Feeling Better

Week of May 1 ~ 7
This was a recovery week from the 10K last Saturday. I have to take it easy for a week or even two after a race or else I get injured. Of course the race time was only 43, not 38, but still best to be cautious.

So...rest Monday and very easy the next three days.
Friday I did 100 mins., split into two runs with a gym workout in between.
Saturday was 80 mins, legs still feeling heavy.
Sunday 66 mins,  feeling a bit better.

The two highlights of the week were first, the Breaking2 run by Kipchoge, of which I watched the last half. Just mesmerizing. I was blown away not only by the final time, but by the fact that at 30k, he looked better than the pacers! Such wonderful running form.
And second, the Namban Rengo Beer Mile on Sunday, which I am not crazy enough to participate in, but had a lot of fun watching and timing. Check out the great article about it on our website at namban.org.

Week of May 8 ~ 14
Monday and Tuesday - 50 mins, easy runs with the HS track team.
Wednesday - intervals at the track, 800, 1000, 1200, 1200, 1000, 800.
Felt good, like I was actually running at a good pace, for the first time in a very long time. Warmed up the first 800, then did a 3:51 1000, 4:45 1200s (3:59 at the 1000), 3:49 1000 and 3:02 800. Not blazingly fast by any means, but nice to be down at 3:50/k again.
It was a coolish 17C, but about 80% humidity. No wind. Not a bad night for running.
Thursday was very easy, Friday was 50 mins, gym, 50 mins.
Saturday I took a rest day, as I had run 11 days in a row.
Sunday did 120 mins at 6:00/k pace (20km), which is actually a little faster than I have been running, but still keeping in my comfort zone (the Ed Whitlock philosophy).

So that was 68k for the week, not so bad. Aiming for 80 and eventually, 100.

10K — Perhaps Best Forgotten

So I ran the 10K race on Saturday the 29th and found out...I'm not in very good shape.
43:18 and the course was probably 150m short, although the last 4k was uphill (gradual, but still....)
Just did not feel capable of moving very fast at all.

Week of 4/17 ~23

67km, 6:12 running time
The week was marked by a decent 8k tempo run with the kids on Monday, an interval workout where I did not feel good (as in, able to run fast) on Wednesday, and a 2 hour run on Friday.

Week of 4/24 ~ 30

Did two easy days, then cruised the 5,000m time trial in 23:00 on wednesday. Took off thursday and friday, travelling up to the hot spring resort area of Nasu Shiobara on Friday. It's in the mountains, one hour north of Tokyo by shinkansen bullet train. Very nice area. Went up with the wife, and Padraig from the club was also there with his family, so it was a nice weekend.
Except for the race. The weather was good, so no excuses there. I had been running for 10 weeks since recovering from the cracked kneecap, but only 5 of those were decent training weeks. So I wasn't expecting too much, in fact, said that I would be happy with 44 minutes. But once the race comes around, you go into it with the same feeling as other races, namely, that you will go out at a good pace and hold it or pick it up. This was not to be, as I went out at about 4:15/k, did all right on the downhill section, but then got slower and slower. All kinds of old, feeble-looking dudes were passing me. At least that's how it seemed, although I suppose they were running fairly well.
Was only 14th in the 60s (out of 182), which is the lowest I ever finished a race.

Ok, so I'm not in great shape! I get it. I'll work on that over the next few months.