Crack of dawn...

Wednesday morning, 630 am. The alarm on my new and beautiful ipod touch goes off. Nice soothing jazz music playing. And, BOOM! I fall out of bed trying to find it. That should wake anyone up, not me apparently. Rachel = Zombie. Somehow I made it to the gym for speedwork. Apparently you don't really need to be conscious to run, or run fast and it is an amazing wakeup call. Thank god I had organized my bags for school the night before or else I would never had made it out of the apartment on time. Why was I so tired? I guess, for one, I should go back to my bed time of 10pm, but that's never going to happen now that finals are coming up. I was tired from the leg work on Tuesday and definitely from the 3 massages I gave that night. I was so hungry after all of it, I ordered a steak wrap from Burger's Bar. I know that this may come as a shock to some people, but it was damn good and I could even go for some steak right now. There are certain types of hunger that being a vegetarian just doesn't cut it. I wanted meat and I got meat.

That all said, lets talk about the speed work and my wobbly legs. I did a 1/2 hour of decently paced running, got in the 5k I needed and after a 2 minute walk break, went straight into the intervals. 40 sec of hard running/30 sec recovery * 10 reps and then 2 min cool down. Most days I praise the school that I go to, but Wednesdays now are going to be especially praiseworthy with 6 hours of my massage class. After the gym, I went straight to school and got a wonderful back and leg Tuina massage. Just what the body needed. It was great. I wish I could do that after every workout...

Dinner with my bro was pushed off to Wednesday night when we were both not so tired. I took him to this little Italian restaurant outside of the shuk. It was really cute but I do not recommend getting the raw fish and strawberries, Brian must have told me what it was called at least 6 times, I still can't remember. Its so nice going to a restaurant with someone who can taste the food and tell you exactly what's in it and how it was prepared. I don't know how smart it was to go for Italian when that's all Brian has been making all week, I feel like he could have made the food better if we were at home. If anyone needs a personal chef, let me know :)
I figured that I would go to sleep early Wednesday night but of course that didn't happen, Reina came to town! Even though its only for the weekend, its always great to see my Taz. After an "interesting" time in town, it was really time to go home. Thankfully, Thursday was my rest day, even though being in school for 13 hrs straight isnt so restful.

It pays to be on time to things, which is the curse of the Koenigsons (pronounced Kay-nig-son). Thursday mornings we have an hour of practice for our acupuncture class and being one of the 2 people who showed up on time, I got a lot of practice in! Its a real rush when you know what you are doing and you do it well. Some points that I needled were ones we have already done and I knew their meaning but the others were new to me. It was such a great learning experience. Now if you have allergies, I can help you get rid of them! I will not go into the details of what I experienced in the clinic last night, but it was extremely cool to see what we can do with needles... Last night, as well, I said I would go to sleep early. Needless to say, that didn't happen...

Today is my long run. I have done them before, but today is the 1st run with my new running partner! We are both running the Jerusalem 1/2 marathon, so I figured we could train together. Since I know the course and Jerusalem a bit better, I mapped out the run for today. Its going to be a good one, I can just feel it! I thought it would be a good idea to run some of the race's route and get in some of the many hills that this town has to offer. I am very thankful that tonight is Shabbas, I can sleep late tomorrow!

We are also going to have great weather for the run, good time to try the new running gloves. No more Summer in January, its a beautiful, brisk October day here in Jerusalem on January 15th...

Avatar or Sherlock Holmes Saturday night?

Have a great weekend! I know I will have a restful one.