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.