Nike Night Run – Tel Aviv 2011

What a great event…

It’s very cool to run with so many others in the streets of Tel Aviv in a perfect weather.

For more photos and information you can check out Shvoong

and the results

 

 

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2010 Overall It Was A Good Running/Reading Year

Good running year

I had lots of time during the long run to do lots of things: listen to books, thinking and analyzing problems. Here are few tasks I’ve been able to accomplished during 2010 runs:

1. Listen to great audio books like (the best are in bold):
   • Predictable Irrational
   • Freakonomics
   • Stumbling on happiness
   • Nissim Taleb:  The black swan and Fool by randomness.
   • Stieg Larsson: The girl who… (all the three books).
   • The warren buffet way.
   • Malcolam Gladwell: The Tipping point, Blink, Outliers, What the dog saw.
   • Lost Symbol
   • David Baldacci: Deliver us from evil, first family
     hell’s corner, saving faith, stone cold, the camel club, the while truth and Divine justice
   • Harlen Coban: Back Spin, Caught, Swimsuit, TA, The Christmas train and Wish you well.
   • Thomas Friedman: Languidness and attitude and The World Is Flat – Globalization
   • Unleashing The Idea virus (you can skip this one… wasn’t worth the time).
2. I’ve meet a lots of amazing people on and off the trails.
3. I’ve been lucky to be in nature for long period of time.
   Both in summer (Colorado back country) and winter (Colorado – off pistes like: Vail snowboarding).
4. I did some cool races: Tel Aviv Maraton (so hot you can’t imagine) and the Bay Trail Marathon (so much rain it’s not funny).
5. I wish 2011 will bring in more of #1 #2 and of course #3 and #4 🙂

Happy New Year to you and yours!!!

How To Run A Marathon?

I’ve been doing few marathons a year in the past three years and I wish I had such a list before my first race. I’m sure I could use it and avoid some of the common mistakes I did.

Tips for your next marathon:

1. Remember that the hard part was the training period. All the long runs during the weekends alone or with a friend are the major hard part. Now (race day) you should try to enjoy as much as you can. So, relax. Yes, try to relax and go with what you know from your training. Eat what you regularly eat (I hope you know what bar make you happy… definitely do NOT try a new energy bar,gel during the race day), drink what you like to drink during the runs and wear your best gear that you used. In a nutshell, don’t try new stuff during the race.
   Keep it simple and go with what you practiced.
2. Choose your ‘race partner‘ – this is one of the most important aspects (for me) in a good/successful race. Afrer the first 4-5 miles, when you got into your pace, look around and search for the one that you think will go with you to the end (of the race). If you lucky, you will be able to find a partner and that making the all race better.
3. Think on the next mile not the all race. It’s so much better to take (every project in life) step by step. You can break the race to 2,4,6,10 segments and think only on the next segment. It is a good feeling to ‘see’ your progress during the race.
4. Check out #2 and #1 – do NOT start too quickly. No meter what girl/boy pass you without a visible effort.
   It’s a common mistake. You should do what you practiced and don’t fool yourself that you will run in a faster pace during the race. Moreover, after 4-5 mile you should be in your normal ‘race pace’ and ‘race heart rate’ so make sure to pace yourself. Don’t let your ego win – it will hunt you down around the 20-22 mile.
5. Adjust yourself and listen to your body. You can never know what the race will bring you. Sometimes it’s 120F temperature (Tel Aviv Marathon) and sometimes the climbs are crazy (each San Francisco marathon after the 23 miles). Show up with a flexible game plan and adjust as needed because in the end, it’s all about enjoying (or for the experts – performing) your best on that day.

Have fun and be strong!

Marathon (short) Tutorial

Here is (yet another) lighting talk I gave at the Java Posse Roundup 2010

It’s a short presentation that give you the basic idea what is all about this trend of running 42.195 Km (or 26.2 miles if you want to count less).

Planning – there are lots of good resources out on the web. Here is one that I’ve used – It’s A Guru trainer site. You can pick the right plan base on your current shape. Another good online tool is this pace calculator. But like anything in life, it’s all about execution! You must follow the plan and do your best to stick with the runs.
The hard part and the most important part of any plan is the ‘long runs’. These runs build you body and make sure it will be able to do the distance and be active for 3 to 5 hours.

Be Strong and (try to) have fun.