overcoming memories

This week I went to MMA training : Muay Thai - Thai Boxing - which basically means that you kick, punch and do whatever hurtful to your opponnent. Illustartion : 

After my friend from the service persuaded me into this - I went, with only one wish in mind : don't let it be like the army. 

We would train Krav-Maga almost everyday, and the tranining included alot of aggressiveness and mental training, in addition to the 'normal' fighting - which most of the times just makes you wanna die. 

it's not fun. 

Anyhow, you can discuss wheather passing obstacles in your life is good for you - but in most times, it leaves a mark on you. Krav Maga, for me, was something I never wanted to do again. 

And 3 years later - there I was , for the first time - waiting for the trainer to arrive. 

and you won't believe who that was : my army trainer. 

I felt like I'm losing myself,  standing there with the boxing gloves, out of my free will ,after swearing to myself that I'd never do it again. 

For an hour an half i was kicking and punching and being punched, and I won't tell you that it was all fun, but it was important :

It cleared my bad memories, and only than I realized how important it is.

If you haven't overcomed something in your past - you should go and do it. maybe not now, and maybe not soon - but one day, when your'e ready, you should : it'd make things much easier.

Yesterday there was a story on the news about a guy who went to the Ultra-Marathon in the Amazon jungles in Brazil. 

The Ultra-Marathon is a 222 km long race. during 6 days,the competetors pass around 40 km a day - and let me remind you that it's not the Berlin marathon : there are bad bugs, and mosquitoes, and leeches - and whatever you don't want to meet. 

are you up for it?

The piece was about a guy who got tired of all the marthones and searched for a new, harder adventure.He collapesed few times during the race - until he lost his concious, that was when the doctor stopped him - and the emergency crew had to treat him all night. 

He had 40 km left - which , for him, was 'nothing' - as he said, but the doctor just didn't let him. 

He said that he's going to run the Ultra-Marathon again, just because he has to conquer the bad memory from the last year.

Everyone has their bad experinces and memories. Most of us won't do anything about it, but some of us - the fortunate ones - will go and do it again. 

5 enemies\friends

5 things that I just love to do and are the complete opposite of running, and that make the whole difference between the bummer and the runner : 


1. Nargila - 
The complete opposite of running , is Nargila - filling your lungs with smoke, tobbaco, and every other componet which is bad or you. I have no idea WHY I smoke - except : it's fun. You enhale and exhale a respected amount of smoke,  and feel more relaxed than you ever felt. the after affect isn't that nice. You can't run after , and I'm not sure what it does to your shape -except ruin it. But I guess that's what bad habbits are for, even if theyr'e too bad. 

That's an early bummer. 

2. Meat - burgers, steaks, white meat, red meat, with cheese, with wine, with coke, with fries  - with everything bad on it (or on the side). 

I really believe that people who take their nutrition too serious, eventually die in car accidents. and besides, what's this world is about if you can't enjoy food - espically one that's really bad for you ? And if you look at it the other way - you make yourself run just to deserve it. 

burger shoes : if those were real , i'd buy the whole edition. 

3.The enemy of all activities : TV. 

I can watch it for hours. days. weeks, maybe, if I have all of the above (food and sleep) - if watching TV was olympic - I'd be the Carl Lewis of all times. hall of famer. 

But it's just killing your time, and you feel fatigue after long watching. I know it might sounds a bit indulgent to you, but believe me - there's nothing worst than an enemy underestimated. 

TV elephant : I still think that the polar bear lives better. 

4.Scotch :  It hurts your liver. It hurts your shape. It aims directly to your heart, brain and muscles. 

BUT YOU DON'T CARE.

I do believe that there's no such thing as a bad whiskey. There are small drinkers, no small drinks when it comes to the Jack. But, I guess that it doesn't consist a part in the nutrition list for runners, but for the bummers - it's like the nectar that fell from the Olympus. 

I have nothing to say more but  - 

make yourself a glass and put your running shoes to rest.

Half marathon : the Russian version. 

5. Snickers, Mars, M&M's, *Bamba, Oreo's, Huggen Daz's, *Egozi, *Mekupelet, Tofifee, Tobleron, Doritos, Lay's, Cheetos, Belgian Chocolate, Bounty, *Red Bamba, Croissantes, Max Brenner's, *Knaffe, Rolades. And the list goes on..

* = Israeli candybars. theyr'e great. 

Best Friend. 

6 .Sleeping -  corny, i know, and I even named it '5 things'  but still - it's my all time favourite. i just love sleeping when it rains, and when i just know that it's cold outside - when I'd give up sleeping for running, remind me that I lost myself.

When you know what's good for you, and you just don't care what they'll say. 

Just wondering - will I ever 'accomplish' giving up all of the above? and is it worth it?and is that the reald border between bummer's and runner's?

mental point

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.   (Lance Armstrong)


I guess that every runner,whether beginner or pro, get to this point on his run.
you feel like your legs are heavier than ever, and your breathe is just not working, and all of your body systems - which did great until this point - need a giant push just to go one step further. and than you look up, and see - through the wetness in your eyes  - that you got another 1 kilometer to go. uphill. 
That is the mental point - if you cross that point, absobring and consisting all the difficulties that surround you - you feel good.  you feel like a king. you feel like you've beaten your worst opponent (sorry for the cliché) - yourself.

for me - that's what's running is all about  : getting to that mental point, and crossing it. 
but it's not that easy, because I have alot of small mental points that i have to cross even before the run - waking up, getting dressed - when I can not to. But I can convince myself, and do some little tricks that can make it easier for me next time. 
When I run, I have nothing to do but to face it; I'm there, and the last thing on earth that I'm willing to happen is stopping. It's not that easy, and when I was younger I did give up sometimes when it was too hard for me - when my muscles sored, or my breath wasn't good enough. 
But now - I guess that I just didn't understand the concept of running at the time. 
Now I do : getting to those mental points - which attack anyone at any shape - and crossing them.
Crossing that mental point is never easy, and therefore it's worth all the effort.


I just came back from a 5.2 Km run, which was kinda steep - the ending kilometer was all way uphill.
 I felt my legs burning and my breath hobble - and I just said to myself that no matter what - I ain't stopping. So I put on a good song on the Ipod (R Kelly - Burn It Uphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO6C9oZKBxk), full volume - and started  run-dancing. maybe it was physically harder, but it helped me finish with a smile (and a dance).

Nothing feels better, But it doesn't get easier passing that line.

waking up

It's not easy.
the alarm clock is just doing its job, and you don't remember why. it's too early, and you feel so heavy, and you get into the first fight of the morning : to wake up and run, or not.

Ive published a thread in Runnersworld.com, where I asked - how do you convince yourself?
maybe i made a mistake - publishing it in the 'marathon' page : all of the answers sound like those people were robocops or something. 'i never give up running' , 'i never give up'... sounds so natural. but it's not. as i wrote before, i'm not that runner - i'm not the normal runner who just loves to run everyday, even though i took up the challenge of running half a marathon  - and i guess that there are other people out there who feel the same like me in the morning - people who are also moving from bummers into runners, while transforming the feeling of running itslef from bummer, into something fun.
so i found few things that helps me convince myself every-morning :
*Not thinking about it - sounds easy, but it's crucial. you just turn the self-pitty-mode, which is very casual when it's too early - and go for it.
*Music  - everyone has his own favourites. mine are rap songs. (favourie one for the moment : Roy Jones Jr. - cant be touched)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoCOg8ZzUfg


If someone has any new methods of waking up in the morning, I'd be more than glad if you'd share it with me!

have a nice weekend!

Convincing yourself

Hey,
I ran 5 km today in 31 minutes. not that brilliant, but that's a start.

hard decision : to run or not to run?

The easy thing is to enjoy after you run, but it's getting harder and harder to manipulate yourself to go running.

Even though I only started writing here, I feel like it helps in kind of way. I feel like I'm fighting with the bummer and becoming more of the bummer.

What do you do when you don't feel like running, how do you manage to convince yourself - when yourself doesn't want? 

Who's the runner and what's the bummer

"There's a difference between knowing the path - and walking the path"

It's not the common runner's blog. I'm not a common runner. 

I don't have a super-slim-non-fat-body. I don't run a kilometer in less than 4 minutes. I don’t have long, runner's legs. Every time I go out for a run I have to convince myself - before, and mainly within the run - that I'm going to do it. 99 % of the time I don't feel any kind of fun during the run - only when I finish it.

 I actually love everything which is evolved - somehow - to the opposite of running : eating. sleeping. reading. watching tv. watching youtube. watching someone else does something while i do nothing. running  was never on that list.

Even Though, I've decided to run the half marathon.

I didn't like running when I was younger, But I had to run. When I served the army, I had no choice but to run. everyday. We'd wake up before the sunrise, and run about 3-5-10 km, uphill, carrying something - which was always unnecessary as uncomfortable - on our backs, and I remember the feeling of not being able to breath - like somehow your lungs shrunk, and there's not enough air you can consume. It was always hard, and the only fun moment I felt was when we came back . I've never imagined that I'd go and run out of my own free will. I've never believed that running can be something that fun. Maybe the reason that  I didn't like running in the army was because it didn't come from my own will, and maybe because it was almost too hard - like everything in the army - but it gave me something I wouldn't get nowhere else : fighting spirit. It made me a warrior - so I wouldn't stop running even if my legs would break and my shoes would set on fire. And now, when I go out and start running - it's still not as natural as it is to most runners - but I feel like I actually breath. 

So, that's the bummer - whatever I felt until now about running. 

So what made me wake up one day and convince myself that I'm going to participate the half-marathon - 21 km of running? 

I guess that I  have some answers - which I'll write about in the next post - but I still feel like I'm finding this one out. 

I'd keep posting about my biggest war - with myself - about quitting everything tomorrow and going back to be the bummer. 

It's the hardest commitment I've ever took on my self - for myself - and it'd be a war, with many big and small battles inside it - that I'd have to fight with myself.

Thank you for reading,

Gon

P.S, if your'e around - Hertzilya , Israel - you can stop by and come with me for a run.