finished

that's it. I am done. My project is finished.
Day 30 is in the books with a 10km run. Tzvi is a prophet and I now need to get the lottery numbers from him... I will not be running tomorrow night.

I went out undecided how far to run. On the one hand I had plenty of time for a nice long run of 14 or 16km. On the other hand, I consciously intended to run less this week. I was torn the entire way. I did a quick calculation estimate in my head while out there running and estimated that if I would run just 12km I would hit 60km for the week. Simple enough. But did I want to? I kept wavering between 7 and 12. On the one hand, why wake up so early to run just 7km. On the other hand, I wanted to run less and not push for more..

The entire time I wavered and in the end settled on a 10km run, giving me about 58.6km for the week.

I have no idea what my running schedule will be like next week.

good run

day 29, 7km

I didnt think I'd make it through this week running daily, but it is within reach.

At some point I decided to try to hit 30 days consecutive just to make Tzvi seem prophetic.. :-)

moist 10km

day 28, 10km

I went out just hoping to get 7km in before the rain. It was not raining at the time, but had rained through the night and the rain was set to restart soon. Wet, slick, ground. puddles. mud... I figured I'd be happy with 7km.

I started my run and everything was great. Good temperature, good air, fresh. But wet.

As I am approaching 4.5km and was set to turn so I'd finish at 7, I decided I was so enjoying the run that I'd just continue out and try for 10.

At times there was a light rain and some mistiness, but overall it was just great.

the storm is coming but I got day 27 in before it arrived...

After 3 days of 7s, I decided to go for a more significant run today. I ran 10+km.

I could see lightning flashes in the distance, but the storm wasn't here yet, so I felt comfortable taking advantage. The weather was actually very pleasant and it was a nice run.

day 26. 7km.

nothing exciting to talk about.

I think I would have done 10km today had I not been pressed for time. oh well.

exploring 7

Day 25, 7km

I was determined to keep today's run shorter... and I did by a bit.

After last night's expedition into a construction road, I decided today I would run the road from the other side and see why the two paths don't meet up, or how far and difficult it is from one to the other. I figured morning daylight would be better for that than the dark of night.

After running across Kishon, I ran down Tzeelim. The entrance to the construction road is at a turn off from the large traffic circle at the junction with Nahal Chever. I ran up the path - from there it is an uphill run - to the top. The paved road comes to an end just under Nahal Kishon just past the caravan that functions as a sales office for a housing project. From this path one can see the intricate web of paths to the various construction projects happening down there. At the point where the path ends, one can see the end of the other path from last night very close by. But it is much lower down and they do not connect. I could have gone down a steep mount of dirt and rubble and continued on the other path, but I chose to run back down the way I came instead. There was no way to see this path in the dark last night from down below. I am not sure if it is visible even in the light, because of the angles, but definitely not in the dark...

exploring too much mileage

7.6km on day 25.

I planned, and still plan, on running less mileage this week, even if I find a way to continue running daily. 7.6km for tonight was a mistake.

After running acorss Kishon, I was going to run up Hayarqon and then run back home, to get about 6.5km. At the new traffic circle I needed a pit stop so I turned off on the road down to the valley. I thought the road goes all the way through to tzeelim, as there is also a road on the other side. It turned int a bit of an exploration, as the road does not go through, at least I couldn't find it in the dark on the dirt paths the road turned into. So at some point I decided to retrace my steps and go back. Running up and back then gave me far more than I had originally planned.

too much mileage

day 24. 16km.

no runner ever really knows how any given run is going to turn out. All you can really do is give yourself the best chances to do well. Train, keep to a regimen, eat healthy, sleep well, and whatever else it takes, so when you go out you have the best chance to run as well as you might expect. When you run every single day, you really have no idea. Every single day is different. One day you have more strength and one day less. One day you feel fatigued and the next day you feel great.

Today I expected to feel great but my legs really felt tired for a large part of the run.

I ran basically a combination of a few of my regular routes. I ran across Kishon, up and around to Hayarden-Dolev, a circle around Dolev, then down and out on Road 10 (3855), then up 375 for a bit of an extension and then out a short way in the direction of Tzomtet Etziyona for another extension, then back home.

This makes 72.6km for the week. Insane. I am pretty sure next week will be lower mileage.

in the books

8.1km on day 23..

Today was not a great run. Not physically - that was fine. I think it was mental. I just wasn't into the run. wasn't feeling it. I didnt have to force myself outside, but I just wasn't enjoying it while doing it, and wanted to get back home.

I had planned on running 7km, but as I was nearing my turnaround point I decided to keep going a bit to extend it, to sort of give myself the illusion of self-control - even though mentally I wanted it to be over I wanted to show myself that I am in control and would not give in to that. It isn't like the extra 6 or 7 minutes I had to run because of it was so significant, but it is the illusion of control.

Anyways, it is in the books, and that is better than there not being a run in the books..

11.5 on 22

today, for day 22, I ran 11.5km.

Planned for about 10 but felt great and decided to extend it a bit.

Tomorrow will be a shorter run, I presume, to save energy for a potential Friday long run.

draining the swamp

day 21 and running..

This was never the plan. I wanted, at first, to run for the entire week. Then I wanted to extend it to a 2nd week, as I have done before. I was not going to go further than that. Somehow I just felt great and the schedule worked out and I have really been enjoying this, so I am keeping going until I can't do it any longer...

Today was a 10km day. I chose a difficult route and really felt it . After running across Kishon I ran down Tzeelim to the 38 and back up. With some extensions here and there I concluded at 10km. the 3km climb back up Tzeelim was very difficult and slow today.

I think my 7 year old Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS watch is on its last leg. Recently it has been warning me of a low battery very quickly after using it... I did not really pay attention and suspected it wasnt fully charged. I paid attention this time and 7km into the run it is already warning me of a low battery. Now, I know I am slow, but no way does it take me so long to run 7km that the battery on my GPS watch should drain like that!

I also stepped in some mud when making a brief pit stop. So, between the watch and the mud I can call this run the draining of the swamps!

highs and lows

8km. day 20.

I did some stretching last night. My legs felt really sore. After the stretching they felt much better, and this morning's run was decent, in that regard.

It did have its ups and downs. While the run was decent, there were some points early in the run where I just felt like bailing, saying enough is enough, I just wan to go get some more sleep. But then as I approached the 5km mark I flirted with altering my route to one that would give me about 10km or even 11km if I would want it. I decided not to and when I pulled in at just above 8 I was satisfied that I had not, but it was strange to both want out early and to want to go further in the same run...

oops

I mistakenly ran 11km on my 19th consecutive day of running..

How do you mistakenly run 11km?

Well, I went out planning to run between 9-10km, assuming I would be feeling good and strong, and hoping for at least 7-8km considering I had run 8km last night. I planned my route for a 9-10km run, open to changing it as necessary.

The run was actually great. The temperature was good, and I felt strong. No pains, no hesitation, no disturbances.

At about 7km, at the end of Road 10 (3855) I considered running out part of the way towards Tzomet Etziyona to extend my run to 11-12km, because I was havign such a good run, but then decided not to - I needed to get back, and decided to be happy with what would probably turn out to be just a whisker over 10km.

With some minor adjustments that I was not even paying attention to or intending, I ended up finishing at 11km.

Saturday Night Special

consecutive day running #18...

Not a bad run for a Saturday night, but not great. Pace was slow, ala recovery runs, distance was good - 8km.

The run started off poorly. It started with a kink in my right ankle.. as that finally started to disappear, suddenly my left knee started hurting. I even had to stop to shake it out a bit, while considering to bail on the run and give it up. I decided to keep going and see if it would go away, and it did pretty quickly.

I ran across Kishon tonight, and then did a full loop around RBS, totaling 8km.

By the end of the run it was already pretty good. I was feeling good. As I was nearing the finish line I was considering doing another loop, but decided not to. I probably would not be able to run tomorrow morning if I had.

a running window appeared

consecutive day 17 is in the books with a very pleasant 11.5km. This weeks total mileage totals 64.5km - that is marathon training range (the low end), but I am not even close to that..

As you know, I went out early this morning and got rained out. I did not know if I was going to be able to make it up later or not. After running some errands, the weather seemed pretty decent at around 9:45 and I decided to go for it.

I was planning to make it a short run of about 7km, but once I was outside running it just seemed to pleasant I wanted to keep going. I considered replanning it for 14-15, but then decided that was too ambitious, and retooled my route for about 11-12km.

The weather was chilly but dry. The challenges were different running during the day - puddles, mud, more sidewalk because more cars on the roads, the cars on the roads, more people to avoid...

For about the last kilometer I had to run through a light rain, but that was ok. I bumped into another runner and we ran together for part of that last kilometer and a half or so...

And, while out running, I saw a situation of a large tree branch that had fallen on an eruv wire. I called one of the eruv people and described the location and situation. They went out very quickly to fix it. So, I was able to do a good deed in the process! It must have been min hashamayim for me to be able to go out and run just to discover that eruv problem!

rain delay

chances are high that my running streak is going to come to an end today. I woke up to a dry street. Moments after going outside to run a very cold and unpleasant rain begain to come down, so I went back inside.

I'll give it a bit of time and then try again..

still no rain, so still running

I really expected that today would put an end to my streak of  consecutive running days. The forecast was calling for heavy rains on Thursday and Friday, and I expected to wake up to too much rain to run in.

I woke up to clear starry skies and put my running shoes back on and headed out..

7.5km at a slow pace. I am hoping that tomorrow will also be runnable weather and I can get a "long" run in, so I kept it short today, though I had initially planned on 6-6.5km.

This makes it 16 consecutive days running!