Long, long run.

Today, the last day of the New Year holidays, was a very pleasant 40k run with 14 people. We started at Hanakoganei station (1.5k from my house), ran up the bicycle path to Tama-ko lake (7k), all the way around Tama-ko (13k), back again around the lake (13k) and back to the station (7k).

5 people ran twice around, the rest ran once around (27k), except for two who ran halfway back around (abt. 35k). Martin and Mika T ran some extra, doing 43k and 45k, respectively.

On the way back, Martin took off after 2k, Mika and Rie took off after 4k, or rather Sase-san and I slowed down from 5:40 pace to a more reasonable 5:50-6:00 pace and ran back together.

My legs were very sore and tired the last 6k...hamstrings, quads, everywhere.

Recovery was aided by a dip in the Hanakoganei onsen (400m from my house), followed by beer and soba.

40k.  3:54:15 (1:56:45 / 1:57:30) 4 long stops, 3 or 4 very short stops.

Time: 10:15

Weather: start 8°, finish 12°, sunny

Shoes: 430g

Week: 84k   7:33

This run felt harder than the 40k I did two weeks ago (which was after a harder Saturday workout), which I guess means that tiredness is accumulating in my legs. I think next week should be easier. Probably the 8 weeks until the marathon should be, on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being easiest): 3, 5, 5, 3, 5, 4, 2, 1.