Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv

This passed weekend I was in Tel Aviv. It was as if I had gone to another Country, just they spoke Hebrew there as well. What can I tell you, the air is different, the atmosphere is different, the people are different. Walking around on Friday you see everyone lounging about, eating in restaurants, riding their bikes, walking their dogs, like a
real weekend. Then on Saturday, what do you know, they are doing the same thing. It's like everyone is on vacation, every weekend. I was staying at my friend Michali for Shabbat, she lives right near Kikar Rabin which means that she is pretty much within walking distance to most places in Tel Aviv that you would want to go to, especially the beach. Friday afternoon, we cooked food for the meals that we were hosting, lounged about on the porch in the sun, relaxed, ate a nice dinner with friends, what else do you need. Oh, and how can I forget, of course I went to Pro:Sport to visit and walked out with a bag filled with running gear. No shoes this time, that I bought at the Jerusalem Marathon Expo last week, Brooks PureGrit running shoes, really great feel and so pretty:

So what was there to do Saturday morning at 7:30 other than go for a run along the water. I thought that 7:30 was pretty early for a Saturday morning, but apparently not. I ran from the Tel Aviv Port to the Yaffo Port and back, along with another 300 or so runners, walkers, bikers (not Harley bikers) and it was such a beautiful morning! I ran on the sand a bit too, which is always fun. A lot of the runners out were getting in their last runs before the Tel Aviv Marathon this Friday, which I am sad to say I will not be participating in, in any way, but it was just so invigorating seeing all the runners out. When I got home at 9, all there was to do was just to lounge around, finish my book, drink my coffee and wait for everyone else to wake up.

Later in the afternoon we all went back to the beach to walk around, and if I thought that it was packed in the morning, Saturday afternoon the place was a mob scene. We had to weave our way in and out of all the people. This time around there were a lot more walkers and bikers rather than runners, but at least they were out ;)

Oh, to be able to live in Tel Aviv and have that long weekend feeling all the time...

Plus, running on flat ground is so much easier than running the hills of Jerusalem, especially when you are trying to get back in the swing of things.

'Till next time.

Peace.

Words of Wisdom

I am trying to recall how I felt the week before the Venice Marathon. I am sure that I could just scroll down and see the blog post from that week or the several, but that would be cheating. I would say that I was probably getting cold feet and saying to myself over and over again, "What the hell in the name of g-d am I doing???" In retrospect, training for the marathon is the crazy part, once you are done with that, the marathon is a piece of cake, literally. You can eat whatever your heart desires once you are done with the 42.2 km, no matter where you run them, for how long and if you can move afterwards, you can eat anything.
As a one-time marathoner, for now, I don't know what real advice I can give, just hope that your training was sufficient, be confident that you will succeed and know that after this is 0ver, you do not have to run again for a long time, (a month is a good amount of rest time).
Today I saw a great quote by Jim Ryun "Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going." All you need to do come race day is put one foot in front of the other and then your body will take over.
We are indeed, creatures of habit.

Good luck to all the runners out there, be it of 3km or 300km.

'Till next time,

Peace.

Jerusalem Marathon 2012

It was inevitable that I would be staying in Jerusalem the weekend of the marathon. I have come to terms with the reality that running is not right for me, right now. I was hoping that I would be able to escape the hullabaloo of the marathon. Instead, I will be elbow deep in it. When my mom asked if I was running in the marathon, after giving her the strangest look ever and telling her that her question deserved no answer, she suggested that I go and give massages at the end of the marathon, since that is what saved me at the end of the Venice Marathon. I looked at her again like she was crazy but I pondered her suggestion for a while and decided that it would be the nice thing to do. Since I can't run, I might as well help the runners to the best of my ability. So I signed up thru my school, who has 2 massage stations this year, for the marathoners and the 1/2 marathoners. They said that as a marathoner, they would put me at the full marathon runners' station. I'm not sure if I'll be helping prep and recover or just recover, either way, it'll be a very early wake-up for all of the participants that Friday. I'm already excited/nervous for the runners, I can imagine what they are going thru and I think that deep down inside, I am relieved that I won't be going thru all of that this year. All I have to do is find nose plugs and not get grossed out by all the sweat ;)

A little info on massage benefits for athletes.

PRE & POST SPORTS MASSAGE

All athletes have their own particular way of preparing for a good or excellent performance. Pre event massage plays a very useful and additional part in any preparation for competition. Only the principle muscles for the event are treated

• Helping an athlete prepare for, or recover from, is an important part of sports massage
• Your first ever massage should not be before a major event
• No two sportsmen/women respond to massage in quite the same way

Pre event massage can be done anything from two days to immediately before the event; however, deep massage should not be considered as it can take two days to recover. Some athlete’s say they lose some of their explosive power if deep massage is used.

A stimulating massage is required for sports that require speed, strength and explosive power. For pre event nerves a more calming massage is often welcomed. At this point a well-trained athlete would use massage psychologically rather than physically.

In the last hour before the event massage should not suffice as an adequate warm up, only as part of.

Post Event Massage
Most athletes carry out a cooling down routine but often fail to do so after competition because of sheer exhaustion, elation or disappointment.
Massage can be an adequate substitute for a warm down as it can achieve much of the same effect by removing muscle waste and stretching the tissues.

http://www.massage4athletes.com/massage.html