Spent the end of December and early January training well, then went to Singapore on the 15th to visit my daughter. I love Singapore, truly love it - would move there if my wife would agree, but that will never happen. And I especially love it in the winter, as I hate cold weather.
So I had a great time running in the Botanic Gardens, which is only 2k from my daughter's apartment, and did two Parkruns — East Coast Park and Bishan. Interestingly, my time at both was exactly the same: 21:42. I guess that's what I'm capable of early in the morning, at 27° and 85% humidity. I worked hard at both of them, too. Also, I broke the age group records at both places, although...I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging, but 23:something was a pretty soft record, for me, anyway.
They were my first Parkruns, and yes, they're really nice events. Surprisingly, Parkrun will come to Japan in April, despite various obstacles, such as there being no parks in central Tokyo where you can have one. Apparently, they've found two parks in the suburbs, so we'll see if they catch on.
So....after returning, I rested for two days, did an easy 8k run and the next day (Sunday) went out for a 20k run. I thought this would be ok, as I had been doing 26k runs before going to Singapore. Well, it wasn't. At 18k my right hamstring started to hurt, badly enough that I immediately stopped. Tried a bit of a jog on Tuesday, still sore. Managed a slow jog Friday, but stopped at 4.5k rather than the planned 6k. Will try another slow jog on Monday.
Very annoying, and unexpected as well. You just never can tell, can you? I really don't think it's serious, but, well, annoying.
Fortunately, I don't have a serious race until mid-April, with a short 7.5k ekiden in March.
I'd like to blame it on the cold weather — I should go back to Singapore!
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