While I have been running fairly consistently recently, I have not been running much. It has gotten down to a regular once a week, with the occasional, but rare, twice a week.

Being that it is not training season for anything, and because of my schedule I cannot run with the group very often, I have to either go out alone, or find a running partner.

Going alone is something I do, but not often anymore. It is hard to push myself to go out alone, especially in the summer heat. Finding a running partner is tough because most of the runners I know are much faster and stronger runners than I am. I have a guy I go running with, but because of our schedules that usually only works out once a week - Friday morning.

Somehow, we worked out a rare mid-week early morning run for today.

The weather was beautiful, as the terrible heat wave broke yesterday afternoon. This mornign it was cool and the skies were cloudy so we didnt have a strong sun beating down on us.

We drove out to Tzomet Ha'Eila, to get a change of pace. It gets a bit monotonous running the same route over and over again. So we started our run at Tzomet Ha'Eila, and planned to run between 10 and 12km.

We ran down highway 375 towards the satellites. The highway is busy with trucks at 5:30 in the morning, and they fly by at high speeds. At least the shoulder of the road is a decent size...

The run was great, with great weather. When we got to the 5km mark, we decided to extend it a bit before we turn around and run back. We turned off on the road towards Gush Etzion and some local moshavim. We got to the entrance of Moshav Avi'Ezer and turned around.

That road has a nice incline, so we got to strain ourselves on that a bit, and to enjoy the downhill respite on the way back.

Coming back, we concluded our run at exactly 12km.

The hills were beautiful backdropped with the bluish gray cloudy skies. Everything felt very historical, as this is the area where King David fought the Philistines 3200 years ago. Sometimes I can go out on a run and not really notice my surroundings, as I am concentrating on the run. But on a day like today I really noticed the surroundings - the fresh manure piled in the fields waiting to be spread, the browning fields as the summer heat progresses, the beautiful mountains and hills. It really is a beautiful area and a joy to be out running in such beauty.