In Anatshell » Marathon

Gaudi , intervals , Gaudi , long run , Gaudi (MT Week 4,5,6/17)

anat — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:41:44 +0000

In the past few weeks I ran all over Bouc Bel-Air and Barcelona, swam out of three different beaches , kayaked twice and road through France for 80km with my mom. Leave it to me to turn a family vacation into a training camp… and drag others along with me

My mom on our bike trip

I’m starting week 7 out of 17 training weeks for the NYC marathon. I’m at the point where every long run is the longest I’ve ever run in my life. Today I ran for two hours and thirty minutes when only a few weeks ago, two hours seemed long. I noticed that the concept of time is beginning to change as I go for longer and longer runs. I find that I’m only thinking about half of the run. For example, if I have to run two hours and thirty minutes , all I think about is how I need to run for just an hour and fifteen minutes in one direction and then run home.

Why can’t we have these in Israel?

During one run, I got caught in thunder and lightening. This is me after my run… soaked to the bone.

Here is a hill workout that I did in Bouc Bel-Air. I think it’s great because you can see how the altitude corresponds exactly with my heart rate. I found a good hill and ran up it over and over again for a period of time. Boring? maybe… but I was was running up a hill with trees on both sides (=shade) so I was happy.

This next one I did on the beach front path in Barcelona. I tried to find my heart rate blip when a drunk guy blocked my way but it must be buried in all that HR data.

Whats in store?

Today I went for a 2:30 long run and I’m giving it my all this week. After that, who knows how much time I’ll have. I start working next week at Barclays Capital as an analyst. I forsee long work days in my future

I’m here… Now what? (MT Week 3/17)

anat — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:18:33 +0000

James Bond would have been proud. I arrived at the Marseilles airport, got a parking ticket from the El-Al desk, found a car with a specific license plate, took the key from under the front wheel, drove to a house somewhere in Provence and voila! I’m home. James doesn’t need to know that I didn’t understand how to put the car in reverse or that It took me 40 minutes to find the El-Al desk or that after each thing I did or place I arrived, the only thought in my head was ‘Alright… I’m here… Now what??’ . All that matters is that I successfully swapped houses with another family and that my Orbea is safely by my side.

The day after I arrived, I went on a short 60km ride along part of stage 4 of the Tour De France. I actually rode from the house, to kilometer 31 in the stage and continued until kilometer 59. Aside from a few sprayed slogans on the road, there was no way anyone could have known that the tour had gone by only a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately , my polars’ battery is dead and I don’t have any documentation of my awesome ride; however, I found my old Garmin 0.1 in my backpack and used it instead. Remarkably enough, it did the job quite well and I didn’t even get lost.

Garmin 0.1 - yes , a pen and paper

The next day I went on a longer 80km ride that left from Aix en Provence which is about 15 minutes from the house. The ride was beautiful and the bike lanes were perfect… the drivers were courteous, views were breathtaking and after it rained butterflies* I couldn’t help but thinking ‘Is this real??’. With all do respect to every other country in the world, France is better! I am so glad that I took my bike with me. Being in France without a bike is like being in a bathroom without toilette paper – You manage but something is not quite right…

* May have only happened in my mind

Silly bike... Only people can go shopping

Working out while traveling

I’m on week 3 out of 17 in my marathon training plan towards the New York City Marathon. It’s not going to be easy to train once my family arrives but I’m determined to get all of my hill, fartlek and long runs in while I’m here. The day that I arrived, I ran 45 minutes around the little city of Bouc Bel-Air, where the house is located. Running whenever you arrive in a new place, even if it’s not for a long time, is a great way to figure out where you are, know what’s around you and plan your real runs later during the week. Tip: Make sure that you fly with compression socks so that your legs are fresh.

Since then I’ve done one hill workout and one long run. The best way to get the runs in is to just wake up early and do them. If you leave anything for the end of the day, it just doesn’t get done. On vacation, you never know what time you’ll get back. Tip: Workout according to time and not distance. This way you’re not stressed about holding other people up; just run half the time and turn around.

Sunflower Field

Something I saw on the way

Maccabiah Half marathon

On the 21st of July, I participated in the Maccabiah Half Marathon. If you asked anyone who ran the race to describe it in one word, they would say HOT. It began at 18:30 so everyone was soaked before the race even started. At each water station I took a water bottle and ran with it. It was so hot that when I poured the water on my head, by the time it touched my ears the water was warm… It was so hot that about 20 people were sent to the hospital for dehydration… It was so hot that my running clothes were soaked all the way through after the first 20 minutes … It’s hard to describe. Due to the terrible conditions, I also had a terrible time – 2:03. Fortunately, I made my coach promise to make me faster so the problem is as good as solved.

Stuff I need

As you know, my birthday is coming up Joking… No one has to buy me anything BUT I have accumulated some things that I will purchase soon for the marathon training. Please let me know if there is a better product that I have overlooked.

Compression Calf Guards

CW-X Women’s Pro Fit Shorts

Nathan Speed 2 Wastpack

Some More Photos

Maccabiah Chai (MT Week 2/17)

anat — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:40:51 +0000

Me and Benjamin Netanyahu

No, it’s not a Jewish version of Indian tea… The Maccabiah Chai Games began this week with a spectacular ceremony at the stadium in Ramat Gan. I wasn’t there as an athlete but rather as a VIP right in front of the bullet proof glass that separated me from the big wigs.

I can only imagine what the Kazakhstan Maccabiah team, which consisted of two lone athletes, thought when they entered an arena packed with Jews. Without skipping a beat, my brother began with his Borat impression and before long we were all chanting Yichshimash. They didn’t quite blend in with all of the other nationalities but then again, neither did the Russians with their full on suites… I didn’t understand how they intended on trading their shirts with other athletes…

Now to business… I’m in week 2 of my marathon training and it was time to tackle some hills. Actually, it was morel like the one hill near the cemetery at the end of my street… over and over and over again. In this diagram , the thick red area is the altitude whereas the thin red line is my heart rate. You can see the correlation between altitude and heart rate really nicely. I did add a bit to the cooldown so that my workout would add up to one hour.

This is the description of my workout :

: Hill Workout

Hill workout

Warmup - 5 min walk, 10 min easy run
2 accelerations
main set -
1 min jog on a flat surface
5 x 1 min up the hill, recovery jog down
2 min jog on a flat surface like before
3 min recovery walk
30 sec run on a flat surface
5 x 30 sec up the hill, recovery jog down
30 sec run on a flat serfuce
Cooldown -- 3 min walk, 7 min easy jog and 3 min walk

Next I did one “long” run which was 1:10 of running. This workout was just steady aerobic

My pulse was a big higher than I wanted because I was running with a friend but it was worth it for the comradery. It’s fun to run with other people and I probably wouldn’t have woken up otherwise.

I also participated in the Maccabiah open triathlon and took first in my age group, second woman to finish. It took me 02:51:18.65 which is quite a chunk of time but it was HOT … oh so hot… Now I have one gold medal though

Marathon Training (Week 1/17)

anat — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:18:07 +0000

Let the marathon training begin!

I’m signed up for the NYC Marathon on the 1st of November. My target time will be determined according by the result of the Maccabiah half marathon on the 21st of July in Netanya. My goal for the half marathon is 1:50 which would be a 4 minute improvment on the Washington DC half.

I plan on logging all of my outdoor and indoor runs while reporting on my status throughout. This week I had two significant runs.

interval

Warmup – 5 min walk, 10 min easy run
2 accelerations

main set – 10 x 1 min at all out pace while keeping good form.
1 min easy recovry jog.
descend the workout in groups of 4, 4 and 2, with the last 2 being the fastest.

Cooldown – 10 min easy jog and 3 min walk

Long Run

steady aerobic.

Tune in next week… I might give more detail, if you beg.