intervals

with no group run tonight, I decided to adjust the speed workout tonight. Scheduled was 14km of fartleks, but without a watch and without other people, it is just too much work to keep the times and speeds straight. So I just did estimated intervals.

I basically ran a 1km warmup, then alternated between about 800 meters at a "fast" pace with a few minutes of light jogging. Everything felt great and the run was uneventful.

14km recovery

tonight's 14km run was good, albeit slow. Much better than Friday's failed 8km run. It was a recovery run even though I was not recovering from anything. I seem to be getting slower and slower as the training season progresses.

It was a nice night out to run, though it is getting noticeably cooler and was even cold at certain points.

gotta know when to fold em

You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away And know when to run

Today was not a day for knowing when to run, but to walk away and fold em.

It started off with getting a later start than expected but then continued with what I discovered to bee xtremely low energy. I just couldn't get far without breaks. I just was not feeling this run. My 30 minute mark was at my lwest distance that I can remember, and my 8km mark was at the slowest time I can remember. I knew this was pointless and just gave up. It is a pullback week anyway. Next week I will get back to  routine

missed run

for the first time since training began, I missed a run.

I missed my Wednesday morning medium distance run that was scheduled for 18km.

I had a crazy 2 days of work that required me to be working almost the entire Tuesday night and after just a couple hours of sleep had to be up to continue. I did not have time to run, and I was too tired even if I could find the time.

By Wednesday night, I was too tired to run even though I could have made the time.

Thursday morning I could have run but by then I figured it was just too close to Friday's run.

It happens. Have to be flexible

hill repeat workout

I ran 11.25km of hill repeats tonight. Killer workout. very slow. legs still a bit sore from Friday

9km recovery

This week is a pullback week with lower mileage.

Last night's recovery run was run this morning. My legs were still too sore last night after Shabbos to be able to run it. So this morning I ran the 9km recovery run. It was truly a recovery run at a super slow pace. I was fortunate to be able to move at all, considering the soreness, and specifically considering some tightness in one of my knees.

The run was uneventful, but at the beginning it was really tough, and I thought I might have to be satisfied with a 4km recovery. After 2km or so I realized everything had loosened up and I was moving ok, albeit very slowly but without pain and soreness, so i ran the entire 9.

38km to Rehovot

The group run to Rehovot was scheduled for 34km. I used to love this run, but the past 2 years I have not done it at all.

Back in the day, when I was training for my first marathon, I would get up early and my supportive wife would drive me to a starting point at 4am or whenever, so I could get the distance I needed. Now I don't trouble her any longer with that and if I cannot take the car for whatever reason I just start from my house even if it means I will be running a longer distance than necessary, or find a ride (rare nowadays) or run a different route and not with the group.

The group starting in Bet Shemesh was scheduled for 34km, but because I was running from RBS I was going to get 38km. That is a big jump from my longest run so far of 33km a couple of weeks ago, but I felt I could do it.

Out I went at a bit before 4:30am, timed to finish as closely as possible with the main group at the grassy entrance of the Weizzman Institute in Rehovot before getting a drink at Aroma and then cabs back home.

The new highway, which was lit up, is a vast improvement over running along the old highway. Once on the Highway 44 though it went back to being pitch black at that hour of the morning.night.

At one point I got clipped by a biker. He had no lights on his bike, was wearing a black outfit, and no lights on the road meant my neon shirt and reflective strips weren't helpful at all. I saw him coming at me at the last second and tried to jump out of the way and screamed from being startled and not realizing what it was. We banged shoulders or something. I was ok and I tried to look back and he seemed to be fine, continuing to ride. One of the other runners later told me they saw him as well and nearly crashed into him.

I carried a small water bottle with me, and all was good. I ran through all the stops, occasionally stopping for a pit stop, walking through a water break, but until Mazkeret Batya water stop, about 30km in for me, I basically had just kept running,.

After Mazkeret Batya it was difficult to get started again. Muscles tighten up and it was tough. When I entered Rehovot I was already at 34km and considered taking a bus to the final destination as I already had the scheduled distance. But, I looked around and did not see the other runners at all so I figured I had time and just kept going.  I hit the Weizzman grass and collapsed into it at 38km after a great run.

Runkeeper messed up the time tracking, but it got the distance right. So my actual stats are meaningless (even though I imported them into Endomondo). I dont know why this happened, and it is not the first time. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

My legs are very sore right now

This week closes with 80km on the week. I haven't run this amount in years, if ever.

17km Kishon

This week's mid-week medium distance run was pretty good. I ran it last night and ran it at an intentionally easy and relaxed pace.

My legs seem to feel their best on the Wednesday medium runs and the Friday long runs. Saturday night and Monday night runs seem to be the most difficult for me. I took it easy to make sure my legs would feel good for this Friday's long run which is scheduled for 34km.

I must say I have taken a strong liking for this route on Kishon that gives me 4+km per cycle. Last night I ran 4 cycles of it and ended with 17km. Lots of runners and walkers out in great weather. I still have to decide whether to join the group on Friday's long run, which is scheduled to be a destination run to Rehovot, or to run a local 34km - starting the run in RBS to Rehovot generally gives me a 38km route, so I have to decide whether to run it with the extra distance or stay local..

Recovery and "Speed"

Missed my recaps so I'll just mention my last two runs briefly..

Saturday night after returning from Jerusalem I ran a 14km recovery run around RBS.

Monday afternoon I had a small break in the day and did my speed workout then, running 11km. The tempo run was broken up as 4 cycles of 2000m at 10km race pace, with 4 minutes in between of easy jogging. I must say this was difficult and my legs felt sore and tired. I ran as fast as I could when I was supposed to, but it wasn't fast at all.

22 that is 57

Fridays long run is scheduled for 22km through the Roglit vineyards. The group is actually running 31km because they are assuming many members likely missed some of the runs during the holiday due to schedule conflicts. I kept to the schedule so decided to run the scheduled 22km. However, due to some crazy scheduling I decided to run my 22km at 01:00 (1am) instead of at a more normal hour - the scheduling including a late night trip to Tel Aviv, an early morning Cubs playoff game and an early morning trip to the Kotel for a cousin's tefillin-donning ceremony.

I kept it simple because of the late hour and the dark. I just ran a bunch of cycles around Kishon, including a slight extension past Ayalon on the way back and down Hayarden on the way out.

22km is in the book, with a holiday week of running closing out at 57km.

.

16km

tomorrow's medium run is scheduled for 16km. I did not even wait to see what the group has scheduled for this - I had an opportunity to run it tonight so I took it. Tomorrow's schedule will be difficult. I plan to stay up late tonight (Cubs playoff game followed by some Hoshana Rabba learning), so I have no idea if I would be able to run it tomorrow or not.

My 16km involved a couple of cycles across Kishon, up through RBS C and through the streets there, down the other entrance and back up to RBS A via Tzeelim, then up Hayarqon-Hayarden-Dolev and back.

Good run, good air, streets were busy but only a few runners/walkers...

11km workout

11km speed workout today employing 15 cycles of 150meter strides, tempered by 600meter regular running in between each.

I just finished it. While I did not count the cycles, I did a very good job of estimating the distances and checking my gps tracker and alternating speeds at the right time. I dont know what speeds I ran, but that isn't the point - I ran my 150s at full speed, and a relaxed speed at the 600s.

As a light rain is expected this morning, the morning air was very humid - much worse than it has been the past few weeks...

8km recovery

The weeks starts with a recovery run to the tune of 8km after Friday's crazy 33km run.

The run is in the books and I felt better than expected. No real pain and only some slight soreness. EVerything felt good. From what I see on the schedule, this is a down week with less mileage, so it should be relatively easy

33km!

today was tough. I really wanted to run with the group - 32km to Jerusalem - but I knew I am not yet ready for that. It is really a fabulous and fun run. But, besides for much of it being on a trail in the dark, and I once before twisted my ankle on this run, I am also way too slow right now, and I would be running 32km in the dark all by myself, on a route that I might also make a wrong turn on and not have enough water at the water stops (it has happened before)...so I decided to run local instead.

I planned to run a few cycles of Kishon, up to Dolev with a few cycles of Dolev and then out on the Highways 10 and 375 to finish the distance I needed.

For water on these local long runs, I put out a couple of small bottles near my house, which I pass on my Kishon sections. Then when I go up and out, I carry them with me and drop them where I want to for the way back and for other cycles.

Today, as I was running Kishon I decided to just keep doing that. Why bother dealing with figuring out distances and where to put water - just keep running cycles of Kishon. It gives good distance, and I could mix it up a bit by running on opposite sides of streets on different cycles, and I had water at a perfect spot. So I did that. I ran 9 cycles of Kishon, giving my about 28km, and then decided to go up and finish with a run up Hayarqon, Hayarden Dolev and back, finishing at 32.5km.

It was tough, and slow, but I made it all the way through pretty well.

The one problem was my Runkeeper got messed up. Right after I started my run I had to stop for something and Runkeeper auto-paused, as it is supposed to. Unfortunately it did no restart, and I only noticed it about 1+km in when I checked to see why it was not alerting me. Still a bit later, in the range of about 2.5km in, it still had not alerted me so I checked it again and saw that it had not advanced at all. So, I turned it off and switched to Endomondo which did a good job. So, my run concluded on the clock at 30.5, but adding about 2.5km to that gives me 33km or so for the run. All the stats are worthless because of the lost 2.5km and for whatever reason (I have to check the settings) Endomondo did not auto-pause when I stopped for water or pee breaks.

added: I forgot to include the calculation of the week's total mileage. I ran about 71km in total last week. insane

16 Wednesday

I decided not to run with the group today because they were starting later than I wanted to. So I ran a local 16km through the streets of RBS... I got up early and went out at 5am for 16km. 3 times across Kishon, up Hayarqon, Hayarden, to Dolev, and then back, with a slight detour behind the new DOna buildings at Haraden Hayarqon..

a bit slower than expected but a good run. Probably better for a slow run today so I'll be strong enough for a long run on Friday

10.35

Tonight was a speed workout but the big boys weren't there so the group that showed up just wanted to do a regular run. I tried to run with some seed at times but it just did not work as my legs were sore form yesterday's run, and tonight's route had some hills in it, so it was basically a regular run.

For some reason my Endomondo Activity Assistant stopped working so I have to transfer my details from Runkeeper to Endomondo even more manually than before. What a pain.

Anyways, 10.35km in just over an hour... not bad

12km

this morning's run was 12km. I had no idea how I would feel running the morning after the Yom Kippur fast, but everything was clickign and I felt great. I ran mostly hard and my speed was faster than my norm. I ran twice across Kishon and then up Hayarqon and Hayarden to Dolev and back home. Felt great all the way through.

The early mornings are starting to get really chilly. I like it.