Seas the Day:  A Running Club

The club was founded a few years ago by Mike and Elie. We run in Long Beach and meet every Sunday morning at 8:00 at the corner of Orizaba and Ocean Blvd. We run between three and six miles and have coffee at Polly’s after the run. In general we have good conversation and we all like and tolerate each other. If you’re a valued member of the club, you’ll receive a free breakfast sandwich made by Elie every second or third Sunday. There are no membership dues to join the club. We certainly don’t accept slackers and if you habitually arrive late, don’t show up or are critical of the club, you’ll be dropped. The six current members are friendly, even the cofounder Elie.  On Sunday, July 12th after our run, the members received a free Ironman watch and a sandwich—a perk for being in the mighty club.

Bios of Members

Tammy: Although I am a huge proponent of exercise, i.e. going to the gym or walking, I have never been athletic. I even failed PE in high school and was always the last kid to be chosen for a team. So, I have always shied away from any competitive sport. However, a little over a year ago, a dear friend, knowing that I am very competitive in everything else I do in life, encouraged me to run a 5k. Because I am currently on a life-path of achieving empowerment, I accepted the challenge. First it was completing a 5k and then a 10k which encouraged me to strive for bigger and begin training to run a half marathon. Though, through a recent self-discovery, I have found that I hate when things do not come easy to me and running does not come easy to me. I do not love it, I am not even sure I like it, but I absolutely do feel empowerment when I get out there and make it happen. I will run my first half marathon in October, 2020 and look forward to what I will feel when I cross the finish line.

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Taylor: The youngest and admittedly not the fastest one in the group (yet). My legs have been dragging me around since I was a kid handing my dad a stopwatch, asking him to time me as I said “look how fast I can go” and sprinted through every grass patch I found. Those sprints then turned into fifteen years of soccer. After those days came to an end I’ve flirted on and off with fitness over the years, one of my favorites being powerlifting. But alas, I find I always turn back to running when my mind needs peace. The ocean helps too (moved 500 miles to Long Beach for it). So, naturally, this club of competitive scholars, full of heart and wit, have become a favorite part of my week... while we all do our best to “seas the day!”

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Ezra: Competitive sports in junior high and high school always appealed to me because I was born into a traditional Jewish family that raised us to compete for success. I was destined to follow the same path of my older brother in running track and wrestling, since I had to prove that I could do it better. After studying philosophy in my undergrad years, my competitive nature was mitigated by a longing to be spiritually content. And, after a long career as a clinical pharmacist, I’m convinced that the best way to get high with your friends is to “seas the day” on endorphins every weekend.

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Mike: I wasn’t athletic as a kid, and sadly, wasn’t really encouraged to do sports. My first experience with little league was after other kids had been playing ball for years, and it didn’t go well. Neither when I went out for soccer in high school, and immediately suffered a compound leg fracture, which did keep me out of Vietnam. I took up running in my 40’s, and became hooked on the lifestyle, graduating from 5K to 10K to half marathon and then triathlon. I met my dear friend Elie at the local pool training, and he and I have logged countless sweaty hours exercising together. In real life, I’m a forensic appraiser, meaning that I am mired in the fascinating world where real estate intersects with litigation . . somebody has to do it, I suppose.

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Elijah: I’ve been running about 25 years and my athletic life began in junior high school where I played football, followed by wrestling and track in high school. I wrestled and competed in Judo tournaments in college. In 1997 I did my first sprint triathlon and caught the triathlon bug. I’ve made being fit a lifestyle commitment and enjoy the multi-disciplinary nature of triathlon by swimming, running and cycling a few days a week. I met my good friend Mike swimming at the pool at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base. I’m married to a wonderful lady named Nora, got two great kids Elise and Diane. I am a Clinical Psychologist and I run a psychiatric rehabilitation program in a 97 bed residential care facility for folks living with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders. I’ve also been teaching as an adjunct at Univ. of Redlands for 28 years and at Southern California University of Health Sciences for nine years.

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Gideon: I am new to this amazing group, but felt right at home after meeting these awesome people. I have always been competitive and wanted to keep myself in shape. I joined the Marines back in 2013 and found my connection with physical fitness. The military drills routine into your life until it becomes your life. Now I am out of the Marines and I still wake up at 6am every morning. I’m glad I joined this group because it’s nice to be apart of something and to share experiences with people who are motivated and goal driven. I look forward to seeing everyone in our club accomplish their goals!! My fitness goals include training for my first marathon.  Finally -- I was just admitted to the two year dental hygiene program at Cerritos College. 

Mike and Elie at Hancock Triathlon, 2016

Mike & Elie at Hancock Triathlon, 2016

Elie and his brother Ezra at Long Beach

Half Marathon, 2019

Mike, Yvonne and Elie at Redondo Beach Super Bowl weekend 5K, 2019

Elie and his parents Esther and Jules at

Oceanside Half Ironman

The Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

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Aerobic exercise is considered by most experts to be the single most important component of fitness. Studies have shown that people who do regular continuous exercise will live longer, have a greater work capacity, and will decrease their risk of coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes. Aerobic fitness can be defined as the ability of the body’s cardiovascular and muscular systems to provide the necessary energy to sustain activity that uses the large muscle groups over an extended period of time. To reach aerobic fitness, a person must engage in continuous activity like jogging, walking, cycling, stair climbing, rowing, or swimming at an intensity level you can maintain for at least 30 minutes, three to seven days per week. For individuals just starting their exercise program, remember to start slow and gradually increase intensity and duration. Beginning exercisers can start with 15-20 minutes of a low intensity activity, like easy walking, three times per week.

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As your fitness level increases, first increase the duration and then the intensity of your workouts.

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Here are some of the many benefits of aerobic exercise:

Increases the efficiency of respiration
 

Improves blood volume, distribution, and delivery to muscles Improves cardiovascular efficiency

Increases the stroke volume, or the amount of blood pumped from the ventricle during each contraction of the heart Increases cardiac output, or the volume of blood pumped by the heart each minute
 

Decreases resting heart rate
 

Improves the condition and efficiency of breathing muscles

Improves the efficiency of movement
 

Improves the body’s ability to use fat as an energy source
 

Improves body composition by decreasing body fat
 

Strengthens muscles
 

Strengthens ligaments, tendons and bones
 

Helps decrease the risk of developing coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes Helps decrease anxiety and stress