So here it is, a week after I decided to start training for a half-marathon and so far I've only done two workouts--one kilometer each. Not a good start.
I was also looking over my past entries and it seems like it was always work that got in the way. Well, it is like that once again. I was hoping that working in Jerusalem would be much more laid back than in a Hollywood studio. You'd also think that working in animation is something that you really take your time doing. However, we did the first story reel screening in four weeks, that's very quick, and then they replaced the director and we are doing a complete redo in just two months. I would have never thought it possible, but here I am doing it. Needless to say, it is taking up all of my time and there is just no way that I've got the energy to train right now.
Guess I picked the wrong day to start training. I'll get back to it after the screening.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Time Shifted Workout
We're recording dialogue in Los Angeles this week so that means that I'm having to work at night here in Jerusalem. I got up at 11:00am local time and did a short workout. Yesterday was a crazy day on the job, working from 9:00am until 5:00am the next morning. Needless to say I didn't have the time or energy for exercise.
I did the same lap as a couple of days ago and timed myself around the loop - 6:45. It starts with a quick downhill followed by a long gentle uphill for half the loop and finally a shallow decline that gradually gets steeper at the end. My heart rate averaged around 165 and at one point in the uphill got as high as 185 so I backed off. It seems that I got my heart rate up too fast too soon and the run was too short to do much good for half-marathon training. Still, I got out there and that's an accomplishment considering that I'm starting this training on a work crunch time.
Total distance of the loop? Measured by car odometer it is: 1.1 kilometer. So, let's see, that would be 6:08 minutes per kilometer or about 9:52 minutes per mile. Not a very fast run, but faster than my average racewalking pace--and with hills. Now I've got to keep running at this pace for 2:09:24 in order to cover a half-marathon. Considering that I walked it at 2:30:56, that should be doable.
Finally, here is a shot of the guys in Los Angeles, Gavin Goodvach (sound editor) in the foreground and Doug Wood (director) in the background. That's me in the picture in picture on the Skype screen. The picture was taken around 2:30am Jerusalem time.
I did the same lap as a couple of days ago and timed myself around the loop - 6:45. It starts with a quick downhill followed by a long gentle uphill for half the loop and finally a shallow decline that gradually gets steeper at the end. My heart rate averaged around 165 and at one point in the uphill got as high as 185 so I backed off. It seems that I got my heart rate up too fast too soon and the run was too short to do much good for half-marathon training. Still, I got out there and that's an accomplishment considering that I'm starting this training on a work crunch time.
Total distance of the loop? Measured by car odometer it is: 1.1 kilometer. So, let's see, that would be 6:08 minutes per kilometer or about 9:52 minutes per mile. Not a very fast run, but faster than my average racewalking pace--and with hills. Now I've got to keep running at this pace for 2:09:24 in order to cover a half-marathon. Considering that I walked it at 2:30:56, that should be doable.
Finally, here is a shot of the guys in Los Angeles, Gavin Goodvach (sound editor) in the foreground and Doug Wood (director) in the background. That's me in the picture in picture on the Skype screen. The picture was taken around 2:30am Jerusalem time.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Lightning and Thunder and Rain... and Running
I decided that this morning I would start training for the Jerusalem half-marathon. I laid out all my gear, except for the Polar watch that I sent back to the states with Rosie because it wasn't reading the heart rate monitor. I woke up before the alarm went off because of the lightning and thunder. Humm--can't let that stop me, so I got suited up. Then the rain started--can't let that stop me either, put on a waterproof wind breaker.
The route I took was a short loop by the Jerusalem Theater and the president's residence. I started the stopwatch shortly after leaving the apartment and the total workout was about 10 minutes. I used my simple Polar B1 heart rate monitor and it looks like I went from 140 bpm to 165 bpm. Not much of a workout, but I did manage to get started--and I ran it all the way!
Now why would I start running if I hurt myself several times in the past? Well, after reading the books on Chi Running and the Pose Method I found out that it was my technique that was hurting me. Of course 10 minutes of running won't hurt me, but how about over two hours on a half-marathon? Stay tuned.
Finally--it will be interesting blogging from the other side of the globe. Note that the time posted is in West Hollywood, 10 hours later than Jerusalem time.
The route I took was a short loop by the Jerusalem Theater and the president's residence. I started the stopwatch shortly after leaving the apartment and the total workout was about 10 minutes. I used my simple Polar B1 heart rate monitor and it looks like I went from 140 bpm to 165 bpm. Not much of a workout, but I did manage to get started--and I ran it all the way!
Now why would I start running if I hurt myself several times in the past? Well, after reading the books on Chi Running and the Pose Method I found out that it was my technique that was hurting me. Of course 10 minutes of running won't hurt me, but how about over two hours on a half-marathon? Stay tuned.
Finally--it will be interesting blogging from the other side of the globe. Note that the time posted is in West Hollywood, 10 hours later than Jerusalem time.
The Journey Continues
It has been almost six months since my last post but I haven't forgotten that I've got this blog. Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm working in Jerusalem on an animated feature film. There have been ups and downs on this job but overall I'm quite happy that I made the decision to take it. My wife Rosie came with me for a couple of months when I started and she returned recently for another month long visit. Next month, in January, I'll be making my first trip home since I started. It will be just a quick two-week visit mostly for some personal appointments then it will be back to Israel for another stretch until Rosie comes to visit me in the Spring.
So, what's the purpose of this post? Just to get back into it I guess. My servers are running in the garage back home in West Hollywood and I'm on the other side of the globe trying to manage. It hasn't been easy, the "High-Availability" pair of servers went down and I had to switch over to the workstation that I use to experiment around with various open source programs. When the last of the "High-Availability" servers died it wasn't too hard to switch over, though I do owe debt of gratitude to my friend Tim Serda for helping out with the technical glitches over these last several months. Fortunately, I'm using the current system to back up all my other computers so there wasn't much lost data during the switch--even my blog ended up intact!
Now that things are settling down at work and I don't have all the day-to-day distractions that I had at home, it is time to start doing some of the things I always wanted to do. I'd like to learn how to play the guitar, but my instruments are at home, darn. I'd also like to take some more photos, draw and write. Of course I'd also like to do a little bit of computer software programming too. So what's first? How about another race--yippee!
http://hmarathon.jerusalem.muni.il/
Will I be racewalking or running? I'm not sure yet, but whatever I do, I'd better start training soon, it has been too long since I've trained for a race.
So, what's the purpose of this post? Just to get back into it I guess. My servers are running in the garage back home in West Hollywood and I'm on the other side of the globe trying to manage. It hasn't been easy, the "High-Availability" pair of servers went down and I had to switch over to the workstation that I use to experiment around with various open source programs. When the last of the "High-Availability" servers died it wasn't too hard to switch over, though I do owe debt of gratitude to my friend Tim Serda for helping out with the technical glitches over these last several months. Fortunately, I'm using the current system to back up all my other computers so there wasn't much lost data during the switch--even my blog ended up intact!
Now that things are settling down at work and I don't have all the day-to-day distractions that I had at home, it is time to start doing some of the things I always wanted to do. I'd like to learn how to play the guitar, but my instruments are at home, darn. I'd also like to take some more photos, draw and write. Of course I'd also like to do a little bit of computer software programming too. So what's first? How about another race--yippee!
http://hmarathon.jerusalem.muni.il/
Will I be racewalking or running? I'm not sure yet, but whatever I do, I'd better start training soon, it has been too long since I've trained for a race.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Last Racewalking Post for a while
My last race was on June 9th and I've been so busy at work that I haven't finished posting the results.
The race was Southern California Masters Track & Field Championships held at California State University at Long Beach. There was only racewalking event, a 5K, and 5 entries but one was a no show. I came in second overall, but one guy was disqualified and the other one was 21 years my senior. Pedro Santoni won the race and my age group, now that he's 50 it will be nearly impossible to win races. Here's Pedro and me after the race.
Oh well, I'll be moving to Israel for the next two years for a job at The Animation Lab so I don't think I'll be entering any club races in a while!
Here are the results:
I didn't get close to doing it under 30 minutes, though I gave it a good effort as the Polar software chart shows:
Although I was feeling pretty good, I wasn't completely recovered from the marathon I did earlier in the week. Oh well, at least I got in a few races before the craziness of finishing one job and starting the next--I haven't been able to work out since this race. All of my energy is going into my next adventure, two years in Jerusalem working on the first animated feature to be done in Israel--The Wild Bunch.
The race was Southern California Masters Track & Field Championships held at California State University at Long Beach. There was only racewalking event, a 5K, and 5 entries but one was a no show. I came in second overall, but one guy was disqualified and the other one was 21 years my senior. Pedro Santoni won the race and my age group, now that he's 50 it will be nearly impossible to win races. Here's Pedro and me after the race.
Oh well, I'll be moving to Israel for the next two years for a job at The Animation Lab so I don't think I'll be entering any club races in a while!
Here are the results:
M45 5000 Meter Race Walk
================================================================================
Name Age Team Seed Finals Points
================================================================================
-- Kurtzman, James M45 So Cal Track DQ
================================================================================
1 Santoni, Pedro M50 Southern Cal 27:04.00 26:41.77
2 Fort, Daniel M52 unattached / 32:35.00 32:38.36
================================================================================
1 Rolle, Arvid M73 Easy Strider 36:25.00 36:26.02
I didn't get close to doing it under 30 minutes, though I gave it a good effort as the Polar software chart shows:
Although I was feeling pretty good, I wasn't completely recovered from the marathon I did earlier in the week. Oh well, at least I got in a few races before the craziness of finishing one job and starting the next--I haven't been able to work out since this race. All of my energy is going into my next adventure, two years in Jerusalem working on the first animated feature to be done in Israel--The Wild Bunch.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
One step at a time
First picture around the 1/2 marathon mark, second photo at the finish--ugh! Chip time was a little better, 5:37:01. It was a personal record, but way off of what I was hoping for.
The moment I crossed the finish line at the San Diego Rock 'N' Roll Marathon I was already thinking about the next race, a 5K in Long Beach. Will I have enough time to recover and get my speed back up? I took Monday off, did a "recovery" 5K on Tuesday and another 5K on Wednesday for training. Here's how it went:
Tuesday - 40:41
HR 133bpm Pace 8:11 min/km (13:10 min/mi)
Wednesday - 40:31 (4.9 km)
HR 148bpm Pace 8:13 min/km (13:11 min/mi)
Yikes--what happened? It turned out that this time the Polar RS800sd sent me much further than what I had marked as 5K in my neighborhood course. These past few weeks it was measuring much less and that was giving me false hope of doing a 30 min 5K and 1-hour 10K.
Although I was hoping to do a 10K workout on Thursday, my job had other plans for me and I wasn't able to get a workout in on Thursday or Friday. Next walk will be on the track at Long Beach.
The moment I crossed the finish line at the San Diego Rock 'N' Roll Marathon I was already thinking about the next race, a 5K in Long Beach. Will I have enough time to recover and get my speed back up? I took Monday off, did a "recovery" 5K on Tuesday and another 5K on Wednesday for training. Here's how it went:
Tuesday - 40:41
HR 133bpm Pace 8:11 min/km (13:10 min/mi)
Wednesday - 40:31 (4.9 km)
HR 148bpm Pace 8:13 min/km (13:11 min/mi)
Yikes--what happened? It turned out that this time the Polar RS800sd sent me much further than what I had marked as 5K in my neighborhood course. These past few weeks it was measuring much less and that was giving me false hope of doing a 30 min 5K and 1-hour 10K.
Although I was hoping to do a 10K workout on Thursday, my job had other plans for me and I wasn't able to get a workout in on Thursday or Friday. Next walk will be on the track at Long Beach.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Alone in a Crowd
So I was crazy enough to do it. I did the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon on Sunday. The week leading up to it was very stressful at work. We worked so much overtime that I had no time to work out, zip, nada. I was hoping to do it around 5 hours but I was willing to settle for a 12 minute/mile pace which was my original goal. However, that was not to be, not this time at least.
The splits show how badly I fell off my pace:
Even though I carefully calibrated the Polar RS800sd, it was once again way off showing 44.5 kilometers when it should have recorded 42.26 kilometers.
However, it does show graphically that the biggest change happened in the last quarter of the race.
Oh well--here is another nice metal to add to my collection.
I'm a bit tired, somewhat disappointed, but already thinking of the next race--a 5K racewalk at:
Bib FName LName City State Age Sex ChipTime ClockTime Overall SexPl DivPl AgeGrade pace ttlrace ttldiv ttlsex 10k half 21_mi
16941 Daniel Fort West Hollywood CA 52 M 5:37:01 5:47:11 11806 6492 491 42.1% 12:52 15958 611 7729 1:12:52 2:37:45 4:21:52
The splits show how badly I fell off my pace:
10K = 11:56 min/mile
Half = 12:02 min/mile
21 mi = 12:28 min/mile
26.1 mi = 12:52 min/mile
Even though I carefully calibrated the Polar RS800sd, it was once again way off showing 44.5 kilometers when it should have recorded 42.26 kilometers.
Data Value Unit
Duration 5:37:00
Sampling Rate 5 s
Running Index 41
Energy Expenditure 3847 kcal
Number of Heart Beats 53933 beats
Recovery -39 beats
Minimum Heart Rate 123 bpm
Average Heart Rate 160 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate 172 bpm
Standard Deviation 5.8 bpm
Minimum Pace 15:47 min/km
Average Pace 7:35 min/km
Maximum Pace 4:22 min/km
Distance 44.5 km
Minimum Cadence 49 rpm
Average Cadence 72 rpm
Maximum Cadence 90 rpm
However, it does show graphically that the biggest change happened in the last quarter of the race.
Oh well--here is another nice metal to add to my collection.
I'm a bit tired, somewhat disappointed, but already thinking of the next race--a 5K racewalk at:
SCA MASTERS TRACK & FIELD
CHAMPIONSHIPS
CHAMPIONSHIPS
SAT: JUNE 9, 2007
CSU Long Beach
CSU Long Beach
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