Ending the Year in (Fairly) Good Shape

Week of Dec, 23 ~ 29
82.2km / 51 mi.

As of the end of the year I'm running well, with my legs in fairly good shape. I still have a torn meniscus in my right knee, but aside from a bit of pain during the first 3 or 4km of runs, it doesn't bother me. Arthroscopic surgery would probably fix it, although I just read an article on Yahoo with many comments that said the surgery is not infallible, sometimes does not help at all, and in fact some people have gotten worse after surgery.  So as long as I stay away from long runs, which definitely stress the knee, I think it will be manageable, i.e., will not get any worse.

Hope to be running some good 10K and Half Marathon races in 2014. I would really like to run some races in the US, as I'm sure I'm near the top of my age group, but of course travel to the US is time- and money-consuming. I do have a tentative plan to go to Portland, Maine in July for the Beach to Beacon 10K, one of the top 10Ks in America…we'll see.

Monday
11:30 - 8k easy in 47:42
3:30 - 12k in 1:04:03 @5:20/k with splits of 32:44, 31:41.
Felt good coming back.
Weather: 7C/45F, 8C/46F
Weight: 57.7kg

Tuesday
Rest
Big dinner - Xmas dinner at home.

Wednesday
7:30pm - Club 5,000m time trial on the track.
19:29 @3:54/k. 3:50/57/56/54/50
Felt ok, but not great. Decent last km. Quite cold, which I don't like.
Weather: 7C/45F…or less? Felt very cold.
Big dinner - Brazilian BBQ with clubmates.

Thursday
1:00 - 12k in 1:08:59 @ 5:45

Friday
12:00 - Gym workout
3:30 - 14k in 1:16:57 @5:30 (5:40/5:20.
Felt ok - good coming back.
Weather: 7C/45F, cloudy with some rain.

Saturday
2:30 - 14.2k with 4k warmup, 4k x 2 tempo, 150m hill x 8.
4k in 19:14 @4:48 and 17:37 @4:24. Walk 4:30 in between.
Sluggish first 4k but then felt surprisingly good on the second one.
Ran up the hills hard. Start of my plan to incorporate some short hills and short sprints into the training week, to try to improve my "speed."
Weather: 8C/46F, felt colder.
Weight: 58.8kg

Sunday
3:00 - 12k in 1:07:37 @5:38
Knee always a bit sore the first 4k, then ok. Felt fine coming back.
Weather: 8C/46F, sunny
Weight: 58.7kg - Christmas and New Year's are for gaining weight. I'll take it off in January.

Thanks for reading my blog. Here's to good running in 2014!

Recovery Week

Week of Dec. 16 ~ 22
41.6 km / 25.8 mi.

Monday and Tuesday
Rest after 10k race. Knee sore.

Wednesday
7:30pm - track workout - 9.6km.
1200, 1200, 1200, 800, 800, 800
4:36/28/28 2:58/56/55
200m jog after first 2 1200s, then walk rest.
Felt pretty good and ran well despite cold and rain.
Weather: 6C/43F, rain
Weight: 58.6kg

Thursday
Meetings all day, but knee sore also.

Friday
Cold rain - good excuse to rest the knee another day.

Saturday
11:30 - 12k with 6k easy in 33:43 @5:37/k, 6k fairly easy tempo run in 27:28 @4:35. Pace went from 4:45 to 4:20.
Felt pretty good coming back. Faster than I thought I would run, actually.
Weather: 7C/45F, sunny

Sunday
10:30 - 8k very easy
3:30 - 12k in 1:03:19 @5:16/k. 5:24 out, 5:08 back (with wind). Felt good.
Weather: 8C/10C, windy
Weight: 58.1kg

Happy with a 38:27 10K

Week of Dec. 9 ~ 15
45km / 28 mi.

Monday
3:30 - 13k with 3k warmup, 10k tempo in 45:21 @4:32/k.
Planned to run 4:30 ~ 40.
Felt cold. Couldn't move for 3k "warmup", still cold first 4k, then warmed up and felt good for the last 6k.
Weather: 10C/50F, cloudy
Weight: 57kg

Tuesday
Gym workout

Wednesday
7:30pm club track workout. 10k with 1200, 1200, 1000, 1000, 800, 800.
4:42, 4:35, 3:47, 3:47, 2:59, 2:55 (jog 200m in 2', + a bit more rest).
Felt pretty good and ran well.
Weather: abt. 11C/52F
Weight: 57.6kg (57.1 before running)

Thursday
3:30 - 12k easy in 1:07:48 @5:39/k.
Sluggish going out with knee slightly sore. Picked up the pace and felt ok coming back.

Friday
Rest
Saturday
Rest

Sunday
10:00am - 10K race in Komazawa Park. This is a small fun-run type race held to promote the LA Marathon. Flat course, 4 times around a loop, near ideal conditions at 10C/50F (warmer in the sun) and no wind. Course seems accurate.
Total field of only 227 men, with several good runners (winner 31:52!), 6th 35:xx. There were about 12 ahead of me, and I always had some guys to run with or chase.
Felt good the whole way and ran well, with a 38:27. No km marks, but the loop is marked, so you can time 1km splits. The first one I timed was 3:48, others were low 3:50s, and I picked up the last 1k quite a bit. So 38:27 seems right.
Weather: 10C/50F, 39%, sunny
Weight: 57.5kg

An Ordinary Week

Week of Dec. 2 ~ 8
78.3km / 48.6 mi.

Monday
Rest

Tuesday
11;30 - Gym workout
3:30 - 10k easy in 54:06 @5:30/k
Weather: 13C/55F
Weight: 57.5kg

Wednesday
7:30pm - Club track workout 9.8km with 1000m x 6.
3:46/48/42/43/48/35 (200m 2' jog, 1' rest)
Felt pretty good.

Thursday
4:30 - 12k easy in 1:07:23 @5:37.

Friday
11:00 - 5.25k very easy
11:30 - Gym workout
12:00 - 5.25k very easy
4:00 - 10k easy in 54:52 @ 5:29/k
Weather: 12C/54F
Weight: 57.6kg

Saturday
1:30 - 14k with 3k warmup, 5k in 21:57 @4:24, walk 6', 3k in 13:02 @4:21 (jog 1k 6:55), 1k in 4:23, 1k jog home.
Legs felt tired, hard to get under 4:20/k. But a good workout.

Sunday
3:00 - 12k easy in 1:07:21 @5:37
Felt ok.

Enjoyable Ekiden

Week of Nov. 25 ~ Dec. 1

40.4km / 25 mi.

Monday
Rest

Tuesday
12:00 - Gym workout
3:00 - 12k with 4k warmup, 8k hard tempo in 34:03 @4:15/km
Splits: 4:15/26/14/11/18/15/07/14
Felt ok, but still have some sinus and chest congestion. Legs felt good.
Weather: 16C/61F, 40%
Weight: 57.8kg

Wednesday
7:30pm - club track 5,000m time trial.
Cruised in 20:51 - 4:06/09/10/12/13
Knee a bit sore for 2k, then ok.
Interesting that the pace, when running on the track with other people, felt so much easier than yesterday.
Weather: 13C/55F
Weight: 57.9kg

Thursday
3:30 - 12k easy in 1:08:15 @5:41/k
Weather: 15C/59F
Weight: 57.1kg

Friday
11:30 - Gym workout

Saturday
Rest

Sunday
7.4k leg in the Okutama Ekiden.
28:15 @3:49. Happy with that, as I wanted to run under 29:00.
This is an old (75 years) and popular ekiden out in the hilly countryside in the far west of Tokyo.
6-man teams running 3 legs out and 3 back. I ran the last leg, which is rolling with more down than up for about 3k, then flat for the rest. I ran the anchor leg, as it is the least interesting, since the teams are so far apart by that time that you're running by yourself. Our team had some slow guys so we were near the end of the 120-team field. Fortunately there were some slow people that I had fun catching and passing. I ran hard the whole way and felt good.
We had 3 men's teams and 3 women's teams (which have 3 members and shorter legs). Beer and sushi afterwards while watching the end of the Fukuoka marathon completed a very enjoyable day.
Weather: beautiful day, slightly chilly but sunny.
Weight: 56.9kg