Back At It

Week of May 19 ~ 25
44.2 km / 27.5 mi.

Counting this Monday and Tuesday, I took 9 days off to rest my hamstring, which did the trick.

Monday, Tuesday
Still resting, also HS Far East track meet, which the ASIJ kids won (girls first, boys second, overall first). Pretty impressive, because some of the military bases (Kadena, Kubasaki) have big teams. We have some very talented (and hardworking) kids.

Wednesday
7:30pm - club track workout.
Tested the HS with 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1000, 800, 600, all very easy at about 5:20/k pace.
No problem - didn't feel anything.
Weight: 59.6kg - not TOO bad after 9 days rest

Thursday
7:30pm - multiclub 5,000m time trial at the track.
This is a great chance to do a good 5,000 "race", but of course I took it easy.
21:38 (4:22/28/26/08/14). Again no discomfort at all in the hamstring.
The race, however, was a bit of an adventure. They run it in 3 groups - 20:00 and over, 17:30-20:00 and under 17:30. I ran in the first group, starting at 7:00. At 7:05, it began to rain. At 7:10 the skies opened up - hard downpour with strong wind. In a matter of minutes, we were splashing through deep water. Then at about 7:45, it stopped. Talk about luck! Hard luck...
The first group had 123 people in it, of which quite a few elected not to finish. Just as the rain started though, I did a quick count of people ahead of me. There were about 90, and I wasn't going THAT slow. There are a lot of good club runners in Tokyo, including women.
They combined the 2nd and 3rd groups, which started at 8:00. 115 runners. It was won in 15:30. It's fun to watch the fast guys.

Friday
12:00 - weights and core in the gym.
3:30 - 9.8k @5:30/k. Slight twinge in the left (other) hamstring at 9.4k, so walked 200m and jogged in. Smart! Felt ok, but quads a bit sore.
Weather: 22C/72F, sunny
Weight: 59.2kg

Saturday
Happy birthday, Bobby!
Ran 7.3k at an easy 6:00 pace, with 5th and 6th ks @5:22.
Ate a HUGE dinner at night - at a restaurant with a buffet and free-flowing wine. I have a total lack of control at buffets. Good that I only have one birthday a year.

Sunday
1:00 - (after eating *nothing* in the morning and still feeling rather heavy) 12.5k
3.25k warmup, then:
3000 - 13:06 (4:14/22/29) 5' walk
3000 - 12:59 (4:17/23/19) 5' walk
2000 - 8:38 (4:18/20) 1.25 warmdown
Felt (just) ok, but legs were tired on the 2,000.
Anyway, it was a good workout, the first in quite a while.
Weather: 28C/82F - I like it this way!
Weight: Afraid to get on the scale.

Next week I have a 10K race on Sunday.

Bad Hamstring!

Week of May 5 ~ 11
38.5km / 23.9 mi.

Monday
Despite the fact that my right hamstring got sore right at the end of my run yesterday, I went out today and ran for about 2 hours up and down hills. Well, I had committed myself to going with a group of club members. And I did run very slowly. The hamstring was a bit sore, but not too bad, still...it was a stupid thing to do.
As proven by my half marathon "race" on Sunday, despite not having run for 5 days.

Sunday
Sendai Half Marathon. This is one of the main cities up in the area where the earthquake and tsunami were, two hours north of Tokyo by bullet train. It's a nice city and a nice race - I won my age group here two years ago.
So...I started out and could feel the hamstring right away - just a slight soreness. So I took it easy, running the first 4kms at about 4:45/km pace (race pace would be 4:10 or under). It didn't get any worse, so picked it up for 2k to about 4:25. At which point, it began to hurt more. Which meant my racing was over for the day. I just cruised along for 15k at about 5:20/k with slight pain, which didn't get any worse. But it was one of those feelings where you know if you try to run faster, it will be all over.
So I just enjoyed the crowds and the sights of Sendai. It was a nice day, too, quite warm - 23C at the start.
Pretty big race - 2,200 women and about 8,700 men. Popular marathoner Kawauchi was 4th. One of the Japan-based Kenyans, Maina, won in about 1:02.
One of the women in our club, Amanda Rice, who is a near-elite runner (2:39 marathon) and is a dentist in the US military, WON the women's open division in about 1:18. So that was fun. A group of nine of us went up there for the race.

I'll rest for ten days or two weeks or however long the hamstring takes to heal completely. Am scheduled for a 10k race on June 1 and a 10K in a triathlon relay on June 8, so I hope to be able to run those.

Just an Easy Week

Week of Apr. 28 ~ May 4
41.4km / 25.7 mi.
An easy week, partly because a had a slight cold from Sunday. It ran the usual course of my (infrequent) mini-colds — 2 days sore throat, 2 days runny nose, 2 days coughing.

Monday
3:30 - 8.4km Easy with HS track team
24C/75F
59kg

Tuesday
11:30 - Weights and core at the gym.
Cool and raining, so took a rest.

Wednesday
7:30pm - club 5,000m time trial. BUT, I ran 5,400m! I know I can't count 12-1/2 laps, but it seems that I can't even count 2-1/2 (I take my 1000m splits every 2-1/2 laps). The third 1000 split was 1,400. I don't know how I did that. For one thing, it's too dark to see my watch very well.
Anyway, the splits were 3:58/3:58/5:29/4:03/4:00. 21:29, which would work out to 19:54.
Not very good and slower than I expected. But I felt like I was going faster, which is not a good sign. I guess the cold affected me. Also, the humidity was about 100% - had been raining off and on all day and evening.
17C/63F
59.5kg

Thursday
3:30 - 8.8k with 2k warmup/down and 200 x 4 x 4 at a track with the HS girls (the slower ones).
All from 42 to 45 with 30sec. rest and 400 jog in between sets.
Felt only so-so.
24C/75F, sunny
59.5kg

Friday
Rest
No time to run, but also legs tired and sore.

Saturday
The TELL (Tokyo English Life Line) charity race, for which I am the race director. Nice day, good turnout, everyone had a nice time. Had over 500 runners, including 20 from the club, one from the track team (top boy, who placed 5th in the 5k in 17:05) and about 10 others from the team who served as volunteers.
Too exhausted afterwards to run.

Sunday
12:30 - weights and core at the gym.
1:30 - 16k in 1:18:10 @4/57/k
Out: 44:09 @5:31, In: 34:01 @4:21, although I stopped 200m short of home because my right hamstring started to hurt. I could feel it a little with one k to go, and then there was a slightly sharper pain, so I stopped. Not sure why that happened - residual damage from the 200 x 16 on thursday?

Sendai Half Marathon next Sunday. Hope to have a good run.