A Mexico to Israel via London Layover Airport Interval Runaround

November 13, 2013 by |Blog » Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean » Travel|Comments (34)

To start, let’s just recap the last two days. Or at least, I think it’s been two days:

Sunday 10AM France Time: Departed, connected in London, flew to Mexico City.
Sunday 6:45PM Mexico Time: Landed in Mexico City after 11hrs in the air.
Monday: 5:45AM Mexico Time: Up, getting presentations ready for the day
Monday: 9AM till 5:45PM: Actively presenting, pretty much non-stop
Monday: 9PM Mexico Time: Flight departs back for London
Tuesday: 12:35PM London Time: I land here in London, after 10hrs in the air.

Which, to be clear, is only the beginning of this trip. The first two days of eight days.  Obviously, given my schedule in Mexico, I saw very little of it.  Though this is hardly my first time in Mexico, you can look back for previous Mexico City posts. This time I had to settle for simply heading outside my hotel late Sunday night to check out the closed streets around the Reforma (also of note, every Sunday they close down some 60 kilometers of streets for riding/running/etc…).

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And, it happened that in front of my hotel there was a massive park with all sorts of art projects setup in it:

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And, food. A market of sorts, mostly food focused.  I just got a churro and called it done.  It was pretty awesome of course, since it was filled with chocolate.

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Monday was of course packed with work related stuff, ultimately ending up with me in a taxi in traffic for 90 minutes getting back to the airport.

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Thus, the sum total of my Mexico City trip.

Now I find myself in London, or rather, the area around Heathrow Airport – where even on the finest of days the inefficiency can be mind-boggling (keep in mind I pass through here about every other week).

In my case I’ve got a 10hr and 20 minute layover until my flight later this night onwards to the Middle East.  And, in making the most of my time, my coach has scheduled my final hard workout before I taper for next weekend’s marathon: A 6 x 1-Mile Interval workout.

In order to facilitate getting work done, along with a place to try and catch up with sleep ahead of my second redeye flight in as many days, I’ve got a hotel room for a few hours at a nearby hotel.  It’s here that I’m starting my run from.

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I scoped out a few options using a combination of Garmin Connect and Google Maps.  Ultimately I just needed to find a single 1-mile section that was clean and repeatable.  No traffic lights or any other potential interval-failure points. It looked like there was a nice section just a bit south of the end of one of the runways, so, off I went.

The initial part of the run was just some random industrial area around the hotel – not terribly exciting.

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Then, I took a short diversion on a bike path which would get me under and then over some roadway/highway mess.

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The path did have some pretty trees on it:

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After that was complete I was about 2-miles in and neared my interval area.  The start of the intervals would be almost exactly below the flight path of the departing aircraft.

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In the case above, it was a narrow-body plane that took off quite a bit earlier down the runway.  Whereas the 747’s that took-off above were much closer to me.

The out and back was in between two reservoirs, along a little bike path.  I’m not entirely clear why the line is painted in a 2/3rds configuration versus a half and half configuration.

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It was plenty long to get in a mile each direction – so I just went back and forth.

It became pretty clear by the end of the 2nd mile-repeat (now some 4+ miles into the workout) that the redeye was taking it’s toll.  My HR was a good 10-15bpm higher than normal for this pace, and it was just darn hard.  So, I ended up capping it at 4x instead of 6x.

Below, me taking my 2-minute rest period as planes flew overhead.

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Randomly, I did see this:

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Here’s what my route looked like – not terribly exciting, but, it was fairly efficient.  Trying to run the perimeter road at Heathrow would have been inefficient for mile-repeats (though fine for a long run).

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With my run complete, I spent time catching up on work, sleeping a bit, and then ultimately I’ve found myself back at the airport, again.

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Now, I’m getting ready to head to the gate.  Which, brings me to the current timetable, just like the start of the post:

Tuesday: 10:30PM London Time: Flight leaves London for Tel Aviv, Israel (well, it’s supposed to, it’s delayed)
Wednesday: 5:25AM Israel Time: I land in Tel Aviv after a painfully short 4hrs and 55mins in the air.
Wednesday: 9:00AM Israel Time: I present, for some 8 hours.
Wednesday: 5:01PM Israel Time: I hope and pray things end on time so I can fall asleep near immediately.

That is all, and we’re just half-way through the week.  Time-permitting, I’ve got a review or two on the docket as well. Thanks for reading!

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34 Comments

  1. Samuel
    November 13, 2013 at 2:28 am #1

    Been doing as much trans continent travels for work last weeks (DFW/HKG/Montreal/London/Barcelona/CDG) so I know the red eye feeling (but i didn’t worked out but got drunk instead :( )

    Reply
  2. Remco Verdoold
    November 13, 2013 at 3:20 am #2

    Hi Ray,
    How many hours per year you spend in a plane and airport?

    Reply
  3. Coach Dion
    November 13, 2013 at 3:37 am #4

    I really hope your marathon goes well, with the effort you have put in to find places to train as you pop around the world…

    Reply
  4. Milt MacFarlane
    November 13, 2013 at 4:29 am #5

    Hahaha they only give you 17 hours for an Ironman my friend, that’s an effort, good luck for a meaningful marathon [after all it’s only practice]…the horses thing is called a “gig” looks like a good gig, but always wonder why a band would call it a gig as well..guess it is stupid language English

    Reply
  5. doron leibovitz
    November 13, 2013 at 6:19 am #7

    Hi ray ‘

    if u are still in tel aviv i will be more than glad to show u around
    best regard

    doron from tel aviv

    Reply
  6. Uri N.
    November 13, 2013 at 9:07 am #8

    Where are you speaking in Tel Aviv?
    Anywhere interesting?

    Reply
  7. yevgenis
    November 13, 2013 at 9:26 am #9

    You welcome

    Reply
  8. Ohad
    November 13, 2013 at 9:32 am #10

    I work in TLV. Keep in touch.

    Reply
  9. Pete
    November 13, 2013 at 9:50 am #11

    Your flight and work schedule is mad and your ability to still get in your workouts never fails to impress. Makes me take a long look at myself when I can’t be bothered to run because I finish work half an hour late!

    Keep it coming Ray! :)

    Reply
  10. Dan
    November 13, 2013 at 10:05 am #12

    if you need a place to stay it will be an honor to have you. also be glad to assist in any way you may need.

    Reply
  11. David
    November 13, 2013 at 10:12 am #13

    If you are in Tel Aviv On Saturday there is a very nice 15K race Taking place on Saturday morning. We would be more than honored if you would attend.
    This is the link to the race: link to events.shvoong.co.il.
    It’s being held By Zehava Shmueli, who represented Israel in the 1984 Olympics running the Marathon
    Have a nice stay and let me know if you are interested in the race – I will take care of the details.

    Reply
  12. Mark
    November 13, 2013 at 10:16 am #14

    What, no holiday Monday? That sucks, especially living in France! You’re almost at ground zero for all things Remembrance Day related, and you had to be in Mexico instead… The Nov 11th armistace was signed in Compiegne and the war truly ended in July with the Treaty of Versailles signed, naturally, in Versailles
    If WWI would have taken place in North America, I know the next 4 years would be full of activities, being the 100th anniversary of the war (1914-18).

    Reply
  13. AssafP
    November 13, 2013 at 10:30 am #15

    Simple, post your whereabouts in Israel here – state a time and place and I assure you people will come to say hello…
    If in Tel Aviv, ALOT of nice running locations.

    Reply
  14. Gunnar
    November 13, 2013 at 11:09 am #16

    Heathrow run around…..you’re not in Greece anymore that’s for sure! No matter how dull the run around surroundings its still fun to see and hear about how you’re squeezing the training in. Good work!

    Reply
  15. John
    November 13, 2013 at 1:12 pm #17

    Have you ever thought about switching to Delta/AirFrance/Skyteam?

    Reply
  16. Gingerneil
    November 13, 2013 at 2:19 pm #20

    Ray,
    The split in the path is for cyclists vs pedestrians rather than a directional thing like a road. Cyclists get more room… Although on a path like that there’s not much point in the line!

    Reply
  17. Simonr
    November 13, 2013 at 2:36 pm #21

    What marathon are u training for?

    Reply
  18. morey000
    November 13, 2013 at 2:44 pm #22

    business travel sounds so exciting… until you have to do it.

    Reply
  19. JohnDoe
    November 13, 2013 at 3:36 pm #23

    +1 for a close hello from Tel-Aviv…

    Reply
  20. SimonNZ
    November 14, 2013 at 2:42 am #24

    ooh that last bit looks brutal – short redeye travelling the wrong way (losing time) followed by an all day presentation! At least Israel time isn’t too far off European – a couple of hours ahead? Hope it went well and 5:01pm Wed came quick enough for you!

    Look forward to a Tel Aviv runaround some time soon. Thanks always for the running inspiration!

    Reply
  21. matan
    November 14, 2013 at 2:51 am #25

    it would great to see you on this race: link to events.shvoong.co.il with us.

    Reply
  22. Ray Maker
    November 14, 2013 at 9:11 am #26

    Hey all (locales)!

    We’d (The Girl and I) definitely be up for doing something Friday evening – perhaps a food related get together (dinner, drinks/etc…). Any takers? I’ll ping all of those who’ve commented thus far as well.

    Reply
  23. Jelle
    November 14, 2013 at 12:22 pm #29

    The 2/3rds path line separation thing is to separate the cyclists from the pedestrians. Somewhere along the route (perhaps faded over the years) you may have seen the universal bicycle and pedestrian symbols.

    It’s to keep the crowds apart, you see. :-)

    Reply
    • Ray Maker
      November 14, 2013 at 7:25 pm #30

      Hi All-

      Friday evening, The Girl and I will be hanging out at either Dallal or Suzanna – which are directly across from each other. It’ll depend a little bit on getting a reservation for Suzanna (for a group, thus definitely note if you’re looking to stop by) – which appears to having some nice outdoor seating. We’ll be there from 7:30PM and would love to meet anyone who wants to stop by! Dallal has a bit of a bar that we can also meet up at.

      Here’s links to the two, based on recommendations of a bunch of co-workers based here:

      link to tripadvisor.com

      link to tripadvisor.com

      Looking forward to seeing folks there!

      Reply
  24. Paco
    November 14, 2013 at 8:11 pm #31

    Manta Ray at Tel Aviv beach deserve a good seafood dinner with the girl and also that beach deserve a run from international hotels area (Hilton Tel Aviv) to Jaffa port, you will see all foreigners, locals, synagogue, mosque, …..

    have a nice time there

    paco

    Reply
  25. Uri Nizan
    November 15, 2013 at 6:18 am #32

    Hi Ray, It’ll be a pleasure to met with you tonight.
    See you there.

    Reply
  26. OperationOne
    November 15, 2013 at 8:17 am #33

    ready for an eleven thousand bunch of runners? :D
    link to firenzemarathon.it

    Reply
  27. Dudi
    November 17, 2013 at 5:02 pm #34

    Welcome to Israel :) I Hope you will have fun . enjoy Tel Aviv.

    Reply