This was a great race.  I felt very strong and reached both my goals: be at 130lbs and dominate the hills.  And there were plenty of hills.  I was surprised to find that Atlanta is so hilly.  Very little flat on the course.  Thankfully, the ups and downs weren't so steep like they were San Francisco.

The weather was perfect in the 50's and a light rain the entire time.  You couldn't wipe the smile off my face.  I started with the 4:30 pace group and some where around mile 18 I passed the 4:15 pacer and maintained ahead of them finishing with a 4:12.  Same finish time as the last race however I felt much stronger on this run.  Last run was very very flat (Florida) and around mile 20 I had some cramping.  This run was hilly all the way and I managed my electrolytes to prevent any sign of cramping.  In the end I felt strong with no soreness other than some bloody nipples from the rain washing off the body glide.

Ready to start training for the next one!

What better time to be in Florida than the end of January.  The day was picture perfect.  Weather in the mid 30's at the start and no higher than 50's by the finish.  Everyone there was complaining how cold it was and I was basking in the warmth.  Leading up to this run all my training was in the snow.

The goal was to drop some weight and be at 130 for the race and just have a nice warm run.  No effort to beat a time, just stay in the heart rate zones I wanted and enjoy being in the warmth.  Well none of that happened.  I never made it below 138 and my heart rate monitor died around mile 10.  So I just had to listen to my body and enjoy the run.  I never felt like I was pushing it and what do you know...a PR at 4:12....trimmed off 2 minutes.

During mile 22 I started to feel a twinge in my knee and I recognized the pain as cramping like what happened the last time I was in Florida.  This time I was not taken off guard and was prepared.  I immediately swallowed the rest of my electrolyte tablets and in about a half mile the pain was gone I was back in full swing.  That piece is what I feel most accomplished about.

After the race my parents and sister and niece were there to cheer me on and celebrate for a short while before my flight back to the cold north.  In all, I flew in 4 hours before my race, and left 3 hours after my race.

The next day I had a bit of swelling on my right foot and it turned out to be plantar fasciitis.  I began treating it very aggressively with ice, rolling it on lacrosse balls, stretching and more ice and rolling. It was very painful for the first week of rolling.  I didn't go for any runs that week and by the next week it was tolerable with the rolling and finally by the weekend it felt 90%.  I went for a light run 2 weeks after the marathon and it felt fine and by mid week it was at 100% and taking daily runs again.

Now I roll the bottoms of my feet as part of my regular maintenance work.

This was my second run with using Heart Rate training and I dropped 8 minutes from my last PR.....so I am hooked.  I felt great, but because last time I played it easy on the end miles, I decided to push it a little and let my heart rate continue to increase a bit for the last mile instead of cool down.  Unlike last race, where I felt like I had another 10 miles in me at the ending pace, I felt that maybe that last mile in at pace was about all I had.

The weather was ideal conditions...warmed up to low 40's with cloud cover the entire day.  Never rained but certainly threatened to.  In every race there is always one person who is vastly under dressed compared to everyone else.  This time, that person was me....but I loved it.  I was very comfortable.

This race had an extra highlight in that I got to run the first few miles with my good friend Rav Tonti as his second half marathon and our friend Jason who does ultra runs just for fun.

Great Run!

The day after Rosh Hashana is a fast day...and it was for me.  My fastest marathon time yet!  I chose not to fast but focused on my heart rate.  Since the prior marathon I changed my training routine to be heart rate centric.  That was a switch from using pace as my metric to my heart range.  It meant a lot slower training.  Out of the 6 days I would run, 5 would be based on keeping my heart rate in zone 3 (essentially an easy effort).

For me zone three is 135-141 bpm....which translates to a pace somewhere (at least when I started) at 10:30 to 11:00 min/mile.  I had been wanting to train at 9:08 (for a 4:15 marathon finish) so these paces felt very very slow.  At first.  After about a month, that pace turned out to be around 10:00 min/mile.  There was one day of interval training which I would do 800 Yassos or hill climbs and not pay much attention to my heart rate to slow me down (but to track for curiosity purposes).

So after about a month of this kind of training, I did notice a significant change in that my paces did get faster even though my heart rates were staying in the same zone.  I planned my next marathon to run 4:20 based on MARCO Marathon Calculator.  I was very skeptical about keeping such a slow pace for the first half of the race and only slowly progressively increasing the heart rate range I could run in, but I decided to give it a try.

It was amazing.  I never felt beat or exhausted.  My legs were happily pumping away and even at the end of the race I felt strong and could have gone another 10 miles (maybe at a bit slower pace than at the finish but still ready to go).  I am completely convinced at trying heart rate training some more.

I finished with 4:22.

ps...the following day I ran 2.5 miles and felt good (sore quads, but completely manageable).  I took the rest of the week off until a 6 miler on Friday before Yom Kippur and then a 12 miler on Sunday (after Yom Kippur)...which I ran without my heart rate monitor just to run and enjoy the weather.  I had two of my fastest miles both sub 7:50 and could have easily finished a half marathon under 2 hours.  Now that is progress!

I was super ready and excited for this marathon.  I had been training with a pace of 9:08 on pace runs and was planning on running an average of 9:45 so I'd finish just around 4:15.  The hills on the the elevation relief looked very manageable, but the reality was much different.

The run to the Golden Gate Bridge was stunning.  The run over the bridge was unique but really loud and crowded.  I spent way more time negotiating and managing my foot work so I didn't trample anyone than being able to take in the view.  After the bridge into The Presidio was also scenic and mostly downhill which lead to the Golden Gate Park segment.

Besides the climb up to and over the Bridge, the rest of the hills were in Golden Gate Park.  And there were a lot of hills.  I was fairly strong through most of them, but they never ended.  I poorly managed my effort and didn't let myself rest enough going up the hills thinking This Has To Be The Last of Them...but there was another hill and soon my heart rate was too high for too long and to make things worse it was right about then that the morning cloud cover burnt off and it was HOT.  So hot that I never recovered, even on the downhills out of the park.

Eventually at Mile 23, nausea and  a bit lightheaded kicked in and I stopped at a med tent.  I put ice all over and poured lots of water all over me.  I was there for 5 minutes before I felt ready to proceed....with a bag of ice tied around my neck.  I started off slow but never felt my body really hit back to a normal running mode and by mile 25 I stopped to walk and walked through mile 26.

Even with the 5 minute stopping and walking two miles, I finished at 4:37.  Even though I didn't improve on my time, I felt really strong until the heat hit and feel very happy with my finish.  I am looking forward to the next one in 8 week.

This marathon marked my one year anniversary of running marathons and my 7th marathon.  The very first one was in Burlington VT 1 year ago and it was 42 and rainy the whole day.  This race was much much different.

The weather was sunny and stunning starting in the 50's and warming up to the high 70's.  The race I had in Florida was a disaster, but at least prepared me to deal with heat issue which I faced with grace this time around.  I knew to use the aide stations for dumping water all over me and filling up my water.  Every 4 miles I took more electrolyte pills and whenever offered ate a banana.  I also switched to using Sport Beans as they have the highest electrolyte count I could find and are much more palatable than goo.  Only during mile 25 did I feel like I was fading and a bit nauseous, but otherwise felt strong and in control.

Another major accomplishment was using my Glutes for power the entire race.  Since the Florida race in January I have been working hard on strengthening my core and engaging my Glutes while running.  The marathon prior, my Glutes gave out around mile 22 and I had to power through with my Quads for the last few miles which left me very sore and tired.  This time around I manage to engage my Glutes the entire time and today (the next day) I am not sore in the Quads like I was prior.  Still a little tenderness but not to the touch and certainly not noticeable unless I jump or take stairs two at a time.

The last accomplishment which I feel bad acknowledging was finishing ahead of my friend who was an hour faster than me last time we ran a marathon together.  Now I was not an hour faster that the first time (I completed at 4hrs 54min the first time...so just trimmed off a half hour), but my year of training and being prepared for the heat gave me the advantage and he was much slower than he was expecting because of the heat.  He came in overheated with some cramping which is a sign of electrolyte loss.

One year down in my quest to run a marathon for every Massechet of Talmud.  At this rate, if I complete 6-7 marathons each year I will align my total number of marathon completions to the number of completed massechtot during this cycle of Daf Yomi at Kiddushin, which completes June1 2016)

First off, let me just say I had my PR on this on at 4:24!  I had taken what I had learned about electrolytes as well as engaging my core from PT for my hamstring and what a difference.

That being said, these conditions for the race couldn't have been worse.  It started off at 40 degrees and raining with a gusting wind.  The wind never quit the whole day, but the temp dropped and the rain became hail for about an hour, then sleet, then ploppy snow.

Take away lesson here was gloves can always be taken off....but if you don't have them you will suffer.  And I did suffer.  My hands had gotten so numb at one point that I couldn't even hold the cup of water at the water station with one hand.  I kept moving my fingers and rolling my wrists but it was very out of body feeling...like I had no feeling in them, but they kept moving so I knew I was somewhat ok.  If they stopped moving, then I would seek help...but since they kept moving I figured I wasn't doing permanent damage.  I was right, but it was the worst part of the experience.

The PT work I had been doing was to address a irritated hamstring and it has really changed how I run.  I've been working on strengthening my core (gut and butt) and not only has it really improved my posture both standing and sitting, but my running too.  I have a lot more power and stability and running feels less of an effort, though that was not the case at first.

When I was first running with my glutes engaged and relaxing my hip flexors, it felt like I was trying to run while holding a pencil between my butt cheeks.  It was exhausting, but after a few weeks, it feelt powerful and almost natural (not really yet, but getting there).  This past race I ran with glutes engaged for just about the entire run.  Hills were much easier (both up and down) and so far my hamstring is quiet (let's hope it doesn't read this).

Looking forward to marathon 7, Sukkot, in Burlington in 2 months.  That will mark the anniversary of my first marathon and I will be curious to see how it compares.  I will certainly be much more prepared for the weather.

I realize I didn't post after running the Clearwater FL Marathon MLK Day Weekend.  I thought it would be a PR, but it turned out the humidity had other plans.

Around mile 17 my legs just fell apart.  As one guy described me as he hobbled along side me, "looks like you got a bad wheel." I could run for about 2 minutes then had to walk for about 5 minutes for several miles like this until another runner who had been trailing along at a similar pace and pain level found some friends at a water stop who happened to be a PT and Marathon competitor.  She saw our condition and gave us salt tabs and electrolyte pills.

About 2 miles later, my legs came back.  And strong!  I have my fastest last two miles of a marathon ever.  Turns out the humidity really zapped me of my electrolytes.

So now I really load up on the electrolytes when I run.  Hopefully this will get me past 18 miles without a bad wheel next time.

This past weekend was my 20 miler peak run in prep for the next marathon.  It was an unusually warm day in December...low 60's whereas the weekend before was a blizzard.

Much of the bike path was now in a slush which might have been what did me in.  The first mile or so was in this ankle deep slush/icy slurry and after feeling a bit like running in wet sand I decided to stay on the roads.  The roads were a bit better, but the sidewalks on the busy streets we about the same except with hardend icy splotches.

Around mile 18 my left Achilles tendon decided it had had enough and went from being tight to sore with a bit of a sting.  Stretching didn't help so I slowed my pace down to a slight jog and wide step walk, but eventually settled on a slight jog since it didn't make much of a difference in comfort and jogging would get me home sooner.

Immediately at home I stretched for about 20 minutes then started an ice-therapy regime.  Iced for 15 minutes off for 5 for as long as I had ice and could remember to keep it up.  A little stretching just to keep from getting locked up to a hobble, but really focusing on the icing for the day.   That night I did some rolling of my legs but nothing intense (yet) and went to be with an icepack.  Wore compression socks for the rest of the day.

The next day was more ice and light stretching (entire body), but that evening I did an intense rolling out.  Wore compression socks for as much of the day as I could withstand....by the evening my legs needed a break.

The next day was an occasional icing but mostly a good stretch in the morning and good stretch at night and now working on the knots in my calf for a while at night.

Today things felt almost good enough to go for a run, but held off and focused on more work on the remaining knots (surprisingly few) and easy stretching.  Tomorrow, I'll try out my leg with an easy 4 miler with compression socks on.  If it was a bad idea, I'll let you know.

The course was fun, the people were great.  I should have expected it would have been hard being only 26 days from the last marathon but it was hard.  Well, the first 22 miles felt normal.  Then I fell apart and felt not so great.

What kept me together was having my wife on the other end of the phone cheering me on with her family in LA and knowing Tal was waiting for me at mile 26...and only one way to go.  Plus just as I was feeling my ill-est (not in a good way) I saw gentleman who looked to be in his 70's staggering to his feet from apparently recently fallen down.  As he got to his feet he shoved the medic and police officer out of his way to keep on running.  OK...I can keep going,

At mile marker 26 Tal was there with our friend Joy cheering me on which made it all worth while.  I hoisted him over the barricade and he ran with me by my hand and on my shoulders as we crossed the finish together.  4 hour 52 minutes.  Not my best time, but the best finish I ever had.