Managed an Easy 10K

Week of Oct. 20 ~ 26
21.9km

Rested Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, as the hamstring was still sore. Then Harrisson, the Frenchman who knows everything about everything, or at least everything about everything that he is interested in (obsessive knowledge-gatherer, in a good way), told me I should be doing "active recovery," explaining to me how the muscle fibers in my leg work.

So I jogged a bit on Thursday, 6k on Friday, a bit on Saturday and then did 10k on today at the Namban Rengo 10K, Half and barbecue. Did it in 50:03, so 5:00 per k, which is better than a jog but certainly not a quick pace. It was a bit sore, but didn't get worse, so that was good.

I thought I should stretch it a bit at the halfway point, but that was a mistake - made it feel worse.

It did feel somewhat more sore afterwards, but not really in the hamstring - more like the lower butt/glute, which is where I originally thought it was. So I guess it's not actually a strained hamstring, which seems to be a good thing, but it doesn't really matter, I just need it to get better fairly soon, as I have a Half on Nov. 16th, which is my main Fall race. 3 weeks away, so hopefully it will be ok by then.

At any rate I was actively recovering today, I hope.

By the way, it was a beautiful day, about 26° - too hot for some, but I prefer the heat. We had 80 people out for the club event, held along the wide bank of the Tama river in the southern part of Tokyo. Both the races and BBQ were great fun, and I drank a lot of Australian wine and ate a huge amount of food (we even threw some shrimp on the barbie, mate, as Paul Hogan used to say).

Hammy Niggle

Week of Oct. 13 ~ 19
13.4km

That's right, 13km. I rested for two days after Sunday's 10K race, then assuming all was fine, went out for the club interval workout Wednesday night. Ha ha, no, we do not do intervals as the first workout after a race! Said my hamstring to me, as it became painful on the second interval. Hey, I wasn't even going that fast, but...too fast, obviously. So I jogged a few 400s, which was also a mistake, should have just shut it down completely.

Anyway, rested Thursday and Friday, then ran an easy 8k on Saturday, but only because an old friend was visiting from the states and wanted to do a run and dinner. Fortunately, he's no gazelle and was content to jog around slowly. Hammy was slightly sore, but not bad and didn't get any worse.

Now I'm just resting until it gets completely better, another day or two or whatever.

Have a club 10K run next Sunday, so I hope to be ready for a good run there. Then my main race is a Half on Nov. 16th, which I WILL be ready for.

So kiddies, today's lesson is: always be even more cautious than you think is necessary.

Until next week....

10k Race - 38:51 - 3rd Age Group

Week of Oct. 6 ~ 12
44.5km / 27.6 mi.

Monday
No school due to typhoon in morning, but actually it was just a hard rain storm, and it cleared up at noon.
3:00 - 14k with 7 easy out, 7 hard in. 1:15:30, splits 45:38/31:51 @6:14/4:33/km.
Felt good coming back, helped by a (mostly) tailwind.
26C/79F, 45%
56.9kg

Tuesday
Weights and core at the gym.
57.3kg

Wednesday
7:30 club track workout. 12.5k with 1200, 1000 x 2, 800 x 3, 400.
4:54, 3:49, 49, 3:07, 10, 12, 85.
Felt ok. 1200 was warmup, Ran the 1000s well, eased up a bit on the 800s and 400.
Starting to taper for Sunday's race.
20C/68F, 65%
 57kg

Thursday
12:30 - 8k easy. Legs tired.
HS X-country meet. Before this year, no American School in Japan boy had ever broken 15:00 on the course (a hard, hilly 4.4km) - that's about 30 years. Today, we had 3 under 15:00 - quite amazing.

Friday
Rest. Gym workout.

Saturday
Rest.

Sunday
Nagareyama 10K road race. 38:51, 3rd in 60s age group out of 368 men. Overall 157 out of about 3,600 total. It was in Chiba prefecture, 2 hours travel from home.
I felt good and ran well. Knew there were two 60s ahead of me, but couldn't catch them (they started further ahead). They ran 37:45 and 38:14, so were well ahead. Thought I was in 3rd, but wasn't really thinking about it, was just trying to run a good time. Held back a bit the first 7k, then went harder, but even so the first 5k was faster than the second.
Splits: 3:46/57/51/48/49/52/4:05/54/56/53. Not sure why the 7th was slow - there was a hill and I guess I slowed a bit. Worked hard the last 3k, mostly running alone.
My goal was to run in the 38s and win the age group or at least be in the top 3, so was happy to accomplish that.
Course was pretty flat, a few short hills, nothing difficult. Weather was perfect - 21C/70F, no wind.
This was a really good race from all viewpoints (except I only got a medal and a small towel), I wish I had known about it in previous years.
Next year I'll go back and run 38:00.
But in order to do that, I have to think about my training. The race effort was really much harder than anything I do in training. Of course, that will always be the case, but...it should be "harder", not "MUCH harder." I need to do more to prepare for race efforts. Maybe I will take an extra day off - Friday - and go harder on Saturday. Instead of 3k intervals, do a hard 10k effort. Or a hard/long hill workout.
I have a half marathon next month (16th), which I think is going to be very tough.

From Good to Bad, Weather-wise

Week of Sept. 29 ~ Oct. 5
64.5km / 40 mi.
Would have been 78k with a 14k run on Sunday, but bagged it.

Monday
3:30 - 14k, 8k easy with the kids, 6k tempo alone at 4:43/4:30 (3k/3k).
Felt fine on the tempo run. A beautiful day for running!
26C/79F, 60%, sunny
57.3kg

Tuesday
Rest. No time to go to the gym.

Wednesday
7:30pm. 15.5km. 7.7k + 800m warmup. 1000m x 6.
3:57/49/47/50/47/38 (2:30~3:00 200m jog + walk)
Felt good, ran hard, pushed the last one.
20C/68F but very humid.
58.5kg

Thursday
3:30 - 9.5k with 2 easy 300m hills.
26C/79F, sunny
57.3kg

Friday
3:30 - Team 5k time trial in the park (flat, w/ 5 small hills)
20:07 - Ran hard. First two miles 6:31, 6:47. Running alone after the first mile, trying to catch the boy ahead of me, who is our 10th boy (strong team). Didn't quite catch him. But beat the other 15 boys and of course all of the girls. Top girl ran 21:12, which is pretty good for a HS girl on a practice day, and a hot day to boot. (They don't have a meet tomorrow.)
27C/81F, sunny, felt a bit hot.
57.3kg

Saturday
2:30 - 18K easy in 1:47:00. 6:12 out, 5:42 in.
25C/77F, 70% (rain coming).
57.3kg

Sunday
Chilly with fairly hard rain, didn't feel like going out in it. Legs are tired, so a rest day, or probably two, since a big typhoon will hit tomorrow morning, is ok. The weather may clear by late afternoon, however.
46.8kg