The American School in Japan track season ended well, with my kids (800/1600/3200) winning a few titles at the Kanto Finals meet and the Far East meet (international and military schools). Others were close, with excellent performances, and some of the younger kids exceeded their own expectations and showed great potential. So it was a very rewarding season.
On May 12th, the World Relays were held in Yokohama. Two other ASIJ coaches and five people from the club attended the Sunday events, and it was a lot of fun. It's great to see the pro runners up close. I particularly liked the 4 x 200m, which of course is not run very often, but is a really exciting event. Being twice as long as the 4 x 100, it really gives you a sense of how fast these athletes are.
Then on May 18th, four other guys and I from the club ran an ekiden at a US army base in Yokohama. We each ran 1.45k six times, totalling a bit more than the marathon distance. We ran each one all out, with about 23 minutes rest in between. Usually I don't like this type of ekiden (and in fact didn't realize it was this type when I signed up), but it turned out to be fun. It helped that the weather was nice (but a bit hot and windy) and the race atmosphere was very pleasant. I ran 5:56 for almost all of the legs, or about 4:09/km. Was happy to maintain the pace for each. We came in 7th out of 34 men's teams, not bad since the first 3 or 4 teams were young and fast, and most teams had more than 5 runners (could have up to 10). There were also 113 mixed teams, so next year we'll go back with some women and try to win that.
The next run of note was the club 5,000m time trial on May 29th, where I ran 21:23 in hard rain. Not particularly good, but not bad, considering the conditions and that I miscounted the laps so didn't kick the last lap (couldn't see the damn watch).
That week (last week) and this week I've started my summer training program, which is:
Wed: track interval workout - 12k
Thurs: 10k comfortably (may get a bit faster as I get stronger)
Fri: 10k same + gym workout (mostly core, some pullups and weights)
Sat: 10k same
Sun: 18k, building up to 30k or even a bit more
Mon: 10k easy
Tues: rest (gym workout)
So with 30k, that's 82k per week and if I can get the 10ks up to 12k, that would be 90k.
I have no aches or pains at all, so I'm hoping to be consistent with this for the next 3 months, which should get me into good shape (meaning legs strong enough to handle a hard pace for a half marathon) for a 10K in October and a Half in November. Will do some tempo runs in September to work on sustained speed.
BTW, my track workout last night was 6 x 1000m in 4:21 (warmup), 3:55, 4:01, 4:03, 4:05, 3:54 (about 3:30 walk in between).
Let me know what you think of that program.
Stay injury-free!
Bob
