Feeling Pretty Good

Week of Jan 21 ~ 27

84.6km / 52.5 mi.
Started my program of 2 on - 1 off - 1 on - 1 off - 1 on - 1 off.
In other words, 4 runs a week, 3 days off. All runs are hard efforts. It seems good, both for giving the knee sufficient rest, and having fresh legs for hard workouts.

Monday
Rest

Tuesday
11:30 - Gym workout, inc. 10' on elliptical.
1:30 - 25k - 5k x 5 w/ 100m walk breaks.
5k Pace: 5:48/36/18/17/19
Felt ok, good the first 15k, legs tired the last 5k.
Temp: 8C/46F, clear
Weight: 59.6kg! Legacy of the norovirus.

Wednesday
1:30 - 10k very easy (28:24/28:59)
7:30 - 9.6k on the track. 1000 x 3, 800 x 2, 600, 400
4:35/19/14/3:23/22/2:36/1:40 (200m walks in between)
Knees felt fine when running "fast.". Quads were very sore, but that's good, I need to work on strengthening my quads.
Temp: 6C/43F
Weight: 59.6kg

Thursday
Rest

Friday
1:00 - Gym workout
2:30 - 18k (4k WU, 4k x 3 at MP 4:22, if possible)
5k @ 5:42, then 4k x 3 in 4:28/30/28/21, 4:19/24/29/22, 4:22/26/29/31
Had to work hard, but did ok. Knee was ok, hamstring was 95% ok.
Couldn't keep the pace down around 4:20, but not bad.
Temp: 10C/50F, clear
Weight: 59.9kg

Saturday
Rest

Sunday
2:30 - 22k with 1.2k hills x 10 (hard up, easy down)
5k: 26:34 1.2k uphills: 6:02/5:46/47/52/53 (so bit under 5:00/km)
Down easy in about 7:15.
5k back in 24:45 - 5min pace and picked up last 2k.
Good workout! Best I have felt since I started running again.
Felt good at 5:00 pace the last 5k, which was good after the hills.
Quads not sore. Encouraging!
Temp: 6C/43F
Weight: 59.8kg

So I will try to keep doing weeks basically like this for the next 10 weeks.
Should get me into shape...I think.

Norovirus!

Week of Jan 14 ~ 20

Struck down by the norovirus, which you don't want to get, unless you REALLY want to lose weight, but even then...no, you don't want it.

Monday
Rest. Snow! Quite a bit for Tokyo....

Tuesday
Norovirus. Came on suddenly late Monday night. From initial strange feeling in my stomach to being in   serious pain, doubled over, vomiting, was only an hour. Then constant trips to the bathroom, every 30 to 60 minutes for like 10 hours. Stomach was very painful for 6 hours, then still hurting for another 18. Stayed in bed all day.
Got it from my wife, who had it for 3 days up until Monday. Don't know where she got it.

Wednesday
Feeling quite a bit better, but still not 100%. Ate a little for dinner.

Thursday
16k at an easy pace but didn't feel too bad. Bicycle path still icy in 6 or 7 places.
Weight: 60.1kg. Had been 62.5. Wanted to get down to 61, which had been proving difficult. Thought 60 was out of the question. So, one silver lining. Now have to keep it down.

Friday
Relapse. Drank a breakfast shake with milk, cream, egg and coconut milk - too rich on the stomach. Didn't feel good all day.

Saturday
15k. Very slow - felt weak.
Weight: 60kg
By the way, the high-fat diet is being shelved for a while. I can eat ham and small sausages with toast, but have no appetite for large sausages or cheese (had been eating huge amounts of cheese).

Sunday
9:30am - 20k. Hate morning running but had no other time. Surprisingly, felt quite good. 5Ks out in 27:55/26:55, then back in 24:49/24:54. Took a 200m walk break in the middle, but the knee felt fine running 10k at a time.
Weight: 59.8kg

Had an interesting anecdote from triathlete Chris Parry on the high fat diet. He had been doing it "somewhat" for a while, then did 4 days very strictly. The next day he did a hard 5-hour bike ride inside (bike stand) and felt great. Did not get fatigued. Even felt good at the finish. NOT the usual result. Decided he had really gone into fat burning mode and it gave him plenty of energy. So I'll try to work my way back onto the diet. My secret weapon for Boston.

Recovering Better

Week of Jan. 7 ~ 13

105.6km / 65.6 mi.

Monday
3:00 - 20k (5k x 4 w/ 200m walks)
Very easy pace due to having a cold - nose stuffed up and coughing. Also last 5k quads sore and knee a bit more sore than usual.

Tuesday
Rest

Wednesday
1:30 - 10k very easy.
7:30 - 10.6k track workout 1000m x 6.
4:56/33/12/18/13/12 (200m, 3')
Interesting: Knee was more sore than usual at 1:30 and during warmup. Ran first one easy and second one a bit faster, with the knee slightly sore. Then decided to just go faster and see what would happen - if the knee hurt badly, so be it. So I ran 4:12 and there was no pain at all!  The next three, also no pain. So running faster means no pain...for some reason.

Thursday
3:00 - 20k (5k x 4, 100m walks)
29:55/27:56/25:54/25:24. Felt ok coming back, although still have a cold (coughing).

Friday
Gym workout

Saturday
2:20 - 25k. 5 laps of the Palace (4,974m) with Anna and Zach, former HS runners, now good college and post-college runners. Fortunately, it was an easy (jogging) day for them. Both of them will also run Boston, by the way.
26:49/08/30/30/01. Knee was slightly sore, but not bad and didn't get worse.

Sunday
2:00 - 20k (5k x 4 (100, 200, 100m walks)
29:40/27:36 to warm up. Then ran hard/easy for 10k, with hard ones at 4:25/28/34/36/35. In other words, just over marathon pace (4:25/k = 3:06 marathon). Knee was slightly sore, but felt better when going faster.
Legs felt good, i.e., good recovery from yesterday. This may be due to quads finally getting stronger after the long layoff and/or the ketogenic diet taking effect (supposed to aid in speedy recovery). I have been following this low carb (none, except for some veggies) high fat diet quite strictly for a month, so should be keto-adapted, as Volek and Phinney say in their excellent book, The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance.
Also, running 2 on, 1 off probably is keeping my legs fresher, even though both are hard (long or fast) days. I like this schedule.

Speaking of schedules, check out this article for what Meb does each day. Must be nice!
http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/better-age?page=single

Up to 100K!

Week of Dec 31 ~ Jan 6

104K, to be exact, on five days of running, so not a bad week.
Still have some issues with the right knee and left hamstring, but not serious. Well, serious enough to keep me from running as fast as marathon pace, but not to keep me from doing 20k and more runs.
As Ewen surmised, I'm sticking to 2 on, 1 off and trying to up the pace/distance somewhat.
Clear and cold every day.

Monday
3:00 - 20km broken up into 6/8/6 with 200m walk breaks. Pace per km 5:42/5:08/4:43, as planned. A pretty good run. And my weight got under 62kg.

Tuesday
3:00 - 24km broken into 6km x 4. Easier pace, all around 5:40. Knee and hamstring ok, but quads sore!

Wednesday
Rest

Thursday
Decided to cut back distance a bit these two days.
2:00 - 15km broken into 5km x 3.
27:49/25:42/23:11 @ 5:34/5:08/4:38, as planned.
Not feeling so great, though, seem to be getting a cold.

Friday
3:30 - 20km broken into 5km x 4.
Very easy pace - knee a bit sore and quads sore.

Saturday
Rest

Sunday
11:00 - 25km with walks after 10K and 15k.
There's an onsen (hot spring facility) near my house, so 11 club members came out to run along my regular bicycle path course and then take a hot spring bath. I did a very easy pace for 16km with Chih from Singapore and Frode, a visitor from Norway, then picked it up the last 9km with Aussie Keren Miers. It was a very pleasant day.
Note: these hot spring places are very popular not only up in the mountains, but also in Tokyo. They have numerous baths, including outdoor baths, plus various types of massage, and a restaurant. Very nice, and not at all expensive. Apparently, if you drill down deep enough anywhere in Eastern Japan, you'll hit hot spring water.
Despite it being very near my house, however, I rarely go. My wife, for some reason, is not crazy about it, and it's usually rather crowded. In fact, there's lots of people there from early morning til late at night, every day! It's a great business, that's for sure.