Pretty Good Week

Week of Oct. 19 ~ 25

64.4km / 40 mi.

Monday
3:30 - 12.2k. 6.2k easy with the JV girls, 6k alone @4:35 pace.
Quads stiff, legs kind of heavy.
23C/73F
58.4kg

Tuesday
Weight machines and core.

Wednesday
7:30pm - 11.4k with 1000m x 6.
Running in the park because our track is closed for six months for resurfacing.
Nice loop on a wide asphalt path with one slight down/up hill, pretty close to exactly 1,000m.
3:50/44/44/47/48/44 (150m jog/walk in about 2:50).
Felt good and ran well - worked pretty hard.
17C/63F, 75%, dp 13

Thursday
3:30 - 6.8 easy, mostly with the kids. Legs tired.

Friday
12:30 - Weight machines and core.
3:30 - 12k. 6k warmup, 250m hill x 10 hard up, easy down. A bit faster than previous weeks, due to cooler weather.
Legs were stiff warming up, but felt good once I started the hills.
21C/70F
57.3kg

Saturday
4:30 - 8k easy.

Sunday
3:00 - 14k in 1:20:26. 42:23/38:03
Out at 6:00/k, back at 5:30, with 5th and 6th ks faster.
20C/68F, 23%, dp -2.

Avoiding Injury This Year

Week of October 12 ~ 18
35.8km - recovery week.

Last year on Wednesday of this week, after the 10K race, I tried to do the club interval workout and got a pain in my hamstring. Which took 6 months to completely go away.
So, a year later and quite a bit smarter.
Two rest days, then three easy days of 5-6k, then an easy 8k run, and today an easy 12k run. No aches or pains at all, so I'll try a tempo run tomorrow.

Nice running weather, about 22° every day, supposed to be clear all next week.

In American School cross-country news, both our boys and girls won the Far East Championships, held in Guam. Four runners score and our girls had four in the top ten, boys had four in the top 11. So it was a rout. And our top boy and girl both won. The team still has two more meets in Japan.

My next race is a 10K on Nov. 23rd. So four good training weeks and a taper week until then.

39:46, 3rd Place — I'll Take It

Week of Oct. 5 ~ 11
43.2km /26.8 mi.

Monday thru Saturday was just preparation leading up to the 10K race on Sunday.

Monday
3:30 - 13k. 7k with JV girls @5:45/k then 6k tempo alone. Wanted to run 4:40-45 pace and ran the two 3k loops at 4:43 and 4:44.
Quads were a bit stiff, but felt ok.
21C/70F, 50%, DP 10
57.7kg

Tuesday
Weights and core at the gym.

Wednesday
7:30pm - club track workout. 12.2k with 4.2k warmup and 1000m x 6.
4:13/3:58/4:02/3:54/59/52 (about 2:40 jog/walk in between)
Pushing just a bit, but basically cruising. Tapering for Sunday.

Thursday
3:30 - 8k. 15min warmup then 800 x 6 with JV girls. From 3:37 down to 3:20, with 90sec rest. Easy, but not slow-easy.

Friday and Saturday
Rest

Sunday
10:00am - 10K race at Nagareyama in Chiba pref.
Very good race, which I enjoyed last year and did again this year. More in fact, because five other club members also ran. It's a good course, quite a lot of turns and about 5 up/downs, but that's ok, it keeps it interesting.
I felt good the whole way - well, not exactly good the last 3k - and finished in 39:46, good for 3rd in the 60s age group, out of 366 men. I was also 3rd last year, but 55 seconds faster. However, I knew I wasn't in as good shape this year, so was happy with both the time and the place. And with the fact that I had no pains or discomfort at all during the race!
Also, since my 5,000 time trial on sept 30 was 19:40, all out, 39:46 was not bad.
Splits were (some approx): 3:58/56/57/58/57/58/4:05/56/4:01 - I kicked the last 500m, but the 500m before that is a gradual uphill.
It rained right up until 30 minutes before the race, but luckily stopped. It was only 18C/64F, so it felt cool, although the humidity was about 100%, so everyone finished drenched in sweat.
There were 3,581 total runners, out of which I was 204th - I think that was the total place out of all men and women (it just says "total").
The winner was about 30:15. He was an independent, ahead of 5 university guys in the low 31s. And the top high school kid was 30:27! The other top five were also low 31s. The top 50-year-old was a bit over 35 and the top 40+ woman was also 35:30! She must have been an ex-corporate runner. The top 60 year old was 38:30 and the top 70 year old was 41:20! Love the quality of races in Japan.

Next race is another 10k on Nov. 23, so will try to improve on today's time.
Long term, I obviously need more stamina. Well, my long runs now are only 14k. The journey continues!

5K Time Comes Down Again

Week of Sept 28 ~ Oct 4
55.8km / 34.6 mi.

Well, it came down slightly: 19:40 from 19:53 last month. But progress is being made....

Monday
3:30 - 10k including 3.2k tempo with sophomore Emma Wingfield-Hayes. Two miles in 6:44, 6:47 on a cross-country type route with one small hill. 4:12/k
Short tempo run as I have the 5,000m TT on wed.
28C/82F, 70%, DP20
58.2kg

Tuesday
Complete rest

Wednesday
7:30pm - 11.8k with 5.8k warmup, 5,000 time trial.
19:40 with splits of 3:56/57/57/56/54.
Felt good - running alone after 1,000m, but held pace nicely.
19:40 seems like a slow time to me, but it felt fast when I was running. Does this mean I'm getting old?..impossible!
21C/70F. 55%, DP12. Nice night for running.
58.8kg

Thursday
Rest

Friday
1:00 - Gym workout
3:30 - 5k easy with the whole x-c team, then 400m x 10 by myself in the park next to the school (we have measured routes in the park). The 400m has a slight up/down grade in it.
93/89/89/89/91/90/91/89/87. Felt fine.
26C/79F, 46%, DP15
59.4kg

Saturday
3:30 - 10k easy, a bit under 6:00/k. However, I worked outside the house cutting, cleaning, etc. before the run for about 3 hours doing A LOT of bending, squatting, lifting (moving rocks).

Sunday
3:00 - 14k easy and again worked for about 3 hours. As a result, quads were sore at the end of the run. The outside of our house looks nice, though.
26C
58kg

10K race next Sunday. Ran this race last year in 38:51 for 3rd in the 60s, after which my hamstring problems started because I tried to run hard too soon afterwards. Don't think I can go that fast, but hope to have a decent run.

Congratulations to the Aussies among us! I watched the match - trying to learn to love rugby.