, simply sending via my gmail account.  In the future, I will utilize an email service such as constantcontact.com or firedrum.com to track metrics on open rates, clicks, email bounces and to have a greater understanding of who was engaged with the email.  I was also a little overwhelmed with the email response, so in the future, I’ll set up an autoresponder letting people know there might be a delay in response.  I had a lot of thoughtful and heart-felt emails that I’m still responding to.

Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, et al)
These sites allow you to instantly blast out updates across groups of people to get them engaged with the cause.  I’ve worked on cultivating my social networks, so luckily I was able to get the word out about fundraiser updates with status updates and tweets on twitter.  I also created a fundraiser group on Facebook and invited all of my friends to it.  The cool thing about the social networks is that is fairly easy to make something viral.  One person joins a group, another person sees and joins as well.  It’s a cool concept.  With more time to get creative, it might have been fun to do some kind of funky video to distribute across the networks.

Podcast interviews
I first interviewed with my dad’s online radio show Motivation to Move, which brought a fair amount of attention to the fundraiser.  I also interviewed with Adam Tinkoff’s podcast “Another Runner,” and many other running and fitness podcasts were kind enough to play promo clips Adam recorded with me with quick blurbs regarding the fundraiser.  I had a lot of friend adds on Twitter as a result of the interviews, saw spikes in web activity and had donations from folks identifying themselves as having heard via a podcast.

Motivation to Move interview excerpt:

Another Runner Full Interview:

Another Runner Fundraiser Promo:

While I didn’t experiment too much with offline efforts (because I wanted to stick with my area of expertise), I have heard tale of massive success with fundraiser parties, carwashes, and all sorts of other clever approaches.  I think there were some good lessons to learned regarding online promotion, though, as many donations came from folks who happened to find about the fundraiser by searching on Google or Twitter, or by seeing a Friend involved with it on a Facebook group.  There is a lot of power to leveraging social networks to get the word out for your cause.

On to the next big adventure

I hope some part of this write-up has been helpful to you in some way.  The entire experience has been incredibly rewarding for me on many levels, and if you have even a glimmer of interest in attempting a Marathon, or similar big physical and mental challenge, I highly recommend delving right in.  This experience has strengthened my belief that if you can achieve what you thought to be impossible, it really broadens the scope of what you can enjoy in life.

What’s up next on the radar?  I’ll be running the Walt Disney World Marathon in January of 2009, looking forward to a much flatter course and a run fueled by the excitement and lessons learned from this first marathon.  I’m also looking into the AIDS LifeCycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles which is apparently 7 days of cycling 545 miles. Given that I rarely ride a bike, the old Austin wouldn’t have thought for a second about something like this.  New Austin says bring it on.  With the right mind-set, support and training, so much is possible.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to leave your comments below.

Austin

In other news, I made it through the marathon in one piece! My time was 5 hours 3 minutes for 26.2 miles. What an experience! I’ll do a more intensive writeup shortly to better tell the training and marathon story for those interested. I learned a lot and am eager to share.

Thank you again. What an extraordinary experience this has been!

Austin

We’ve achieved 72% of the $5,000 goal, with a donation total of $3,611 as of this writing.  I’m also happy to say that rather than August 1 as the deadline, we now have until August 11.  It is my hope that this added time will allow us to meet, and perhaps, even exceed the $5k goal to assist Hospice!

As we’ve seen from some of the previous messages posted, as well as some below, Hospice has consistently taken care of families in need.  This is an incredibly important effort, and importantly, a well run organization.  It has been comforting to hear from others how Hospice assisted their families in such difficult times.  While volunteering in Peru, I made some great friends with folks from the UK who couldn’t say enough about their Hospice equivalent, Mcmillan nurses.  Bottom line, these people deserve all the support we can give them, and to use Adam Tinkoff’s saying, let’s “give ’till it hurts.” :)  We have 10 more days to raise $1400 or more.  Let’s do it!

Here are some messages of support from the last few weeks:

“Good luck”  Sharon G, Apo AE

“Hi Austin, Been listening to your dad’s podcast and he’s helping me alot. So sorry to hear about your mum, I lost my mum when I was 15, (I’m 53 now). Good Luck with the fundraising! Love and Best wishes”  Gaby G, Searby GB

“I am a 2-year breast cancer survivor and listen to your dad’s podcast as often as I can get it for free (sorry, not a premium member). Good for you doing this in honor of your mother. Your energy from the podcast was overwhelming. Best of luck.”  Lourdes A, North Miami FL

“Austin, have a great run!”  Muriel, Pierre & Gill, Woking GB

“Good Luck Austin! I wil be quite a ways behind you. I am doing the 1st half on what will be my 65th birthday.”  Ralph M, Oakland CA

“Love. <3″  Anonymous

“18 is the number of LIFE in Hebrew. Thank you for allowing us to help in this worthy endeavor.”  (18 in reference to the $18 donation)  Jill E, Reisterstown MD

“best of luck :)”  Adelaide S, Kenmore WA

“Best wishes on your first marathon!”  Jenny S, Independence MO

“Good luck on running the race. Don’t forget to stretch your Hammies!”  Nicole F, New York NY

“Good Luck Austin!”  Serge F, Saskatoon CA

“It’s great that you are doing this. Your mom is looking down and smiling. I lost my grandmother is cancer and hospice helped us as well. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her. She got me threw so many rough times. God Speed in the cure for cancer and cherish the time with our loved ones.”  Erika D, Livonia MI

“My mother also died of cancer several years ago, and a hospice program helped my family through a difficult period. Good luck on your run.”  Lynette P, Spring TX

“I agree, hospice workers are ‘angels on earth’”  Shanna D, Aptos CA

“Good Luck with the run ! All the best to you and your family ! From Toronto, Canada !”  Lina R, Toronto CA

“Good for you Austin……what a good cause”  Kathy C, Stittsville OH

“This is small thank you for how your dad has made a difference in my life.”  Julie B, River Falls WI

“I heard you on your dad’s show and wanted to add my support.”  Jim N, Somerville NJ

“per Austin Hasting’s fund raiseer marathon…good luck Austin! This is because of your dad’s email/website!”  Linda B, Tavernier FL

“Hospice provided a wonderful service to me and my father during his last days. They are also providing support and comfort to my closest friends mother. Thanks to all of the wonderful people and to a great organization.”  Paula H, Lafayette CA

“What a great cause! I wish you all the best.”  Lisa C, Devens MA

“GOOD LUCK IN THE MARATHON, AUSTIN.”  Ruthann P, Leesburg FL

“Good Luck on the run!”  Michelle M, San Francisco CA

“Go Dude, it is good work. Will be thinking of you”  Wanda S, Orlando FL

A big thank you to all of the folks who have recently donated:

Susan M, Sharon G, Gabrielle G, Susan M, Lourdes A, Cal H, Ralph M, Anonymous, Jill E, Patti A, Adelaide S, Jenny S, Nicole F, Serge F, Erika D, Lynette P, Shanna D, Kenneth B, Lina R, Renee K, Kathy C, Julie B, Jim N, Deirdre M, Linda B, Paula H, Lisa C, Chakka A, Ruthann P, Andy H, Donal M, Rebekah K, Michelle M, Michelle L, Wanda S, Elizabeth S, Jo B

We’re almost there.  And oh yeah, I run 26.2 miles in 3 days.  I’ll be thinking about each of your kind words and support this Sunday as I run throughout San Francisco.

Austin

My first foray out onto the crowded streets of Miraflores was only 2 hours in length, but I feel like I really lived for the first time in a while. It is so easy to become entrenched in daily routine, and become so used to ones surroundings and tied to concepts of how to interact with life that some things lose their color. They lose some of their taste. The sensations which were one vivid, become expected, and somewhat dulled. I´ve spent so much time and energy in learning how to live within a certain environment, that even though it becomes mundane some days, it also grants a certain sense of security. It´s a trade-off that is willingly made for “quality of life,” but some times the sense of security, and some times the chosen concept of how to live within the world needs to be challenged every so often to be enhanced.

As I walk the streets of Miraflores, I´m struck with this realization. THIS is why we must travel. This is precisely why we need to make time to get away from work and routine, and get uncomfortable again. This is learning to live again; learning to survive and thrive within another culture, within what even seems like another pocket of space and time, and coming to an understanding of how other humans live their lives, and perhaps in some way, synthesizing a little of this into our own lives.

I can´t think of a better way of having begun my Peruvian adventure. My senses have been ignited, my thirst to learn and experience more is increased and I again realize why Travel isn´t just to go on Holiday and to piss away the time before getting back to work — Travel should be about connecting with other humans, sharing the experience of life and learning to value the diversity and beauty that can be found on this planet.

We´ll be in Miraflores for another day or two, then we´re off to meet up with some friends from Burners without Borders in Pisco who have been assisting in rebuilding the town for quite a while. Words can´t express how cool the BWB crew is, and we´re eager see them again and lend a hand. Then we´ll be off to Cusco, Machu Pichu, Backpacking, and hopefully many encounters with Alpacas!

Until next time,

Austin

1. Do one thing at a time
2. Know the problem
3. Learn to listen
4. Learn to ask questions
5. Distinguish sense from nonsense
6. Accept change as inevitable
7. Admit mistakes
8. Say it simple
9. Be calm
10. Smile

Austin

I’ve been at a steady and healthy pace of losing around 3 to 4lbs per week since training with Alan.  A lot of the progress has been due to the Marathon training, which has had me doing various forms of activity 6 days a week.  A key component to the healthy weight loss has been dietary change.  I have to credit the food diary for helping me to rein in my eating and get it on track so that it can work in concert with the physical training.  In fact, I don’t believe I’d be able to train as hard as I am now if I hadn’t taken control of the diet.  It’s amazing how much what you eat helps or hinders your body’s abilities on a daily basis.

Keeping a daily food diary isn’t necessarily easy at first, but it’s worth it!  It’s important to keep in mind the benefits to keeping a diary, and the vast importance of those benefits to your health and fitness.  Keeping a diary, much like skimming through your bank account to see what you REALLY spent, helps one to have a persistant reality check about what they’re consuming.  After a week of keeping tabs on everything you’ve consumed, and at what times, you begin to see at-a-glance certain patterns, many of which are less than enjoyable to realize.  But hey, some times a reality check is needed as impetus to true change.  I know it always helps fuel the fire for me.

Food Diary Approaches

Google Docs Spreadsheet: http://docs.google.com
My initial approach in doing the food diary was to create a spreadsheet using Google Docs.  This worked fairly well, as I could see most of the week’s entries on one screen for at-a-glance comparison.  Another benefit was that I could share the document with my trainer, allowing him to keep tabs on me whenever he’d like.  I’d say this is a good approach, as Google Docs are free to use, easily sharable and you can create some great spreadsheets if you’re so inclined.  My setup was one tab per week, using rows for each meal/snack and columns for the days.  I also included a cell to enter fitness, supplements and current weight for each day to weave that info into the overall consideration of what I was eating for a holistic picture.  If you’re seeing your weight stagnate or actually go up, you might be able to understand why pretty quickly by glancing at the last couple week’s worth of tabs.

Online Food Diary: http://www.gyminee.com/ or http://myfooddiary.com/
While the Google Doc Spreadsheet was a great, light-weight tool for tracking, I’ll have to say that online food diaries take the concept to a whole new level.  The Online version feels like the equivalent of always having a nutritionist giving real-time feedback on what you’re eating.  The general concept is that you have a profile on a site, and for each food or drink item you enter, the system has a database with nutritional information that is used to calculate the state of your diet.  Using one of these sites, you can tell throughout your day how you’re doing in terms of vitamins and minerals, caloric intake and much more.  Some sites even show how far along you are in terms of daily recommended servings of vegetables, meat, dairy, etc.  Additionally, there are fitness components where you can register what kind of activity, for how long, and it will calculate estimated calorie burn.  The site then compares the data from your diary to that of your fitness and shows you quite a lucid picture of caloric intake versus what you burn.  If there was ever any question as to why your body is worsening in state, stagnating or even improving, this kind of tool definitely helps in gaining insight into why, which can inform the decisions to make things better, or to sustain progress.  A fun twist with Gyminee.com, is that in addition to these tools, they also provide a social network ala Facebook where you can share your progress, meet gym buddies, and more.  Very cool.  These services charge a nominal monthly or quarterly fee.

Other Methods:
Of course, there’s a multitude of methods one can try.  There’s something to be said for the sweet simplicity of carrying a notepad with you and documenting with good ol’ pen and paper.  Or, as I tried briefly, one can use their iPhone or other smartphone’s notepad feature to document on-the-fly.

Each person will approach the logistics of keeping a food journal differently, and that’s to be expected.  I highly recommend giving it a try, and if one method doesn’t work, perhaps try a different approach.  This is certainly a great way to take control of your diet, which is an absolute cornerstone of health and happiness.

Want some motivation to give food diaries a try?  Read the recent San Francisco Chronicle article To drop pounds, write down everything you eat.

Happy journaling!

Austin