Judo competition, on the 20th of May

 Michael has won his three fights at the competitions that took place in Menashe Regional Center on the 21st of May.

Video of the final fight is in YouTube, pictures are at KodakGallery, as always.

Marathon Tel-Aviv 2010

This was my first road marathon and now I am wary of such: I just never ran on asphalt and now I can confirm that it is much more painful than running trails.

First of all I should say that the organization of Marathon Tel-Aviv was close to perfect, there was water more than every 4 km, there were 4 points with electrolyte sport drinks and three tables with apples/oranges.
I ran with a hand held bottle and had two gels in it's pocket, which in retrospect should have been 3, but this should remain as memo for the future. Otherwise, all went nice and easy until the sun got up and then it got hot! Every time I passed water station I poured another bottle on myself and from time to time refilled my bottle. The most challenging part was in the open sun after ~27km, but I were not chasing records -- just doing a long 4 hour run, so I slowed down and it was almost fine...

Actually my legs did not a bad work, but kept scaring me from time to time, as paranoid as I am nowadays, I walked every time I felt a familiar twitch in the calf, but who cares ;-)
The route can be seen at Garmin Connect, and there are some pictures at KodakGallery.

Judo belt exam 2010

Both Vitaly and Michael had their judo exams on the 25th of April -- just before Vitaly's birthday and got new belts.
I've shot a short video while they played around before changing the belts, and, of course, the pictures are on-line.

Passover (Peisach) walks in Carmel

We had a couple of nice walks in a good weather during this year Peisach holidays. The first one was a trip to Sumak ancient settlements (pictures online) and the second to Etzba (or "finger") cave also in Carmel.
This place was first visited by Michael with his school and he liked it enough to go back there with us.
So, thanks to Michael! pictures are uploaded and ready to viewing!

Jerusalem Half 2010

I've gladly accepted an invitation for a nice training run: Jerusalem Half Marathon 2010. I did treat it as a training run: running every day more than 10km before it and trying to feel comfortable all the way. It still took 1h51min instead of planned 2 hours, so probably the atmosphere had its effect...

The weather was just perfect: not too hot and not too cold (around 10 deg. Celsius), perfect visibility; and Jerusalem is a beautiful city!

BTW, now I have the elevation profile and the route available! see more data at Garmin Connect site.

Beautiful trail running video from GripMaster

I've really enjoyed this video. Done with a very good taste. I embed it here with the permission of the gripmastertrails site owner,
Thanks!

Fun morning run

Just a note re. today's morning run .Feel free to skip it ;-)

The run began from an easy section to the Marina, where I turned North and continued alone along beach, alone -- that is, there were no other runners which was a bit unusual, but whatever. Got over an easy part to Appolonia and negotiated the reconstructed part of the beach.

Judo competitions in Herzeliya

This time it was a second place, well done and deserved. The pictures are at KodakGallery and there is a video of the second fight online (Michael lost it, but fought well even with a sore shoulder -- he pulled a muscle in the beginning of the fight).

Few pictures from Desert Challenge 2009

Yes, I did it again this year. The weather was perfect the landscapes mesmerizing... I was injured... Probably it was not the smartest move on my part but I do not have any regrets...

Few my pictures are at KodakGallery. Those were taken by the event organizers
Many more pictures can be found at Flickr.

Judo Competitions, Nov. 08

Michael has won two (of the two) sparrings and has earned his next gold medal. Videos from the competitions are online (the first and the second fight). The pictures are as usual at KodakGallery.