Speedwork at 6am!

It has started. No other day am I able to wake up so early and function like a live human being. I usually roll out of bed and dread what I have to do that day. Speed work days are different. When my alarm goes off, I jump out of bed, get ready and am hopefully the 1st one at the gym. You would think that I would dread running sprints for long periods of time or for short periods of time and repeating the same old thing over and over with each time being harder than the one before. Nope. I love that feeling that I can hardly breathe and that when my rest is up I'm doubting that I can do another sprint. I shouldn't say that I have always loved this time of training, because then I would be lying, but now when I can breathe after a rep and I don't want to stop running, I'm disappointed and I up the mileage. You might call me crazy, I think I've finally gotten the runner's bug. I probably had it multiplying slowly in my brain when I decided to run the Tiveria 10k, the Jerusalem 1/2 AND the NYC Marathon all in one year. I think that once you look forward to torture at 6am you have gone over the edge. The edge is way behind me.

Today was a great day. I jumped out of bed, got dressed, got to the gym and started my sprints. 30 times 20 seconds each with 20 sec recovery between each repetition. I started at 12.5kmh and the last one I did at 15kmh. It was hard but my lungs and my legs are thanking me for it. Since I had some time, the last minute I ran at 14kmh and then walked it all out for the 2 minute cool down. All this was followed with shoulders and ab work. There's no better way of getting the lactic acid out of the muscles than with a massage. Since my hip has been nagging me a bit, I asked that we work on that when I got to school, it definitely helped and my legs aren't sore at all. Yay!

12 hours later, I'm exhausted, sitting at work studying for my quiz tomorrow. Chinese herbs, now, will be the death of me. No early night tonight... I have one massage to give when I am done here at the gym. Thankfully, tomorrow is my day off from exercise but I do have to be at school by 8 (to stick people with needles! :) )

Friday is a fast paced 10km and then I'm off to my favorite place here in Israel - Mizpe Netufa! One of my friends just got enagaged (to his Ethiopian girlfriend - I wonder if my dad would get to use his shotgun if I did something similar, bringing home one of our own, who likes watermelon and grits ;) ) Its gonna be a party...

Sunday, if the weather holds up, I will be trying my new Nike+ chip out for my scheduled 13k... I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I would like to give a shout out to my brother, Brian, who has the best homework assignments ever. I wish all I had to do when I got home was think up 2 amazing soup recipes for my test the next day. If anyone reads this and would like the recipes for Carrot Basil Soup and Spicy Tomato Soup, I will ask permission from the Master. I'm guessing that Angela was right when she started calling him Master Brian.

Long run...

I think that my Ipod Touch is going to be the death of me, or at least the end to my sleep schedule. Just when I think that I have found all that I need, I discover something new that I must have on my ipod and there goes another hour of precious sleep time. So after sleeping a nice amount over the weekend I figured Sunday I would wake up with lots of energy and be ready for 12km outside in the cold but sunny weather. Lo and behold, I woke up Sunday morning exhausted and ran my 12k on the treadmill at the gym, which turned out to be better than getting caught in the rain outside, had I been out there. I think that there needs to be an hour, like stopping to eat a certain amount of time before going to sleep, that I say, enough with the ipod, its time to get some rest. I think that hour will be 10pm. Tonight will be the first night that I try it. I will let you know how it goes.

So Sunday's run was 12km. It was not the first time that I have run that distance but its been a while. It was not easy, but its over with and will be done again next week, hopefully outside. I don't think that I ate enough yesterday so that I could run the 4-5k that I needed to run today. I was hoping that I would be able to run closer to the 5k than the 4 but I opted for the 4 when I dragged myself out of bed this morning, again because I was reading a book I downloaded to my ipod, late into the night. After today's run I did a full body workout with a bit of balance training AND got to go into work late! I tried to see what Mamilla had to offer in terms of some new boots and maybe some khakis, but all I came out with was one less glove :( I did buy a new chip for Nike+ so that I can finally know what distance I am running when I'm outside. Hopefully it will give me that extra push to run on the street instead of the treadmill. I think that a dog would probably be a better bet...

Tomorrow is cross training and some more leg work and balance training. A strong core = a strong stride :)

I can't wait for Wednesday, 3 massages!

Impressive

My alarm went off at 6 and I didn't hit the snooze button! I jumped out of bed, into the freezing cold air that takes over my room, thankfully I have two heavy blankets keeping me warm, got myself dressed and was at the gym before it opened. 20 minutes of speed work really isn't that long, it felt like forever when I was doing it but once it was over it felt like a breeze. What really helps the time pass is listening to funny podcasts. I love NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me game show. They take current events and make quizzes out of them and have listeners call up to win prizes and they always have someone famous on. The host, Peter Segal, is just hysterical as well as the other participants, making 45 minutes pass like a breeze.

Thursday's workout was 45 sec of level 4 speed and 15 sec of fullstop, 20 times. I thought it would be a lot harder than it was at such an early hour, suprisingly easy. Add a little leg work and its a good workout. At around 5 yesterday I fell asleep in class
...
Last night I went to see Sherlock Holmes with Noa, highly recommended!

Today is a fast 8k on 4 hours of sleep... It will probably be my best workout yet.

Thank god for the weekend!

Shabbat Shalom!

So, what has happened in the last week? Lots and lots of rain. Not that I'm complaining, we need the rain. I love this weather, the wind, the biting cold, the cold feet from the water seeping in to my shoes... I actually do love it all except for the last one. I just hate running in it, specifically because of how wet my feet get and for the reason that I am prone to slip and slide when there isn't much water so I should be all the more cautious when the cobble stones of Jerusalem are like a walking on water.

So the running logs for this week: Friday was such a hectic day, I am surprised I found the hour to run. I decided to run part of the 1/2 marathon route, I have to get used to those hills. Saturday was my obvious rest day, I walked a nice amount but I can't even think about running Saturday nights... Sunday was my long cross training day and weight workout. The fitness ball and the bosu are my new best buddies at the gym. Monday I ran a good 8km on the treadmill, it was supposed to be outside with Danielle but the weather was definitely against us this week. Tuesday was a tempo 5km run, also on the treadmill, also because of the rain and some other facotrs... I was going to wake up this morning to do 20 minutes of sprints and leg work. When my alarm went off, there was no way that I was going to get out of bed. Tomorrow, bright and early is my punishment, 6am, we meet again. I can't wait until my days start at 5am!

Something cool that I learned today: walking on people for a full hour massage! Its a little scary at first, thinking you might crush the person you are walking on, but once you get the hang of balancing your weight properly, its a lot of fun, kind of like body surfing :)

I am sorry for the delay in the updates. My computer was at the doctor... Let's just say that I got a lot of studying done. Yay Chinese Herbs.

More to come on Friday!

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.

Leg Work is a Bitch.

Squats, squats with weights, squats on the bosu ball, one legged squats, one legged squats on the bosu, wall squats, wall squats on the bosu, static lunges, dynamic lunges, walking lunges, forward lunges, backward lunges, pulsating walking lunges, leg lifts, legs curls, jump-squats.... I can really go on forever and they all can be done on the bosu ball.

If I had to decide on which exercises I dread doing, it would be leg exercises. Just the thought of them, makes me push them off to Tuesdays. I should probably just do them Sunday to get it over with but I'm not at that stage yet. Obviously I don't do all the exercises in one day, I spread them out over the course of the weeks and switch them up each session, that's the optimal way to keep my body on its toes, literally. Another reason I wait 'till mid week to work out my legs is that the next day I am so sore I can hardly walk down the stairs. A wise man once told me that if you don't feel sore after your workouts, you weren't working hard enough.

No pain no gain.

That all said, today's workout was no exception. I did a half hour of pure leg work on and off the bosu and with the amazing Kinesis machine that we have at the King David. When I have $16,000, I'm installing one in my living room! I incorporated some new core exercises that I had found on the Runner's World website, my favorite was the Samurai Chop. Strong abs are important for correct form, to reduce injuries and to make you faster.

Later I will be going for an hour bike ride and then taking my bro out to dinner for his birthday, but not before I give 3 massages...

Let's hope that my legs won't be too sore tomorrow morning for the scheduled speed work...

1/2 Marathon training has begun.

With the 10k over and done with, its a breeze to go out and run anything less. After taking the weekend off of running, but not from working out, I ran 7km at the gym this morning. If I had had the time, it would have been more, but Monday's are my long work days and I couldn't wake up early enough. I'm definitely at fault for that one. With my new Ipod Touch (!!) to configure and load with music and just get used to, I went to sleep a lot later then I would have like to. So this morning, when my alarm went off, I groaned as I got out of bed and made myself a big cup of coffee.

When I finally made it to the gym I was thankful that "my treadmill" was free. Granted, I can run on any treadmill but when you find the one that feels good and you stick with it, workouts on any other are never as good. Todays run was an easy to moderate paced semi-long run, I did an extra 2 intervals to round off the 40 minute run.

To directly quote from my online training emails from Marius Bakken:

"Marathon/Half Marathon Workout # 1 of 15:

32 minutes of continous running where you vary 4 minutes of Effort 2 and 4 minutes of Effort 3.

This type of controlled variation in effort should be a key element in your running, and it is much better than just a 32-minute progressive run.

Here's how it works: First run 4 minutes at Effort 2 and then switch immediately into Effort 3, and then back again.

Why do this?

Switching efforts like this teaches your body superior pace control and the resultant training effect is substantially greater than just a normal tempo run. "

It was an easy workout, just what I needed to see that I still "got it" and to continue later on in the week to the long run.

Tomorrow's workout will be all about strength training and core stability. I am in love with the bosu ball.

The Tiberias 10k. It is not a marathon!

Back in November when my friend Shira told me that she was coming to Israel to run the 10k with her family and that I just had to join her, I thought, sure why not, January 7th is really far away. I don't think that it could have arrived any faster than it did. Not that I wasn't physically ready for the distance, I had trained well and I knew what time I was aiming for, I just never imagined the time would come. After some debate, I travelled to Tiveria the night before and hung out with the family in town, enjoying the atmosphere of the night before the race. I have always read that runners can be spotted from miles away but I never noticed it before. The participants who were running the marathon all just screamed "I'm a runner and I know it". I don't think either of us slept well that night, every hour I woke up thinking it was 7am, looked at my watch and went back into an anxious sleep. I woke up that morning at 6 and twiddled my thumbs for the last hour and then after getting ready, headed down to breakfast. Before making my way to Tiveria the night before, like every female, I debated what to wear that next day for the race. Its not like it was such a big deal, I would only be wearing the same shirts that I had been training in the past 3 months, but for some reason, it was a big deal. I decided on the bright pink shirt. Why? I just knew that Shira would appreciate it much more than if I just chose a boring one. I associate bright magenta pink with Shira Peleg, that's just the way it goes. So dressed in my bright pink nike running shirt and my Brooks Dyad 5 running shoes that my mom sent me the month before I was ready for the race. Inside I was awake, but you should have seen the black rings under my eyes... When we got down to breakfast, it was evident who was running that day and already we could feel the excitement in the atmosphere. Some eggs and turkish coffee and I was ready to go. After at least 6 bathroom breaks, we all headed out to the start of the race, but not before taking a group picture:

Please take notice to the order, we couldn't find 2135...

The day for the race could not have been any nicer. Granted it was a bit hot for a marathon and especially for January, even if we were in Israel. There was not a cloud in the sky and all the hills around us were so green and the Kineret was so blue. I love the whole area, so it made the run so much more enjoyable. When we finally got down to the starting point I started to get antsy. Everyone there was warming up, doing laps, stretching, drinking water, waiting to use the toilets. One of the most important rules of running a long race is, when you see a free porta potty, use it. Even if you don't have to. So, we joined the long line to the women's bathroom when in the time we were waiting, Shira's brother got to go twice...

When we finally were ready and made sure that we had everything right, we started to make our way to the line up for the 10k. The marathoners and cyclists had already started but there were still so many people waiting around. Apparently another 1699 people were running this race with me. I would like to say that I came in 40th in my category of 103 women (!!) although, it did not seem like there were so many of them out there on the road with me. We made our way pretty close to the starting line and found ourselves surrounded by hardcore runners and elite army units. That was extremely intimidating and ennerving, but when that gun went off, and we were all shuffling along to find our stride, all I had on my mind was getting to the end. I'm glad I wore the pink shirt, it was a way for Shira to keep tabs on me. We started off together but then drifted to running at our own paces. I should have brought my music with me, it can be boring to run alone for an hour, but I'll know for next time. Without the music, however, I got to listen to my breathing and the breathing of those around me. Once we found our stride they let the elite army units loose. All of a sudden I was being passed by huge sweaty soldiers in their unit shirts singing their songs, it was like dodging traffic, I didn't know where to put my elbows other then them being glued to my sides. The route was 5k out and 5k back, which can be annoying when running a route that you are familiar with, but in this case it was equally as nice. Instead of the water being on the left, it was on the right and somehow it still looked different. When I was at the 6k mark two soldiers decided to turn around without making it to the halfway point and then turning around. I wasn't that annoyed since they weren't even registered and they were just running the race for fun but I decided to say something to them anyway. Their response: "why do we even need this, its not like this 10k is going to make a difference in our level of fitness, its not like we don't run this distance every day". I still consider them cheaters...

I forgot to mention that January 7th is my mom's birthday. If all had worked out she would have been running with me, or she would have tried to train for the distance. In the end she is coming to Israel in February, a month before the 1/2 marathon and smack in the middle of finals. So while I was out there on my own, my mantra was: "I'm running this for my Mom. I'm running this for my Mom." It worked, I didn't stop, just once to take a drink from the water bottle at the turn around point, but I kept on going. For the last kilometer, Shira caught up to me, thanks to the pinkness of my shirt :) and we finished the race together. When we saw the end and heard Shira's dad cheering for us, we both picked it up a few notches and sprinted to the end. Since I do not consider myself a competitive person, when Shira passed me, I thought about racing her to the end, but I let her pass me and finish 2 seconds before me.

It was over, we were winded and ready to get our medals. When we finally found the table where they were supposedly handing out the medals we get hit with the shouts of an angry and frustrated crowd. "How can there not be enough medals?" "Don't you idiots know how many people registered to run the race?" "You are really going to mail my medal to Germany?" Since the army units had obviously finished before most of the runners, they had decided to take medals for all their participants even though they hadn't signed up for the race. So we are still waiting for our medals to arrive via snail mail... I hope the guy from Germany gets his.

Shira's dad finished in time to get a medal so we all decided to pose with his pretending it was really ours:

And of course we had to take a picture after we were done...still missing 2135.

This whole week I have been asked how the marathon went. I keep on saying, "it was only 10k!!" and people keep on answering, "that seems like a marathon to me". Lets hope that when I run the marathon, they don't ask me how the 10k went, then I'll really be annoyed.

To answer everyone's questions, it was great!

Now its time for the 1/2 marathon training to begin...

How it all started, in 2010 that is

I have been running for a while now and participating in races for charity here and there throughout the years, but this year is going to be all about running for me. I feel that a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with running and have found myself struggling often with the act of running. It can start with a nagging injury or just not having the motivation to find the time to get in that run that is so crucial to my training. Now its time to get over those roadblocks and just love the run.

The NYC Marathon has been on my list of things to do, forever. I figured I would run it when I was in my 30s with 2 kids and a steady job, training while trying to juggle a household and a private clinic, not as a student at the age of 24. Over succot I got to spend some time with someone who was running the NYC Marathon that next month. He happened to be my age and I guess it inspired me to start thinking about the feat as something feasible to me, now. The next week a good friend of mine from high school emailed me to tell me that her father had just signed her whole family up for the 10k race in Tiveria in January 2010, that he already bought them tickets to Israel and I should join them in racing. 10 kilometers was something I could imagine myself doing and training for properly in the span of 2.5 months, so I signed up. I was looking for some good training programs online and I obviously checked my beloved Runner's World magazine. There was an article in the latest issue about running different races and distances throughout the year inorder to keep on track with training, see where you stand and most importantly not get bored. Once I had already signed up for the 10k, I signed up for the NYC Marathon. I figured, I go back to America once a year, I might as well make this trip worth my while...(Not that seeing my family and friends isn't.) Entrance is not guarenteed since I'm not part of a group or running for one of the marathon's charities so I decided to find a way to make sure that I would definitely be running this race. I used to work at a great running store in Tel Aviv, Pro:Sport, and I love going back to visit when I need to restock my collection of running gear. It was time, so I made a special trip to Tel Aviv and it was definitely worth it. In addition to the shirts and socks that I bought, I found out that the store was putting a group together for Issta Sport, which automatically grants you entrance to the race. That night I sent them an email and signed up to run the race for Israel. I can't say that my time will be worth any recognition but I'm going in to finish, not to win any prizes and running for Israel is just a perk.

With the guarentee of being able to participate in the marathon, the 10k in Tiveria and that article, I decided to make this year a year of running races. A year for me, not for anyone else. It might sound selfish, but I'm ok with that. Like I already said, I have raced for charities. Maybe next year will be different.

Oh, and lets throw in the Jerusalem 1/2 Marathon, just for fun :)

This blog will be about my journey thru 2010 and the ups and downs of training.

Hope you all enjoy.