This is all I have to post today...

My mantra.

Life in a sauna

It is HOT!!!!!! and I do believe that I am slowly melting away. All I do is sweat. Its gross.

I now train at night, once the sun has gone down and its not boring into my skin. I didn't get to the track this week but I did run in Gan Sacher and its really cool to see all the people who are there to run. It makes it a much more enjoyable experience when you know that there are people around you suffering through a workout and sweating as much as you are. It seems that just by stepping out of my apartment I lose 2lbs in sweat. Like I said, gross. I ran Monday's session in the Vibrams and other than my feet being sore, I felt great! No back pain, no knee pain, no hip pain. I'm really starting to like them and get into the new gait but inorder to prevent stress fractures in my feet, I have to be patient. I'm not that patient of a person...

Check out this article: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/baring-it-all-the-barefoot-running-trend-2337336/ I can see this becoming sooooo addicting. Thankfully, they are cheaper than running shoes and don't need to be replaced every 700km.

Let us hope that the weather will lighten up a lot. Please.

Peace.

Ummm....

Wow, its been almost a month since I last wrote and I am sorry for not keeping you up to date on my marathon training. I have been running, and alot, but I guess that I have not had the time or the patience (to deal with my computer from the ice age) to write any new posts. Now I have Danielle to point out that I have been lacking in the blog area so I guess that this post is in her honor. Oh, and considering that most of my runs have been solo, there aint that much to talk about. Thanks Danielle.

So what has happened in the last month... A heat wave that has yet to break and humidity that I can not seem to get used to. If I don't take my afternoon nap, I don't make it through the day. I have also taken to sleeping on the floor in my room that has the best possible cross breeze and the tile is soooo much cooler than my bed. There are days when I run at 630 am just before it gets too hot and then there are days in which I run at 9pm after its cooled down some. My best running time is noontime and that is definitely not the best time to be outside these days, so that is when I get treadmill time. There are weeks when all I do is eat and then there are weeks when its sooo hot I can't think about eating anything but ice cream, preferably Ben and Jerry's or Fruitbar frozen yogurt (soooo good with strawberries and granola on top and drizzled with tehina and chocolate sauce) but I'm not picky... Yesterday I ran for 2 hours and burned like 1500 calories and had a can of ice cold Dr. Pepper with my breakfast. I justify that can of soda with the run, kind of like after the Tel Aviv half marathon and the Coke. I have decided that I kind of like running au' naturale - barefoot, not naked, and have purchased a pair of Vibram Five Finger Sprint running shoes. Its a whole new world! Its like learning how to walk all over again. The point of the shoes is to get the benefits of going barefoot with out all the caluses. It builds the muscles in the foot that we don't get a chance to work on while using sneakers, improving stability, balance and proprioception. Plus side, less money and less joint pain. Down side, it takes a long time to break them in and in the meantime, my calves are KILLING me. Thank god for weekly massages :)

Check out the not so socially accepted shoes that are becoming more and more popular. These are the exact ones I have, color and all:Just the other day I saw this really fit looking, all American athlete walking down to Gan Sacher in a pair of Vibrams and I ran to catch up to him so that I could ask him a few questions about the shoes and what his recommendations are for starting out with them. They are really odd looking, I admit, but I'm secure enough in myself that I couldn't really give a shit what people say about whats on my feet... :) I must get that from my mom...

Now, there are 2 new running grounds that I have discovered, Gan Sacher and the Givat Ram track. Since a lot of my training is kilometer based I needed a measured ground in which to run so the track obviously would be the best option and its free! but can get a little monotonous. So I went onto Walla!maps and mapped out the park and found that one of the shorter loops is exactly 1km, which is perfect. Plus they have these exercise machines and a nice stretching area that can really come in handy for after the workout. The one downside about the park in the summer, is this being Jerusalem, it has become a pooling ground for bar-b-qing Charedim, (not in the cannabalistic sense, in the, there is no where to move without being bombarded by 10 children ranging from ages .5 - 12 all wearing the same outfit and eating hotdogs and icepops and not moving out of your way as you try not to run them over, sense). I have run 2x with the vibrams and the first time was Saturday night in Gan Sacher with my friend Eytan. Let's just say that my whole stance was off and it felt like I should have been sprinting the whole time, which would have been able to help me keep up with Eytan since he is a bit faster than me. I'm good at sprinting, just not uphill and especially in new shoes. But we both broke out of our routine, not as hard for me to do, and it was all in all a pleasant experience and opened my eyes to a whole new world of running. (I'm hoping my calves will one day forgive me. It hasn't happened yet.) The next time I ran with the Vibrams was on Monday when I had speed work to do on the track and I figured if I'll be doing 8*100m sprint repeats I might as well wear the shoes since the track is softer ground and sprints require me to run on my toes anyway for maximum speed. It was then really hard to run back up Ramban since my legs were totally shot, but I did it slowly, stopping to buy some apple juice at the kiosk, which prompted the guy there to comment on how long I had been running for and how hot it was outside since he had spotted me run down the block earlier, all while he was getting my juice which slowed down the process to non existant, when all I wanted was a freakin' drink so that I wouldn't die. Anyway, I have a couple of hard training weeks coming up and then a test on how that has improved my running times. Let's hope it all will pay off...

There does seem to be an opportunity to fit in a race before the marathon, exactly 2 weeks before - on 10.10.10, Nike will be have a worldwide run and here in Israel it will be in Tel Aviv. I will be there, Danielle will be there, Noa will be there(!) Will you?

The Italians can be brutal...

So, apparently, when I signed up for the Venice Marathon I signed up also to receive weekly training workouts from the official trainer of the marathon. This makes me really happy for many reasons, one that I am entitled to a perk that I wasn't aware of and more importantly second, that I have someone else telling me what I need to do making it so much easier to stick with the training. I'm already at the end of the 2nd week.
That all said, the Italians are trying to kill me. I ran at least 30km already this week and have another 12 today and probably that many on Sunday. Each week I get the workout for the following week and they aren't easy but they make me feel good. I will try and upload the links to the workouts each week so that you can see how I am suffering :)
4 runs a week, with a day of swimming thrown in there and lots of time on my feet.
Now all I have to do is book a flight and hotel in Italy and I'll be all set!
First week's training:
http://www.venicemarathon.it/mfm2010/mfm_01_en.pdf
Second week's training:
http://www.venicemarathon.it/mfm2010/mfm_02_en.pdf

It has begun...

Slowly but surely I will succeed. My training officially started on Friday. Today it is Tuesday. I have run 3 times. Each run was 5km more or less. I even went out last night at 10 to run. I will hopefully be writing up a real schedule soon. My runs will most probably take place at 5am, before it gets really really hot out. Here is a link to an article about safe running in the summer time, or in the case here in Israel, running in hot weather whenever it decides to visit us.

Two of my runs have been on the treadmill breaking in my new running shoes bought in the Duty Free at the airport. They live up to all that I expected! Last night was a late night fast run outside to Gan Sacher and back up Azza. It was a good run but made it hard to wake up this morning for my training session and then one on one kick boxing that I decided to take today. As I am writing this, my right hand is still a little shaky, just means that I beat the crap out of the pads and it was awesome! I can't believe I haven't boxed in such a long time, 3 yrs, at least. We're talking about opening a self defense/martial arts group (me and the other trainer, who is the Israel champion in Jujitsu), so I might be boxing a lot more soon. :)

Next mission for this week: 10k run on Friday. Can't wait! Still not fun solo though...

Guess who just got back today...

"...Them wild-eyed boys that'd been away,

Haven't changed, had much to say,

But man, i still think them cats are crazy.

They were askin' if you were around,

How you was, where you could be found.

Told them you were livin' downtown,

Drivin' all the old men crazy..."

So, I'm back from Barcelona. It was a great extended weekend, just what I needed. And, yes, I tried to run Friday morning, it went ok, I'm not going to go into all the details, lets just say I was in a lot of pain and walking worked out better than running. And boy did I walk. All I did was walk, all over the place, at least 6 hours each day. The city is beautiful, great architecture and such a fun and light feeling of summer and vacation. I had no phone, no watch and no one to have to answer to. I was able to do what I wanted, when I wanted and how I wanted. I saw museums, nice parks, sports stadiums, the beach and of course the Port. At the end of every day I sat on the boardwalk by the marina and watched the water and the sailboats and the people passing. I finished the book I was reading, Anthony Keidis's autobiography Scar Tissue, did some shopping, got lost alot. Great vacation.

I was gone for all of 4 days. Never have I had so many messages as I did when I got back. Either people just didn't care that I was away and called anyway or weren't listening when I told them I was out of the Country for the weekend... It was if the world was coming to an end and I was missing it. Anyway, I'm back and everyone is a lot calmer, life can go on now.

I took lots of pictures, if you want to see them I'll email a link, I am not in the mood to upload any to the blog, maybe next week.

Back to training...

The marathon is in 4 months!!!!!! I have to really buckle down now. I have the number of some guy who will help me make a schedule for myself which is easier than copying what's written in the Runner's World magazines since its something that, hopefully, I'll understand. Danielle, where are you???? Who am I going to run with? Now that I got used to running with someone, its hard to go back to running solo.

Today is a treadmill day. 1 hour workout.

Have a great weekend!

(Too bad I'm not in Europe anymore...)

What can I say?

"It's been such a long time, I think I should be goin', yeah

And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'

Sail on, on a distant highway, I've got to keep on chasin' a dream

I've gotta be on my way

Wish there was something I could say.

Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on, You'll forget about me after I've been gone

And I take what I find, I don't want no more, It's just outside of your front door..."

Now I am sure that Boston was referring to something other than running when they wrote this song but I think that it fits in perfectly with my relationship with running. It has been some time since I wrote my last blog entry and I have numerous excuses but the truth of the matter is, I wasn't running as much as I was before the TLV Half Marathon, which is normal but I felt that I needed a break from it all. The running, the writing, the hurting. The longest runs I have done have been around 6km this past month. I have thrown in a bit of speedwork here and there when I didn't have enough time to properly get in a workout. Apparently I am what they call and nerd when it comes to studying, especially when I am studying for a class that I really enjoy and want to do exceptional in, not just good. So, for the past month I have been studying and studying and studying and studying, trying to get in work and workouts and the test is finally over and done with. I am tired. I need a vacation, be it from life, school, work or running on a schedule. So I am flying to Barcelona for 4 days, an extended weekend, and you better believe that I will be travelling with my running shoes. What better way to see a new city than on foot, running? I have seen many a city this way and at a much different perspective than if I was on a tour bus or walking with a friend.

Once I get back from my long weekend away, I will have to buckle down and start my marathon training. Venice is not going anywhere and I have 4 months to get in shape to run the marathon on my 25th birthday and of course the Marathon's 25th anniversary :)

In order to make sure that I do everything correctly, I will be making a calender with all my running workouts preset on it with little flexibility so I will be forced to run even when all I'll want to do is jump into the pool from the heat of the summer.