Reflection on 2011

Although Mike's Marathon Blog is long retired, I feel compelled to write a reflection post for 2011 like I did for 2010 (actually, the last blog post I wrote was exactly one year ago this week!)

Last year, my goals for 2011 were:

• Lose the weight. When I weighed in at the gym in January of 2011, the scale showed 182 pounds. I got that down to 166 pounds in early July and I'm now hovering in the 168-170 range. It is definitely progress - not back to the 160 pounds that I was 5 years ago...I'd love to get back to that number, but that would take some serious commitment!
• Stay healthy. In 2010 I suffered from three bouts of respiratory infections/inflammation which ceased my running for 3-4 weeks at a time. In 2011, I started working with a pulmonologist and later in the year an allergist to get to the bottom of the issues. I still had the incidents, but I have decreased the amount of time I'm on the shelf when it happens. For 2012, I will be trying allergy shots to see if I can desensitize my system to the triggers of these events so they don't happen in the first place!
• Run More. This is one goal that I fell short. My total mileage for the year is 552 miles - 21 miles LESS than 2010. Again, the main culprits were travel and health. Although I did have a few stretches of a few 20 mile weeks in a row. It's not marathon mileage, but it is definitely what I need to feel like a runner again.
• Schedule more races. Another goal where I fell short. I ran in two races this year - both low-key races from MCRRC. A 4 mile run on Memorial Day and a 8K run earlier this month. Both were PRs (since I had not raced those distances before!!). However, the pace of these were below my PRs for longer distances, so they're really only PRs by default.
• Schedule more time off from work. This is one where I excelled this year. I ended up teaching Israeli Dancing at a BBYO Leadership Camp for Teens for two weeks this summer, which got me away from my work responsibilities (and many other responsibilities) for about 17 days. I brought Sherry and the kids up for the first 8 days I was there - and it was great having some quality time with them.

Other highlights from 2011:

• My big birthday - I turned 40. I still can't believe it. At times I still feel like I'm 20 and just happen to have a 9 year old and 6 year old in the house (yes...I know the math doesn't make sense there!)
• My Israeli Dance group continues to grow! I am now getting between 40-50 dancers each week at the group and word of the group continues to spread. I actually just started a new blog for the Israeli Dance group at http://markidmike.wordpress.com and a Twitter account @MarkidMike
• My day job at Ericsson also continues to go well. I was extremely busy this year with a huge project in 1H2011 in East TX and a bunch of smaller projects in 2H2011 in Georgia, Mississippi and the Carolinas.

My goals for 2012 are pretty much the same as 2011. I would love to put the commitment in place to get back down to my ideal weight of 160 pounds (my doctor says 150-155 would be ideal for me, but I haven't seen numbers like that since I was 17 years old). I want to find a way to stay healthy - I'm hoping the allergy shots will help with this. If I can keep healthy, then I should be able to run more...I'm going to shoot for 750 miles for the year (14-15 miles per week if I can run every week...see not getting sick!). I would like to run a Half Marathon in the Spring and the Fall (see run more which depends on stay healthy!). Finally, I should be able to take more time from work - I will hit my 19th anniversary of working at Nortel (Ericsson bridged my service from Nortel when they purchased my division), so I will get an extra week of vacation.

One other goal - I want to try running with others more often this year. Running has been a solo venture for me most of the time, but I always enjoy when I run with other people. I'm going to try to run a race or two with my 9 year old son. I would love to run more with Sherry. I may also try to arrange some type of pub crawl / beer run with friends of mine. I don't think I'll ever be one to only run with a group, but I'm hoping more of my runs in 2012 will not be solo.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Reflection on 2010

Although I officially retired the blog earlier this year, I did mention in my final post that I may still post updates to the blog.

As the end of 2010 draws near, I feel I should reflect on the past year and set some goals for the year ahead.

• In 2010 I ran fewer miles than in 2009, 2008 or 2007. You need to go back to 2006 - when I first started running seriously and trained for my first half marathon - to get a lower mileage total. Right now I have logged 573 miles for the year - and it is doubtful that I will get another run in during the next week as I'm battling a sinus infection.
• Ironically, although I have run fewer miles this year - I set PRs in the 10 mile (1:29:43) and half marathon (2:11:41).
• I travelled more for my job this year than ever before. My project for the first three quarters of the year was based in Souther California - and I spent one week of every month in Irvine. Since September, my projects have been based in East Texas and the group is based in Atlanta - so I have been traveling to Atlanta and Dallas. Traveling messes up any rhythm that I may have for the week (especially when trying to plan for runs). And being away from home has been hard on Sherry and the boys as well (so taking 1 night trips to Atlanta or Dallas - although more difficult on me - seems to be better for the family)
• With business travel comes business lunches, dinners and happy hours. Which means more food (and beer) than I would normally consume. Which is why I'm about 15 pounds heavier now than I was when I crossed the finish line of the NY Marathon in November 2009.
• Another contributor to the lower mileage is health. Luckily I had no running injuries during 2010. However, I have had three nasty sinus infections - all which have taken two rounds of antibiotics to treat. Once the congestion moves into my chest, it is not a good idea to run - so I have missed 3-4 week chunks of running...and then having to spend a few weeks to ramp back up again.
• In my other hobby, my Israeli Dance group has really grown in 2010 as well. I now get around 35 dancers every week and people stay later. As a result I'm out later every Tuesday night - which makes a morning run on Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning a lot more difficult.
• In 2010 I had some nice vacation time as well. Sherry and I got away for our 15th Anniversary - to a resort spa in the mountains of Pennsylvania for two nights. Then in October we all went on a Disney cruise with my parents and sister and her family. We also took some trips to visit family and friends for B'nai Mitzvahs and Weddings (two trips to Michigan, one to Connecticut and I extended a business trip to stay in Dallas)

As you can see, 2010 was definitely a year of great achievements coupled with some tough challenges.

I haven't set all of my goals for 2011 yet, however, here are a few main goals:

• Lose the weight. Gaining 15 pounds in one year is way too much...I have to get this back to where I was in 2009.
• Stay healthy. I'm going to get a CT scan of my sinuses in the next few weeks and I may go to an ENT. Three sinus infections in one year? That HAS to stop!
• Run more. This will definitely help goal #1 and I'll be able to do this if I achieve goal #2. I don't necessarily need to hit 1,000 miles next year - but somewhere around 750 would be nice.
• Schedule some races. I would like to schedule at least 2 half marathons and perhaps a fall full marathon (maybe Marine Corps??) I loved the 10 mile distance too. Perhaps with all the traveling I'm doing and not having as much time to run long, I should focus on running shorter races and develop more speed. Either way, I need to race a bit more in 2011 to keep my motivation up.
• Schedule more time off from work. With the exception of the two main vacation I took (one for 2 work days and one for 3 work days), I really did not take much vacation time to relax and spend quality time with my family. I need to do more of this (and run more while on vacation!)

I'm sure I'll think of more as the next week goes on, but these are the main goals.

2011 will be a big year for me with a milestone birthday (ends in a zero...). Let's hope my age isn't the only milestone I have to celebrate!

Miscellaneous Musings From A Road Warrior...

It looks like my current project will have me on the road - traveling to Southern California - once a month for the next few months. I have never traveled this often in the 16+ years that I have been working....

When I was in my late 20s, my job at the time had me traveling once every 6-8 weeks or so for 2-3 nights at a time. I was living in Dallas and I had the opportunity to travel to New Jersey a lot for a project with AT&T. I would burn the midnight oil by driving into New York City and hang out with my sister or go Israeli Dancing, staying out until well past midnight, going to work the next day and crashing when I got back home to Dallas. For some reason, I'm following a similar pattern even now. I was in Irvine for four nights - two of those nights I drove up to Los Angeles (about an hour each way) to go Israeli dancing. On Monday night I left LA at 11pm and got to the hotel a little after midnight. Last night I stayed in LA until midnight and arrived at my hotel at about 1:15am. I was still in the office by 8am the next morning. The problem in all of this...my kids are early birds so I will not get to crash and catch up on the sleep that I didn't get this week....

Talking about going back to being in my 20s, one of the nice folks I met at Israeli Dancing last night asked me how long I have been dancing. I stopped to think about this for a few seconds and then said that I guess I have been dancing for close to 20 years. She shook her head in disbelief - she said that I looked way to young...she thought I was in my 20s! Later in our conversation I told her that I don't know too many of the recent dances since I haven't been dancing as much since I had kids. Again a surprised look from her - you're too young to have kids!!! Maybe acting like a 20-something this past week made me look a little younger....

For those of you who don't believe in the power of Social Networking and the internet, this one is for you. My blog is fed over to my Facebook profile, and after I posted about my soaked run on Monday morning a high-school friend of mine wrote me a note that he was also in Irvine, CA for business this week. Whoa! We haven't seen each other in 18 or 19 years. We met for dinner on Tuesday night and it was great to reconnect with him. This reunion never would have happened without social networking apps....

Oh, yeah. This is my running blog. Right. While in rain-soaked Southern California this week I got two runs in. One on Monday morning in the dark and in the rain, and one on Tuesday afternoon. After the rain stopped - and tornado warnings lifted - the sun came out. My project schedule for that night's activities had been sent out already, so I slipped out of the office and went for a run on the Mountains to Sea trail - running towards the ocean. This trail is built on the creek bed that is used as a drainage system. Last month when I ran on this path it was totall dry. On Tuesday afternoon it looked like I was running on the bank of the Potomac River near Great Falls! The trail has underpasses under the roads so runners and cyclists don't have to dodge traffic. However, on Tuesday many of these underpasses were flooded so I had to cross the streets. Except for one which I could not cross - Interstate 405. I ended up having to trudge through a wet mud/sand mixture under the I-405 underpass. It wasn't all that bad, though - there was a Great Blue Heron perched on the bank by the underpass and I ran right near him. What an amazing creature....

Before I was a runner, I don't think I ever saw a Great Blue Heron. I now have seen them on many runs - on my community's lake, running along the C&O canal, while I was running in Boynton Beach, FL and now while running in Irvine, CA. I didn't know what I was missing before I started running....

Not Much Running = Not Much Blogging

Partially due to hectic scheduling and partially due to the fact that I've been really tired lately - I have not run much over the past week. I managed to get to the gym for a 4 mile easy run on the treadmill on Saturday morning and I got my behind out of the house this morning for a 3+ mile tempo/fartlek run.

7 miles in 7 days? That's all????

Of course, this is the WORST time of year to reduce my mileage. Between holiday cookies, donuts and latkes I'm afraid to even approach the scale.

I'm not sure what the whole fatigue factor is either. Perhaps it's poor diet? (see above paragraph...) Perhaps I really am fighting off some kind of bug? Or maybe the lack of sleep has accumulated and finally caught up to me. I won't have an opportunity to catch up on sleep over the next few days either due to Israeli Dance responsibilities which will keep me out later than usual. Perhaps I can hit the sack early on Thursday??? (and then an early morning run on Friday!!)

A Week Of Contrasts

As I got off the plane last night in BWI Airport, it was quiet. Deserted. What a contrast from when I left on Sunday afternoon - the hustle, bustle of Thanksgiving weekend travel (really...what was I thinking agreeing to go on a business trip the weekend after Thanksgiving???).

However, it was not the only contrast that I had observed this past week.

First of all, the contrast of being alone in a hotel room versus being at home. In some ways, it was nice not having household responsibilities to worry about. My time was my own - I didn't have to juggle my time between the schedules of my wife and kids. In some ways it was very nice, but on the other hand gets lonely quick. Whenever I'm on a business trip I try to spend the least amount of time that I can in the actual hotel room.

Most of the time I'm out of town, I try to go to an Israeli Dance group - and this week was no exception! I met up with a few people that I knew - and met some other dancers as well. Israeli Dancing in a different city is always a great experience - the familiar music, everyone moving together as one large group and the social aspect of meeting people with a similar interest definitely makes me feel more at home while on the road. On my hour-drive back from dancing in LA to my hotel in Irvine, I reflected on the contrasts between my two current hobbies - Israeli dancing and running. Israeli dance groups are almost always at night (and many groups go until midnight or later) while I usually run early in the mornings (it's hard to dance one night and run the next morning...). Israeli dancing is an activity that involves interacting with lots of people while I'm usually running alone or with one other person. Apart from the fact that both are physical activities (dancing is more anaerobic - normally there's a good 30 second break between the time one dance ends and the next one starts - where running is continuous aerobic exercise for a long period of time), these two hobbies seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum from one another.

There is also a big contrast between the project I'll be working on in SoCal vs the one I recently completed in the DC area. My current project is all dealing with live equipment - so all activities must be done at night (I'm hoping I won't need to be working at night with our crews most of the time!). Also, since it is established equipment in our customer's network, they already have their way of doing things. I felt my role this week was more to find out what the current processes are so I don't step on too many toes while starting out. My last project was a completely new build. Work was done during the day and I could create the way of doing things with my team. This new project will be different, but I'm up for the challenge!

Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch - CHANGES!

Well...the sale of Nortel's CDMA unit to Ericsson completed today, so I will be an Ericsson employee as of Monday. I'll have the same job, reporting to the same boss and working with the same customers and products - so the change is not too drastic. However, I've been working for Nortel for 16 years now - they were my first employer out of college - so switching to a new company will be somewhat of an adjustment.

Hopefully the learning curve of new systems (ordering, financial, telephone, email, expense reports, etc.) and the new corporate culture will not be too steep.

In other "changes" news, I'm always amazed to see when there is a shift in technology in how people communicate with one another. I get to see this pretty often within the Israeli Dance troupe for teens that I co-direct. When I started with the group about 7 years ago, the teens all had AIM screen names - and this seemed to be the main source of communication for them. If I needed to ask someone a question as to whether they could attend a particular performance, I would see if they were on AIM and IM them. A few years later, we started to do all of our performance scheduling on Evite. Last year, I saw that the Evite system wasn't working so well (many of the Evites got stuck in spam folders) and I realized that I needed to use Facebook.

In the span of 7 years I have been through 3 separate systems of communications. I wonder what next year will bring??

And one more thing about Facebook. I have been writing this blog since last January - it is almost two years old now! However, about a month ago I linked the blog into Facebook and I must have at least quadrupled my readership. This week I have bumped into so many people who have told me that they have been following my marathon training on Facebook. Nice!

Massage Therapy!

I don't have time to do the full race report blog post yet, it will come soon...

I have been spending a good amount of time getting back to "normal". I went to the chiro on Monday evening to get adjustments (i.e. back cracking) and to have electro-stim and massage on my right calf / lower hamstring. Yesterday, I had to lead Israeli Dancing in the evening...it was good to move around, but I did not over do it. I also iced my quads a bit as they were still feeling very sore.

By this morning I felt almost 100% - no more wincing while going up and down the stairs, although there was still some soreness in my quads. I had an appointment for a massage which I was totally looking forward to. Except, I forgot that my massage therapist really gets into those tight muscles - which can be more painful in the moment than the soreness I have been experiencing for the past few days.

The massage therapist started with my neck and shoulders for about 5 minutes, and then spent the rest of the hour on my legs. Quads, shins, feet, calves and hamstrings. There was so much going on in the major muscle groups there, that she almost forgot about the little muscle in the back of my right knee - in between the calf and hamstring - which was one of the main reasons I was there in the first place!

I reminded her about it, and she started to dig in...OWWWWW! Perhaps I should have just kept my mouth shut...

The massage therapist has a theory about what happened on Sunday - and during last year's marathon. She noticed that my psoas muscles are really tight and that my right leg is twisted/tilted inward just a tad. She's thinking that the muscles in my right leg that were in pain are probably working extra hard normally to make up for this deficiency - and when I decide to go out and run 26 miles, the muscles are in overload which causes the pain that I'm experiencing. This theory seems to jive with the pelvic instability issue that I was told at the Stride Clinic earlier in the year.

I'll review this assessment with the chiro later this week and see if he agrees. If so, I think I may have a new set of objectives and goals forming right before my eyes...

When Hobbies - And Priorities - Are In Conflict

My two main hobbies right now are running (duh!) and Israeli Dancing.

In many ways, these hobbies are similar - they are both physical activities, they both have very supportive communities, etc.

However, the schedule of these activities - at least from my perspective - are in conflict with one another.

Israeli dance events almost always occur at night. And many of them run late.

I prefer to run in the morning. And many times very early.

Trying to do both of these at the same time means that I get less sleep. Which means my body is not in its best shape to do either very well.

Tonight, I have another layer of conflicting priorities here. There is a big Israeli dance event starting at 9pm which will have over 100 people. I want to go - if nothing else than to publicize my marathon fundraising event for next week. However, by doing this I will put my planned run for tomorrow morning in jeopardy.

Which is more important? Fundraising for the marathon or getting all the training runs in for the marathon?

I've pretty much convinced myself to go to the dance event. Tomorrow's run is a 3 mile easy run - if I don't get it in, I won't fret about it...at least I'm not missing a speedwork run or long run...right?

However, I know I will be really tired tomorrow (I'm really tired right now!).

Getting Nutrition Right

Tuesdays have been kind of rough for me. I'm out later than normal on Tuesday nights - leading an Israeli Dance group from 7pm to 10pm.

It means I'm on my feet and moving for 3 hours in the evening, I get home close to 11pm and by the time I get home I'm still a bit "amped up" from the activity level that it is difficult to fall asleep. Add that to my young kids who have been waking up around 5:45am lately (or last night, my younger one was up from 1am to 3am and then the older one woke up at 5:45am), I am usually dragging on Wednesday mornings. This is why I pushed out my Wednesday runs to my lunch break (when I can).

However, Tuesdays also presents a challenge nutritionally. I can't eat too much before leading dancing - this will make me feel heavy (so I can't move around as much) or give me a stomach ache or depending on what I've eaten - other GI issues (i.e. no eating black bean burritos before leading dancing...). But when I don't eat enough I feel ravenous afterward and munch on lots of snack food.

Lately, I have been eating a bigger and later lunch - which helps on the side of not eating too close to the dance session, but not on having enough in the tank to get me through. I'm going to try to bring an energy bar tonight - either to eat beforehand, or to munch on throughout the session - and see if that helps.

On a bigger picture for nutrition, when I visited the doctor in March, the doctor told me that I should lose at least 10 pounds. I weighed in at 170 lbs - which is still on the "safe" BMI for my height, but on the border of "overweight".

When I initially lost weight 5 years ago, I was down in the 160 lbs range. I have since yo-yo'ed between 160 lbs and 170 lbs. I believe the doctor would like me to yo-yo between 150 lbs and 160 lbs, if I need to yo-yo somewhere :-)

I ran the Frederick Marathon last year at 164 lbs. I had been down around 162 lbs about ten weeks into my training, but as the miles ramped up, so did my eating.

Anyhow, I'm currently weighing in at 168 lbs. Although I really don't want to be counting calories, if I don't start seeing the pounds gradually come off (goal for 1 pound a week) I will need to start counting them again...

New Plan for Mid-Week Run

The training plan I am following includes 4 runs a week - three during the week and one long run on the weekend.

The middle weekday run is usually longer than the other two.  For my first marathon I used this as my speedwork run - doing either some type of interval training or a tempo run.

However, my schedule has changed a bit since last summer.  I now lead an Israeli Dance group on Tuesday nights - I am up on my feet and moving from 7pm until 10pm and I normally don't get home until close to 11pm.  This leaves me pretty exhausted and the last thing I want to do is wake up early on Wednesday morning for a longer and more intense run.  Also, when I would run on Tuesday morning - even an easy run - I would be tired before I even started dancing that evening.  By mid-week I would feel run down...which could be why I was getting sick so often.

This week I'm going to try something different - I'll do my middle weekday run at lunchtime on Wednesday.  I'm hoping that by not running early in the morning that I will get enough rest and I'll have the energy to do this workout mid-day.  I no longer have a standing 12 noon conference call on Wednesdays, so my work calendar is mostly clear.

Two things concern me a bit - weather and eating schedule.  Although the weather has not been bad for July, I know that we will have some really hot and humid days here in the DC area.  I guess I could always move my workout inside onto the treadmill - I just hate running on the treadmill when the sun is shining.  As for eating, I'll need to figure out what and when to eat on Wednesdays so that I will have enough energy to do the workout, but I won't get stomach cramps.

So, tomorrow's lunchtime workout will be a 5-miler.  I'm not sure if I'll do a tempo run or head to the track.  We'll see...

Totally Exhausted

It's been awhile since I really could not drag myself out of bed at 6:30am - but that happened this morning.  I actually stayed in bed until about 7:15 and finally got into a shower so I could get to work on time.

My Memorial Day Weekend at Hora Aviv really sucked the energy out of me.  It was a great weekend - but I am totally exhausted with no respite in sight.  Maybe I'll get to catch up on sleep this weekend???  Will I last that long???

Anyhow, I finished out last week's running with 18 miles.  I did a 7 miler on Friday morning - running to the Rockville Fitness First.  On the whole it wasn't a very pretty run, but it did have its moments - especially running past some of the older Victorian style houses in old Rockville.  After the run, I went for a nice brunch with my wife and then went to pick up our younger son from Nursery School (he was really excited to see both of us there!).

I had packed my running gear for Hora Aviv, but I never got around to running.  I was dancing so much that when I had a break I wanted to relax and not run.  I stayed up until 1 am on Friday and then 3 am on both Saturday and Sunday nights.  I didn't have my kids to wake me up, but I still didn't sleep more and 6 hours either night.  Will I ever be able to sleep in again??

Anyhow, since I couldn't get my behind out of bed this morning, there was no morning run.  With no Monday or Tuesday running, the most I can hope for is 3 running days this week (maybe 4 if I go running with my son one morning).

As I mentioned in my last post - I just need to hang in there for 4 more weeks, and then I'll have a lot more time to run/blog/relax.

Five More Weeks

My current project launches in five more weeks.

Although I have liked being busy and I enjoy the work, I also will like being able to get a bit more sleep and get back into running - and blogging - regularly.

I started thinking about it on my run this morning - at the end of June, my project will have launched (it will still keep me busy with post-launch activities, but I likely won't be logging back into work at 9 or 10pm every night to catch up) and rehearsals for the Israeli Dance troupe will be on summer break, so I'll have Wednesday nights back too. What will I do with the extra time???

Anyhow - It's looking like I may get close to 25 miles in this week. So far I have run 11 - two with my son on Monday morning, 5.5 on Tuesday morning and 3.5 miles today. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off from work and I'm going to run to the Fitness First in Rockville, while Sherry will go there to work out after driving our son to school. This will be a 7 or 8 mile run - depending on which roads I decide to take.

I know...it's a crazy concept - running to the gym and then just using the facilities as a place to shower. My wife thinks I'm nuts!

I will hopefully get a weekend run in as well. I'm not 100% sure as I'll likely be exhausted - I'm taking 10 teenagers from the troupe to a weekend-long Israeli Dance "camp"/workshop - Hora Aviv. I'll already be getting tons of exercise, but I will bring my running shoes and Garmin and hopefully get a run in one morning.

And maybe I'll have time to blog??? We'll see...

Crazy, Busy Week

This past week was Yom Ha'atzmaut - Israel's Independence Day.  So, I had a bunch of Israeli Dance events going on - teaching at a religious school on Sunday morning, a performance with the troupe I lead on Monday afternoon, my normal weekly group on Tuesday evening and the troupe's rehearsal on Wednesday evening.

Adding to the stresses of additional Israeli Dance gigs, work was a pressure cooker this week.  My customer instituted a daily 6:30pm call to review the progress of the day and discuss the next day's schedule.  I luckily got most of my teams caught up to the point where we are now waiting for them - but with 7 more weeks before launch, there will be tons of pressure at work for me until late June.

Despite all of this, I was able to get out and run 3 mornings by myself - and another bonus morning with my son!  As much as waking up before 6am to run makes me a bit sleep deprived, I'm not sure I'd be able to handle the pressure without the release of running.

The fatigue of the week definitely showed up in my performance.  My pace was around 10:45/mile each morning and my average HR kept going higher as the week went on.  Unfortunately, I don't see it getting much better soon...

Sick, Sore and Tired

I'm still feeling under the weather.  Yuck!

My whirlwind trip to New York for the Israeli Dance Festival there went well - but very tiring.  The teens I co-direct did great!  And I also danced this year - for the first time in about 4 years.  Here's the video for Hora DC  (I don't come in until the third song, and since it is videotaped from the back of the theater, you probably won't recognize me anyway!).  Unfortunately, the show went long and we didn't leave NY City until after 7:30pm....so I didn't get home until after 12:30am.

Even though I took Monday off from work, I had lots to do on the "honey-do" list, plus I got called from work a few times anyway.  I guess it was good I was feeling a bit icky since I may not have had time to get a run in anyway.  At least this way I had a decent excuse!

I still feel sore in my quads.  You would think that being a runner that I would not have too many issues with soreness after a 5 minute dance performance (OK, we rehearsed it a bunch of times on Sunday morning before going on stage...).  I'm thinking that being sick and run down has slowed my recovery.

In the meantime - no running and I'm trying to get more rest.  I hate being sick!

Sick Again :-(

Well...my hectic schedule got the best of me and I'm sick.  I tried going to bed early last night and hacked the night away (poor Sherry...why does she put up with me???)

My throat is scratchy and I have a bunch of gook in my nasal passages.  ICK!

I'll likely call off the long run tomorrow.  If I'm feeling better, perhaps I'll go out for an easy 4 or 5, but definitely not a 9 miler.

Especially since I'm taking 12 teens to New York tomorrow afternoon and then performing on Sunday at the Israeli Dance Festival in New York.

I gotta rest up!!!

A Few Good Runs

This week, the schedule calls for 4, 7, 4 and 14 miles. But I did my 14 miler last weekend to swap with the 9 miler on last week's schedule.

I also had some "obstacles" on my schedule - I had a late rehearsal with the Israeli Dance group on Tuesday night (we were dancing past midnight, ouch!) for our upcoming performance on Sunday in New York (I'll try to post videos of the performances early next week...). I have my doctors appointment Thursday morning - since I'm doing bloodwork (yes, that cholesterol test I'm still cramming for) I need to fast and can't run that morning. Oh, and I'm leaving for New York on Saturday afternoon for the Israeli Dance festival - which is the main reason I switched the long run schedules in the first place.

I started off the week right with a 4 mile easy run on Monday morning. I hit the treadmill at the gym. I was amazed at how effortless the run seemed - 4 miles in 42:58, 10:45/mile and an average HR of 144. After Saturday's 14 mile run, this one seemed like a walk in the park.

Tuesday morning was my speedwork run. The schedule said 7 miles, but I had a long day ahead of me with the late Israeli Dance rehearsal that night, so I decided to cut the run short. I did a pyramid intervals run on the treadmill at the gym - 1 mile warm-up and then intervals of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.0 miles with 0.25 mile recoveries. The warm-up and recoveries were at 5.4 mph and the intervals at 7.4 mph (just under an 8:00/mile). The last interval I bumped up the pace to 8.0 mph towards the end. 5.5 miles in 50:20; average pace of 9:10/mile with an average HR of 151.

Today I'm just plain tired. It's almost a blessing that my doctor's appointment is tomorrow morning! I'll likely do an easy run on Friday morning of 3 or 4 miles and then the 9 mile long run on Saturday morning.

Thank Goodness It's The Weekend!

It's been a crazy week with working late, leading Israeli Dancing - and I did get all of my weekday runs is as well.  3, 6, and 3 milers - all at the gym in Reston before work.  Ugh!

So it was especially nice to run outside this morning!  The weather took a turn for the better - it was 49 degrees this morning for my run...no more tights, running jacket and beanie!  (OK...I know that this weather won't last)

I ran 11.67 miles this morning.  I did the same Fallsgrove loop that I have been doing and instead of turning into my neighborhood at Kentlands Blvd, I went around to Main Street.  My pace was still on the slow side for my heart rate - I averaged an 11:09/mile pace with an average HR of 157 - however, it's been two weeks from my blood donation and it has normally taken me three weeks to get back to "normal".  Hopefully, by next week's run either my pace will be faster or heart rate lower at this pace.

One other thing I did this week was sign up for the Run For The Shelter Half Marathon on April 19.  It's official - I now have a race to train for!

Busy Busy Busy

Work has been busy.  After work has also been busy with a bunch of Israeli Dance commitments - one of my friends and fellow Israeli Dance leaders had an emergency appendectomy so I've been filling in for her on some of her gigs - along with leading my own Tuesday night session and dance troupe on Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, that means that a few things very important to me are falling by the wayside - time with my wife and kids and running.  Let's just hope this is all short-lived.

I did get to do my last set of Week 6 Push Ups yesterday.  I did 159 push ups - 13, 13, 17, 17, 16, 16, 14, 14 and 39.

I didn't get to run this morning.  Hopefully I'll get my behind out of bed early tomorrow and get that run in.

Spaced Out on the Treadmill and Signs I'm Getting Old

Yesterday's Total Calorie Intake: 1,847
(Exercise Calories: 100)
Total Net Calories: 1,747

This morning I got out of bed at 5:15am to hit the gym early. I was meeting a friend for coffee at Starbucks at 7am and I wanted to get a run in beforehand.

I decided to do some speedwork to make things more interesting, as treadmill workouts can be BO-RING. My plan was a "pyramid" workout - warm up for 1 mile, then four run intervals - 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 3/4 mile and 1 mile - each separated by a 1/4 mile recovery. The workout ends with a 3/4 mile cooldown to bring the total distance to 5 miles total. I set the jog speed on the treadmill to 5.4 mph (a little over an 11:00/mile pace) and the run speed to 7.2 mph (about an 8:20/mile pace)

Sounds like a good plan, right?

I did my warm up mile - check. I did my first quarter mile run - check. I did my first recovery jog - check. EHEM - why is the treadmill now showing 1.81 miles? Wasn't I supposed to start running at 1.5 miles? OOPS! I totally spaced out!!!

My mind is normally wandering during my run workouts - it is the time of the day when I can think clearly and have no interruptions. I actually formulate many decisions during my runs - thinking through work issues, personal finances, parenting, etc.

However, I was not expecting to totally blank while doing a speedwork workout at the gym.

Anyhow, I figured out that I could swap out the 3/4 mile cooldown with the 1/4 mile recovery that I was doing, and got back into the workout.

Final stats - 5.0 miles, 48:56 - 9:48/mile average pace, 157 bpm average HR.
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In the "signs I'm getting old" department, last night I was at rehearsal for the Israeli Dance Troupe that I direct and one of the teens was taking pictures with her phone. She said that she was going to post them on Facebook later - I asked if she would post them to the Yesodot group so that I would be able to see them or just to her own page (which I wouldn't be able to see as we are not "friends" on Facebook).

Her response was, "You're on Facebook???!???"

Wow. Am I really that old?

I ran this exchange by one of our alumni who was at the rehearsal (she's now a sophomore in college). Her response was, "You know what...I don't think I have friended any adults in Facebook..."

Um. Another big dose of reality. Yes....I really am that old.

A Look Back Over The Past Year...

Today is my birthday, so I've taken some time to reflect over the past year.

Wow!

First of all, I don't think I have ever had such an outpouring of people who remembered my birthday.  Thank you Facebook!  (here's my profile...feel free to friend me if you are a frequent blog reader).

It's hard to believe all that I have accomplished over the past 12 months.  There are obvious ones here - running a full marathon and starting a blog and keeping up with it regularly.  Professionally I have made big strides - completing Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification within my company and being assigned to the largest project I have had to date.  I started an Israeli Dance group for families at my synagogue which has a dedicated base of participants such that I will be able to continue the group this next school year.  Another accomplishment I had with my synagogue is that I learned the trope (cantillation for chanting scriptures) that is used for the books of Ruth and Song of Songs and chanted parts of those books during the holidays of Shavuot and Pesach.  I also made new running friends - via the blogosphere and RunningAhead - and reconnected with many other old friends - mostly through Facebook.

All of these were "additions" during the past year.  Many of the other activities that I was doing beforehand (co-leading the Yesodot Israeli Dance Troupe, reading Torah at our synagogue twice a month) I am still doing.

I also had the joy of watching my children grow.  My older son, Doron started and completed his first year of Elementary School at the Charles E Smith Jewish Day School.  He is starting to become computer savvy - he can navigate to Yahoo! Kids, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids and Webkins websites and be entertained (for much too long!).  He also just lost his first tooth today!  In the last twelve months my younger son, Matan, has also developed tons.  He has started to talk in complete sentences.  He is no longer in a crib and no longer in diapers.  Every day he does something - or says something - new that just amazes us.

As I get older, I tend to think that the birthdays are not such big milestones anymore.  So, it's my 37th birthday today - so what???  However, reflecting over the past year I see that it is a big deal and that I continue to make big strides in my life even though it may not seem like it on a day-to-day basis.

OK...enough blogging.  I'm going to get some core exercises in and then get some ICE CREAM to celebrate!!!