Feeling Better....

Week of April 16 ~ 22

Ran: 10.8/4/15.4/12.6/20/0/15 — 77.8km / 48 mi.  6:44

Soreness in hamstrings and butt is abating, due I think to 2~4 15-min sessions per day on the massage cushion (can be painful) and the rubber tube exercise recommended by Chris Parry. This involves getting a length of rubber tubing and tying it around a firm support (I put it around a sofa leg), then putting it around your ankle and kicking out against the resistance, then relaxing the leg completely. Do this about 25 times, a few times a day. This is supposed to be very good for the hamstrings.

Monday
3:00 — 10.8k River Run (seems to be 10.8 rather than the 11k I thought).
51:48 @4:48/k. Out at abt. 5:00/k, then back at 4:30/k with last 800m easy.
Weather: 15C/59F, cloudy
Weight: 62.5kg

Tuesday
11:30 — gym workout
3:00 — Thunder and lightning canceled the track workout (American high schools do not allow kids to be outside when it is lightning. You may have heard of a New Jersey state meet in which a kid was about to break the state 3200m record and they stopped the race with one or two laps to go.) So just ran 2k in the large, covered parking facility, then 100m x 20.

Wednesday
3:00 — 4.4k. Easy run to and from track near school for team workout, which I only helped with timing.
7:30 — Club track workout. 1200/800/1000/800/1000/800/400
A new workout I somehow came up with. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, it was ok.
Ran 4:40/2:58/3:44/3:00/3:43/2:59/83. Rest jog/walk 200m in 2:30-3:00.
Afterwards, 6 x 100m barefoot strides on grass.
First hard interval workout in a long time. Nice to be running 3:44 again. Not much soreness, but felt heavy...had to really push all the way.
Weather: 16C/61F

Thursday
3:00 — 4.8k to/from Fuchu track in 25:44/23:26. 300m x 4 in 66/64/60/64, then 200m x 6 easy.
Weather: 16C/61F again, which is not very warm. In fact, it's rather chilly. You would think it would feel warm after the winter, but once it gets up to 20C, then goes back to 16, it feels chilly. Relativity!
Weight: 62.1kg

Friday
4:30 — 20k in 1:39:33 @4:58/k
27:30/26:24/23:33/22:05 @ 5:30/5:17/4:42/4:25 (last 2k: 4:15/16)
Felt ok. Planned to pick up the last 10k and especially the last 5k. Some soreness the last 5k, but I ignored it.
Weather: 15C/59F, 50%, cloudy
Weight: 62.0kg

Saturday
ASIJ track meet. Top boy 800/1500/3000: 2:04/4:21/9:15 — good, but not great. He also anchored the 4 x 400m.
Top girl: 1500/3000: 5:23/11:32 — pretty good.

Sunday
12:00 — 15k in 1:25:26. Took it easy at about 5:40/k.
Weather: 12C/54F, 60%, cloudy.

Preparing (more or less, mostly less) for the Sendai Half Marathon on May 13. Sendai is up where the tsunami was. Needless to say, this race was canceled last year, so I think they are looking forward to a nice event this year. We have about 12 club members going.