Easy Week, Sendai Half Result, Birthday

Week of May 21 ~ 27

Ran: 0/0/8.2/0/0/0/24 - 32.2km / 20 mi.

Monday
Rest
Ran a 5k ekiden race yesterday, after a Half the week before, so think it best to rest for two days.

Speaking of the Sendai Half, I found out I won my age group. (It only took them 10 days to post the age group results!) Out of 598 men. So that was nice. I beat one guy by 11 seconds. I remember passing a guy who looked to be about 60 sometime in the last km, so I guess that was him.
One of the delivery services has been trying to deliver something to me for 3 days, but I haven't been home, nor has my wife, so I guess that is my prize.

Tuesday
Rest

Wednesday
7:30pm - club track workout.
1200/1200/1000/1000/800/800
4:24/4:20/3:34/3:37/2:59/3:00
Interval: 200m jog, then walk, abt. 3 mins.
Felt fairly good, worked pretty hard the first 4.
Weather: 21C/70F

Today was also the first day of the Far East HS track meet, at the Yokota Air Force base (about an hour by car). So I was standing and walking for a good part of 7 hours.

Thursday
Rest - sore.
Second day of the meet. Our boys finished 2nd and girls 1st, out of about 20 schools. Lots of our kids had great performances.

Oh, and my 65th birthday. No one, including myself, believes I'm that old.
This puts me in a new age group in the US, so it would be nice to run a big race next fall or spring. Maybe Boston....

Friday
11:30 - Gym workout.
Rest.

Saturday
Drank way too much last night. Can't even think about running. Went to watch the Namban Rengo (club) Beer Mile, always a fun event. If you are watching.

Sunday
4:15 - 24k in 2:01:06 @5:00/k
26:55/25:00/24:18/24:45/20:06
Warmed up after 5k. Quads started hurting after 14k. You'd think the legs would be fresh after 3 days rest, but maybe 3 days rest is too much.... Quads and left butt (but not hamstring) pretty sore the last 6k, but held the pace fairly well and picked up the last k from 5:05 to 4:50, as practice for trying to run faster when in pain. Marathon mental training.
Weather: 24C/75F, 20%, sunny
Weight: 62.2 (lots of food, not much running).

Next week will be the club 5,000m time trial on Wednesday, which I will run easily, because the next night is the twice-a-year big multi-club time trial. I'll run that one hard.

Then from Saturday, June 2nd, I'll start my summer program. The theme this year is: All hard, no easy, work your butt off.
The program will be:
Wednesday - 10k. Intervals on the track. Run them as fast as possible. No cruising. This is speed work!
Thursday - A 30k run I'm calling the Caballo Blanco run. Get off my usual marked course and just run out about 15k in various directions, then back. Use the garmin, but don't take 5k splits, don't pay attention to time. Run as you feel, but basically a moderate pace. Just a nice free-form run for the enjoyment of running.
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Total 20k very hard. Choice of various workouts, including marathon pace for 15k, half marathon pace for 10k, 5k x 3 at half pace, 3k x 6 at half pace, 10k of hills.
Fast, sustained paces is what I did not do last summer.
Sunday - 30k at a hard pace. Probably progressive. Running the second half as hard as possible. Maybe up it to 35k occasionally (although that's pretty tough in the heat).
Monday, Tuesday - Rest.
So 4 hard days, no easy days, but 3 days of rest. I want to try it and see how it goes.
Oh, and no sweets! Of any kind. The other theme is: lean and mean by autumn.

Easy Week with Fun Ekiden at the End

Week of May 14 ~20

Ran: 0/0/15.4/9.6/0/6/9 — 40km / 25 mi.  3:36

Monday
Rest after Half Marathon on Sunday

Tuesday
Rest

Wednesday
3:00 — Easy 7k (approx) with two girls on the track team.
7:30 — Club track workout.
600/800/1000/1200/1000/800/600
2:20/3:01/3:38/4:36/3:40/3:06/2:22
Only 1.2k warmup. Felt stiff on first 600 and 800, then good on the 1000, ok on the 1200, real good on the 1000, then tired.
Weather: 23C/73F

Thursday
3:00 — 4.8k School to Fuchu track and back at easy pace.

Friday
11:30 — Gym workout
Rest day

Saturday
6:30pm — 6k very easy in 34:00.

Sunday
Mari Tanigawa Ekiden (she's a famous Japanese marathoner, now retired).
4-person teams, each person running 5K. The club entered 3 teams. It's a very large (Men's and Mixed team races, with about 600 teams each), but not high-level, more low-key and friendly, ekiden.
I ran my team's first leg in 18:53, which was not bad considering I had basically no warmup and it was a hot day. Legs were ok (recovered from the Half), I felt pretty good and worked hard.
Our team finished 43rd, our A team was 21st.
Beer and kebab afterward while cheering for the other runners, it was a fun day.
Weather: 26C/79F (approx. - anyway, it was hot in the sun)
Weight: 61.1kg

Next week will also be mostly easy, then the following week, or maybe from the coming weekend, I'll start my new hard summer program, which I'll tell you about next week.

1:27:31 Half...Not Bad....

Week of May 7 ~ 12

Ran: 10.8/0/8.8/3.3/10/0/21.1  54km / 33.5 mi.  4:26

Monday
3:00 — 10.8 River Run with varsity girls.
53:08. Out: 27:47 @5:09. In: 25:20 with last .7k slower. About 4:35/k pace.
Felt ok.
Weather: 25C/77F, sunny

Tuesday
Business trip, but planned to rest anyway (race on Sunday).

Wednesday
7:30pm — Club track workout. 1000/1600/800/800/800/800
4:12/6:17/3:21/3:24/3:27/3:30
Ran the 1600 @ 3:56 pace and cruised the rest easily. Miserable conditions.
Weather: 17C/63F, rain, windy, chilly

Thursday
3:00 — Thunderstorm, so kids could not run outside. Just ran 1.5k warmup, then 60m x 10 x 3 in the parking garage. A good "getting the legs to move faster than usual" workout.

Friday
1:00 — Gym workout.
5:30 — 10k in 53:41. 28:27/25:14.
The 5k coming back I ran 500 pickup, 500 easy x 5.
500 pickups started at 5:00/k pace and went down to 4:10.
Quads were a bit stiff, but felt ok.

Saturday
Bullet Train  2 hours north of Tokyo to Sendai, up where the tsunami hit. However, it only affected the coastal area, not the main part (most) of Sendai. Sightseeing in Sendai, which is a very nice city, lots of greenery and wide streets with green strips in the middle.
14 club members went, so it was a fun two-day trip.

Sunday
Sendai Half Marathon. A big Half, 8,000 men and 2,000 women, with two Japan-based Kenyans and Olympic marathoner Fujiwara and popular marathon hero Kawauchi. A Kenyan won in 1:01:30, with Fujiwara 2nd.
It was a good race — flat course and nice weather. Actually rather warm at about 18C/64F, and a bit windy. But I prefer warm to cold.
I ran 1:27:31, which was pretty good considering my lack of mileage over the past two months. This is a pace of 4:09/km. I had assumed 4:00 was out of the question, and anything under 4:10 would be good, so I was satisfied. Also, I beat club rival James Midgely, passing him at 15.5k, so that was enjoyable.
5k splits were: 20:50 (lost 30 sec. the first 2k because stupid Japanese races start track federation members - lots of slow people - in the front)/20:37/20:16/21:08 and 4:31 for last 1.1k.
Wore light 160g AdiZero Pro shoes and got my weight down to a bit over 61kg, so was not too heavy. And unlike James, I didn't drink any beer on Saturday....

Oh, no age group results were posted, nor have been posted online yet. Like many Japanese races, they do not understand how to use the chip data and website properly. But with 8,000 men, there were probably some quite fast guys in each age group.

Will take it easy next week to recover and because I will run a 5k in an ekiden on Sunday. A "semi-serious" ekiden.

The Namban Rengo runners:

Good Runs, Nice Weather and Allyson Felix

Week of April 30 ~ May 6

Ran: 15/13.8/10.2/4.8/20/0/10 — 73.8km / 46mi.   6:23

Monday
3:15 — 15k in 1:11:56 @4:48/k
26:34/24:45/20:35 @5:19/4:57/4:06
Stiff and sore first 4k, 2nd 5k was ok, pretty smooth, 3rd 5k I just pushed all the way.
Weather: 22C/72F, 50%, cloudy
Weight: 61.7kg

Tuesday
11:00 — Gym workout
3:00 — 4.8k easy to and from Fuchu track.
600m x 5 in 2:11/10/10/8/9 (walk 1:45)
About 87 per 400m, which is Michelle Stolle's 1500 pace.
Good pace with minimal rest - the 4th and 5th were a bit harder.
Weather: 22C/72F, 50%, cloudy

Weight: 62.3kg

Wednesday

7:30 — Club track workout.

1000m x 6 in 4:03/3:53/53/54/55/57 (jog 200m in 2', walk 1')

Rain, puddles and chilly temp not conducive to good running, but managed a good workout.

Weather: 15C/59F, rain

Thursday

3:00 — 4.8k easy run to the Fuchu track. Just watched the workout and rode back in the van. Legs very tired.

Friday

11:30 — Gym workout.

3:30 — 20k in 1:37:20 @4:52/k

26:02/25:33/24:02/21:42 @ 5:12/06/4:48/20

Felt surprisingly good. 26:02 first 5k means my legs felt pretty good. Sore last 5k but not too bad.

Weather: 18C/64F, 70%, sun-cloud-lt rain

Weight: 61.9kg

Saturday

TELL (Tokyo English Life Line) charity race, of which I am the co-race director. Had about 700 people, beautiful weather.

Sunday

9:30am — 10k very easy

Afternoon — Went to the Golden Grand Prix track meet in Kawasaki, Tokyo. Allyson Felix was the biggest star - she won the 100m despite a poor start. There were a few good Americans, lots of Australians, and a good 3000m steeplechase with 3 elite Kenyans and 2 Ethiopians. It was fun to watch, even with some rain toward the end.