The Life and Times of Sam Luna

I got an email from some Al Lawrence running friends who needed a 3rd person to run the 25k relay with them. So I decided I was up to running a 5.2 mile leg and could help them out. My best guess of my fitness was that I would run in the 6:40- 6:45 pace per mile. I ran a bit quicker to turn in a 33:25 split for my 3rd leg, avg. 6:25 pace. It was alot of fun watching and cheering on all the other ALRC runners and Congrats to all those who finished, it was a warm day. Full Results

I broke the race up into 3 parts, the first 5.5 miles to lower camp bird, the next 4.5 miles to the summit and then 7 miles downhill to the finish. The first 5.5 miles are at gradients of 8-15% steep. I was able to jog portions and walk the steeper inclines. I made it to the lower camp bird, mile 5.45 in about 1 hour. That’s an average pace of 12 minute miles.  The next 2.2 miles took me nearly 50 mins, I reached Upper Camp Bird, mile 7.65 in 1:52:50. Heading on towards the summit, the next 2.35 miles took me another 57:50, making my final time to summit 2:50:41. Yes, that is an avg pace of 25 minute miles for 4.5 miles. The Summit is at 13,114 ft of elevation.  I descended the final 7 miles in 1:09:45, an average pace of 10 minute miles. I finished in 4:00:27!  My thoughts about the course. Its hard, period. You are going up a mountain and altitude. Lets be realistic, its hard, really, really hard. The views are incredible, the mountain can be wonderful or down right ugly if it ge

So over the past month I have been busy! I raced in the Friday Night Rice All-Comers Meet June 19. I ran in the mile and ran a post college PR of 5:07, last year was 5:12 and the year before was 5:18. So steadily improving. I competed in the the Memorial Sugar Land Triathlon put on by Finish Line Sports . This is the same course as Try Andy's, but with a 300m pool swim instead of the 300m lake swim. I have stuck by my non-swim training technique and continued to rock climb to maintain my upper body fitness. I swam within 13 secs of my best swim for 300m, had a pretty fast T1 and then headed out on the bike. I have just been trying to ride consistently over the past month and haven't done any speed work on the bike, and it showed. I averaged 23.6 mph for the 10 mile course, hopefully by the time Try Andy's rolls around I will be closer to 24+mph. T2 was really fast thanks to using my platforms on the bike. My run was so-so. I have not done any brick workouts, but have been

So my first tri of the 2009 season was a complete success, I hurt and had a lot of fun! It was great having my friends Father Mikey, Big Jim and Ali, Scott, Leah and her hubby Jimmy who I work with. Jimmy also had a great race, look for some more fast times this year! The swim was better than expected, I hoped for anything under 5 mins, so 4:21 was awesome. Out of transition and onto the bike. Since the course was 15 miles, I stuck to my 20 mile and under rule of biking in my running shoes with platforms. I have never noticed any loss of power and the time gains in T1 and T2 are great. Superman mount onto the bike went smooth as usual. The bike course was unknown to me. I wasn't familiar with the course, winds or how my body would feel and hold up. I actually raced with a bike computer, I haven't used a computer since 2003. I used it to keep a judge of reality. If I started to see 24mph+ and felt like I was pressing I backed off. With the wind my speed was 26-27mph and that wou

Toby topping out a route A very busy Memorial Day weekend, Combat Triathlon, Astros Game and some fun in Austin Bouldering and catching up with friends. I have been bouldering for a couple years thanks to some friends in San Antonio, Joe and Jill. They coach endurance athletes and taught me how to climb. With a couple friends from Houston we headed up to Austin to climb at the North Austin Gym . It is set up primarily for bouldering. There are alot of good routes and great climbs. We got to meet up with my buddy Nick from San Antonio and Samir who got to climb for their first time. Some pics and a couple videos are here .

The 2009 Austin Muddy Buddy was awesome! A great race with great friends. The short story is it rained Saturday afternoon cooling off Austin. Temps Sunday morning were perfect in the low 60’s and overcast. The 6ish mile course was technical and muddy. I pushed the bike up quite a few hills! My partner Dee and I had a great time of 40 mins and some change which placed us first in the CO-ED 76-85 age group, combined age of 2 partners. Our friends from up North, Mark and his daughter Jenna had a great race also and cut 15 mins off their time from the Chicago race last year!! Jenna also trains people , "Buddies in training", for the Chicago Muddy Buddy at Elite Fitness and Racquet Clubs . Check it out if you live in the Milwaukee area. Check out some of our photos here . We have a short video from pre race below! The longer "Race" Video is kinda large and needs to be cut down, it will be up soon too! Race results and photos !

So I am finally running again! 3 miles every Tue/Thur/Sat. It is not much, but it feels great! I am making a come back, wait so you say, "how many times can Sam come back?" Plenty! I have the honor of competing in the Austin Muddy Buddy this weekend with the Fabulous Dee! I did a couple of races in her place with the Bionic Thongs in 2007 , now I get to fill in for Allison and race with Dee! I hear we will be thonging with a couple other friends, Mark and Jenna, so Austin better watch out!

So since the Austin Marathon I have been having some pretty sharp pain in my right Leg/Hip Socket Joint. I tried to run a couple times and the pain was pretty significant, so I gave it 3 weeks and thought all was better. I was in DC for work so I saw a 10k that looked like a run that would be fun. Plus I have never ran in DC, so what a great deal. I started the run pretty comfortable, and nothing felt off the first mile. The second mile I felt a little twinge. By mile 4 I was hurt. Miles 5 and 6 were a jog/walk hope trying to finish as quickly as possible without doing any more damage. Its kind of a catch-22, you want to finish really quick so the pain stops, but the quicker you go the more painful it is. I got back to Houston, gave it a week to heal and the pain did not go away. I went and had an x-ray and no stress fracture, but possibly a torn/strained hip flexor. I start PT on Monday and will give it another 4-6 weeks to see how it heals up. I have a check up with the Doc in 5 week

So first, I did not finish, I pulled out at mile 20. I did not have it in me, so another day, another race. I am a bit disappointed, but I have learned a lot during the training. Thank you to all for the well wishes! The plan: Take the first 3 miles out with the 3 Hr pace group uphill and then use miles 4-7 downhill to make up a bit of time. Miles 8-11 get into a comfortable pace. Work up the hill at 11 and then rolling hills through 18. 19-26 are somewhat down hill so pick up a bit of speed heading back in. Take a gel every 4 miles, and 1 gel right at the start. Alternate between water and powerade at every water stop. I thought if I could get through the half around 1:29 I could run even or better the second half. Race Recap: Race morning was really nice, cool and windy. Temp was in the 40's and it looked to be overcast. The race started 15 mins late, that does not seem like much, but when you have nutrition and bathroom duties to take care of it can be a little problem. The rac

This was my first running race since the 10k in August of 2008. I have completed 8 weeks of marathon training in preparation for the Austin Marathon Feb. 15. 1 - 6:48, started off nice and easy 2 - 7:01, got comfortable and relaxed 3 - 6:50, joined into a group training to run a 3hr marathon (6:53 pace) 4 - 6:50, spot on, even pace, good group of 6/7 guys, gu #1 5 - 6:54, 1/4 of the way done, hills are rolling up and down 6 - 6:21, 2 of the guys stretched it out on this downhill mile 7 - 6:37, group gets back together, but we were pressing some with the rolling hills 8 - 6:33, the pace is staying even, I was going a bit faster than I wanted, but I didn't want to run alone so I stayed with the group, gu #2 9 - 6:33, this mile took its toll later on, I went with 2 of the guys in the group and we gapped the rest of the group 10 - 7:52, 1st half 1:08:24, uphill and getting windy, I let the 2 guys get ahead of me while I recovered. 11 - 6:28, used the down hill to pick up some leg s

Ok, seems to be the thing, here are a couple buddies and my list of bikes: Adam's Bikes Brandon's Bikes My bike list 2001-2009: Dave Scott Ironman Centurion - Steel, Given to me by a friend, size 61! This bike started the craze! Litespeed Tuscany - Sweet Ti Love Litespeed Saber - Had to have more Ti Colnago Dream - This bike could turn on a dime! Awesome road race bike. Look AL Track bike - My love for the track has never faded Quintana Roo Zero Gravity - Funny ITU road bike Quintana Roo Lucero - First Sponsored Tri Bike, really nice carbon Litspeed Siena - Ti, never got to ride it enough Guru Veloci'Ti - Wow, beautiful paint Scott CR1 - Really stiff carbon Titus Racer X - One ride and moved on from the off road stuff, maybe someday again. RMS Sparrow -Fully Custom Ti Tri Bike, I ride what I love Cervelo Super Prodigy - Steel, sweet ride! Cannondale F4- Hardtail Mtn. Needed something for the trails and Muddy Buddy races Some Rush - Fixed gear, back to the track! Steel, ver