RIP Steve Lacey

I just realized that some readers of this blog also used to read Steve Lacey's blog (Ewen for one) and should be informed of the sad news that he passed away last Monday, aged 57.

He had been bravely fighting lymphoma since 2015, and while he won several battles, he finally lost the war.
He was in and out of the hospital for several years, then went back in about six months ago and while treatments seemed promising, the doctors ultimately could not save him. It was a real shame that because of the corona virus, his friends could not visit him over the last few months.

As the doctors said the end was near, they brought him home on Monday morning, but he passed away in the afternoon - shockingly sudden.

He was a valuable member of my running club, a good runner and a truly great guy, and will be greatly missed by many people.

One of the highlights of his life, I'm sure he would agree, was the 2:54 marathon he ran in 2005, which is still a source of inspiration to me (in fact, it got me out running today in the rain). This was a fantastic achievement, given that he was not a naturally talented runner. He simply researched what he had to do, worked damn hard and accomplished his goal.

Here is his blog post about it - read all the way to the comments and profile:

http://variegatus.blogspot.com/2005/11/ohtawara-marathon-2005.html?m=1

As for me, I'm training well but slowing down - under 21:00 for 5k is no longer doable (maybe in the fall when it's cooler...or maybe not). Running six days a week with one interval workout, one long run of 16k (at present), and four 10k runs with 5 easy, 5 tempo. And an extra rest day as necessary. Rather than doing 80-90k a week, this keeps my legs fresher and pain-free.

Hope you are all (if anyone is still reading this blog) well and able to run. I believe I read that Melbourne is in lockdown again....

Ewen, if you read this, please pass along the sad news to anyone else who knew Steve.

All the best,
Bob

Update and Goal

Hello there. It's been a while. Shamed by my friend Padraig, who writes a blog post almost every day, I've decided to stop procrastinating and write something.

I manage to recover from the calf tear and train a little bit before running a 10K race in Huntington Beach, California on Dec. 29th. It was a flat course along the beach road. I ran 47:26, however, even though I wasn't in very good shape it really did seem faster so I think the course was about 300m (1 minute) long. I actually felt quite good on the 5k back and was moving well. Won my (small) age group and was 18th out of 221, but of course lots of folks were just out there for the fun of it.

I was there because we were visiting our daughter in Los Angeles. Which means I ate way too much good food and gained weight that I'm struggling to lose. This despite my avowal to become a vegetarian, mostly successful, after having watched The Game Changers on Netflix. This is a very persuasive documentary about how good a plant-based diet is for athletes. If it works for top ultra runner Scott Jurek it should work for the rest of us, right? Seriously, I think it's a good lifestyle choice.

At any rate, I trained pretty well in January and am ramping up the distance with a goal of 90km a month by the end of March. In particular, I really need to get back to a long run (24-30k) once a week.
I've totally lost my speed, though, as evidenced by my slow times on the club wednesday night interval workouts. I'm hoping this is due to a combination of extra weight and not being in good shape, and the speed, what still remains of it, will return over the next two months.

However, the main reason I wanted to write this post was to share with you my primary goal for the year, which is...do not get injured! Can I go an entire year without an injury? Can any runner? I certainly hope so, and I'm certainly going to try. Just being very cautious all the time, and especially after races. Let's see if it's possible....

I hope my blogging and running friends in Australia are not and will not be badly affected by the fires - here's hoping for rainy days ahead!

Throw Away Your Old Ultralight Shoes

That's my advice after wearing a pair to do a 5,000m time trial. It went well, ran 20:50 at the multiclub TT on a cool, windless evening with pacemakers (stayed on the 21-minute person's shoulder). Took the next day off, then ran 14k the following day, which was ok. Then the next day, my right calf started to hurt after 5k. Turned around and jogged home. Tried to run the next day but only got 2k before it got sore. Took another day off, then tried to jog but only got 8 minutes before it got sore - more sore than the other day.

So it looks like at least six days off - today is the third day of rest and it's still very tight and a bit sore. Maybe more than six days....

Ever since tearing a calf muscle about two years ago, I'm sensitive about my calves, but obviously not sensitive enough.  I've used those shoes for a time trial before, with no ill effects, but I guess I was just lucky.

So my advice is: super light shoes with very little cushioning? Trash them!

Age Group Win

Having successfully gotten through my hernia operation and recovery period, which meant I didn't run for most of August, I regained enough fitness in September to win my age group at the Nagareyama 10K On October 6th. There were 4,000 total runners in the race, 197 men in the age group — good turnout of 70-year-olds.
The time was ok but not great — 43:32. As I said when people asked if I ran a good time: good enough.
I'm sure I can run faster than that, although the days of sub-40 are gone, I've come to realize.
The weather was a coolish 22C, but it was quite humid, in fact, it rained a bit during the race. That may have affected me the last few k — I planned to pick up the last 3k, but that didn't happen, although the last one was faster. Average was 4:21/k.

Next race is the Toda Half on Nov. 17th. I'm a bit apprehensive — running a good half is a lot harder than running a good 10k, and I haven't been doing much distance. Well, we'll see what happens.

Hernia!

Well, I vowed to stay injury-free, which I have. Running injuries anyway. But...I developed a hernia! It's an inguinal hernia, which is a small bump in the groin area - basically, the intestine coming though a hole in the abdominal cavity.
Men are susceptible to this as they get older (8 times more than women).

Sounds bad, but it's not, really. I'd had this bump for a while, which I thought nothing of, then it began to hurt a bit on a run about two weeks ago, and I realized, Oh, that's a hernia.

I had been running six days a week, and had ramped up the mileage the previous three weeks. So I cut back to five days a week, and it didn't hurt anymore. Even during a 5k time trial and 1000m x 6 interval workout.

The problem is, hernias don't heal on their own. They might not get worse, but on the other hand, they might. And I didn't want it to get worse in October or November when I have races (especially in the middle of a race!), or in September when I have to train harder for those races.

So I decided to have surgery to fix it. It's minor surgery - they make an incision and cover the thing with a piece of mesh. (There's also another type, but this one is simpler).
I need to lead our Kamakura beach run on the 28th, so will go into the hospital on the 29th, for a 3-4 day stay. Then the doctor says I can't run for a month (web says 3 weeks, so I may try it then).

So basically no running in August, although I can walk and bike. I'll try to walk a lot.

If it ain't one thing, it's another!

If anyone has had experience with a hernia, let me know.

Hope you don't get any bumps.

Training is Going Well

Hi. Since my last post of April 21, there has been no major news, but I do have a few things to report.

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

A Hot Half

Ran the Adachi Goshiki Sakura Half Marathon today. Adachi is an area of eastern Tokyo where the Arakawa river is, goshiki means five colors and sakura are cherry blossoms. I guess they have five kinds of sakura along the river.

Three other club members and I ran it and it was hot!! I was aiming for about 1:45 — 5:00/k pace, but assumed I would slow down after 15k, which is exactly what happened. Finished in 1:46:56, not bad, considering the heat (24C, bright sun) and that I hadn't run for 6 weeks in Feb/March and hadn't trained much for the race.

It was a nice race - maybe 300 in the 10k, 5-600 in the half. Lots of enthusiastic staff and pacers for about 7 different groups from 4:00 to about 7:00 per k. The pacers helped me a lot. The course was a 7k out and back, run 3 times.

Photos: With 5:00/k pacers and then starting to drift behind them at 16k.

Japan's First Parkrun

Thought you might be interested to know that the first parkrun in Japan was held on April 6.
It was held along the Tamagawa river, a little ways south of central Tokyo.
It was well attended - 343 people - and was a success, except that the first 20 runners got mis-directed and only ran 3k. 343 was quite good, since it wasn't promoted much to the Japanese running community - mostly on Facebook to English speakers.
My club had 30 people there.
It's too far from my house for me to go often (and I don't like running in the morning), but anyway, it's nice that parkrun made it to Japan.
Oh, and Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun, was on hand for the first event, so that was cool.

My hamstring has healed - no pain at all for the past 3 weeks. I have a Half on Sunday, which I'll be able to run, but not at a quick pace. Too bad, as I had hoped to be in good shape for it, but happy that I'll at least be out there.

Nice Trip to Singapore, Then Pffft

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!

Okutama Ekiden; Training Well, Feeling Good

After resting for 5 days after the half marathon on Nov. 18th, I ran easy for 5 days, rested for 2 days, and ran a 7.4k leg on one of Namban Rengo's Okutama ekiden teams. This was the 6th leg (out of 6) and was slightly up/down the first half, mostly down, then flat the second half. I ran well, timing 30:40 (4:09/k) and felt good. Passed 2 runners, but passed by 4. Weather was good, about 14° and cloudy. This was 30 seconds faster than I ran 2 years ago.

The club had 4 men's teams and 3 women's teams, so it was a lot of fun. The ekiden is out in the hilly, wooded countryside about 90 minutes west of central Tokyo.
Our A team, which I loaded with fast runners, all of whom run 16:00 or under for 5k, came in 7th, our best showing since 1991. This is a high level ekiden, with several very fast corporate and club teams. Getting in the top 10 is an impressive accomplishment.
The top two women's teams came in 12th and 14th, also good as there are quite a few fast university and high school teams.

After a few easy days, I got back into regular training, although I'm not planning to run a race until April.
Have decided I have to train harder/longer, thanks to being inspired by Gene Dykes, who recently broke Ed Whitlock's 70-74 AG record with a 2:54 marathon. His applicable quote is: I train hard.

So...back to doing long runs once a week, along with a tempo run and an interval workout.

Saturday: 12k — 6k @6:00/k, 6k tempo at about 4:35/k
Sunday: Long — started with 18k, want to work up to 30k
Monday: 10k @5:30 -  6:00/k
Tuesday: 8k @ 6:00
Wednesday: 13k with 6k of track intervals, eg. 1000m x 6
Thursday: 10k @5:30 - 6:00
Friday: rest

With a 30k run that would be 83k per week.
Today I did 24k in 2:24:55, 6:08/k out and 5:56/k in. Felt ok.
Surprisingly, this was my longest run since June 17, 2013. I really got away from doing long runs and I think doing one once a week will be good for my strength and endurance. I'd like to run a good half marathon in the spring.

Merry Christmas and hope you will be running well in 2019.

Photo

Top 60s guy on the left ran 1:27. After him it was 1:32, 1:33, 1:34....

Quite Happy with a 1:34

My A race, the Toda Half Marathon (just north of Tokyo), was on Sunday, which was a perfect day for running, about 15°C, sunny and no wind. I was targeting 1:35, which is 4:30 per k. Actually, I wanted to run 4:30 pace and then speed up to about 4:20s for the last 6k, and that's exactly what I did.

Felt pretty comfortable at 4:30, within 4 seconds either way. There's a turnaround at 15k and I like to pick up the pace there. Last year I actually slowed from there, but this time the legs felt ok, so I sped up a bit: 4:19/24/19/22/26 and 4:44 for 1.1, which is 4:18/k - managed to kick in slightly.

That was good enough for 4th place in the 60s age group — no 70s! — an oversight which I urged the organizers to remedy. (I urged that last year also, but maybe they'll finally pay attention.)
Prizes went down to 6th, so I got a nice shoe bag.

It was a fun day, the club had 20 people there, most in the half, some in the 10k, and everyone did quite well, with a few others winning prizes.

There were 2,800 people in the Half (283 in men's 60s), so a decent-sized race. And 1,700 in the 10K.

Of course, compared to 70-year-old Gene Dykes, who recently ran a 1:22 half, 1:34 is, well, good but not great. Gene apparently does quite a bit of overdistance, even 50k and over ultras, so maybe increasing my weekly long run to 24k and then 30k will put more strength back in my legs. Of course, I used to do that, so I think I should go back to that.
Since I don't like winter races, I won't run another half until maybe April, so let's see what happens then.

Dec. 2nd I'll run a 7.4k leg on an ekiden team, then no races for 4 months.
Hope to be in Singapore for part of the winter, visiting my daughter.

Cheers!

Good Consistency

It's been one month since the 10K race, and now 10 days until the half marathon.
Training has gone pretty well, with no aches or pains, which is very nice! And the most important thing for good training.
(I do get occasional twinges of pain in my left knee when running hard, which is a bit scary, but so far nothing bad has happened.)

I said I wanted to start training harder, so have been doing the usual track intervals on wednesday nights, a half marathon pace tempo run on Saturday and a long run on Sunday, with minor variations.

I'm very wary of doing anything hard after a race, but after 3 days rest out of 5, was brave enough to try a 5K "race" on the high school cross-country course on the saturday after the 10K. They decided to let coaches run in the junior varsity races this year, so I decided to see what would happen. The result was pretty good — 20:58 on a quite tough course featuring two very long hills. Of course, you get to go down the hills also, but I think the uphills slow you more.

Then, interestingly, did an 8k tempo run the next saturday at 4:29/k pace. My pace during the 10K race had been 4:31/k. That's the difference between 34°C (93F) and 21°C (70F).
Then did a 20k run the next day at a decent pace.

The next Saturday was a 10k tempo run, also faster (45:04) than what I ran the race in. 22°C and of course my legs were not as rested.

18k run on Sunday, two easy days and the 5,000m time trial on wednesday, which I did in 20:42. Was hoping to go faster, but it was ok I guess.

Then Sunday the 4th was our club 10K/Half and BBQ, where I ran the 10k as a tempo run in 45:17.
Yesterday's intervals were 6 x 1000 in a little over 4:00.

So...if I can run two 45-minute 10ks and then another k, that would be a 1:35 half. I'm not completely confident about that, but I'll give it a shot on the 18th.

By the way, Ewen commented on my last post about training like Gene Dykes, the 70-year-old who ran 2:55 (which is back to back 1:27s, damn him!). I read two articles about him, which I loved. Best quote: "I train very hard." He's the best 70 year old in the world, so I guess I have to emulate him. Ewen: where did you find his training program? I'd like to take a look at it. Thanks....

And a Photo

Me with the second place medal. No prizes! Just a medal... :(

10K Race — Hot, Slow, 2nd Place

Hello to all my 100s of followers. Or perhaps there's only about 3 left. Anyway, I'm still hard at it.

After pretty good and consistent training in August (through brutal heat) and September, I managed a 20:35 5,000m time trial at the end of September. It was run in the rain, but at least it was a bit cooler. Still not satisfied with that, but it was an improvement.

Was doing mainly long and slow runs in July and August, but added tempo runs in September, 6 or 8k, including several with the HS cross-country team's varsity girls, so they were good efforts.

That was in preparation for the Nagareyama 10K on October 7th, a good race in Chiba pref. about 30 minutes east of Tokyo, that I run each year. Two years ago it was raining and cool, last year it was quite warm, but this year, unfortunately, it was extremely hot! 31C at 9:30 race start, which meant about 34C (93F) in the sun, and there was no shade. I like heat, but this was way too much.

So...after 3k I slowed down, as did most other people. Last year I won my age group (70s, although of course I still think of myself as being 45), but this year a fast guy showed up, who also slowed down, but had been planning to run under 40:00. He finished in 42:40, while I was back at 45:07. I felt like I was crawling along, especially up the hills, of which there were several, which were much harder than I remembered, due to the heat. It was a long, hot, hard day. People kept passing me and I tried to stay with them, but unsuccessfully. Very frustrating.

Anyway, 2nd out of 174 in the age group, 258th out of about 4,800 men.

Next up is a half marathon on Nov. 18th, my other favorite race. I'd like to run 1:35, but am doubtful, haven't been doing enough (well, any) long runs at a good pace. Hopefully I'll be able to start good training again on Saturday, so that would give me four weeks.

Beyond that, I think I need to get back to working harder in training, not just "long" easy runs. I used to do two hard workouts and one long run, 20k at a good pace, each week, with three easy days and one rest day. If I add another rest day, maybe I can start doing that again, being very careful not to overdo it. I'm just not capable of doing sustained efforts at speed anymore, even for 5k, and the solution to that problem is, work harder.
Of course, I've lost a lot of muscle mass over the last 20 and especially 10 years, but, hey, there are other 70 year olds (the above guy and two I've read of in the US) running under 40:00 for 10k, so why can't I?
It's important to set goals and work toward them. Even if you don't reach them, at least you gave it your best shot. As I'm sure you'll all agree.

Still At It

Hey guys, long time, no post. Sorry about that, but I'm still plodding along.

After a two-week rest following the half marathon in May, I ran conservatively in June, just trying to get back up to speed after the layoff - without getting injured!

I was successful in that — well, got back up to distance, the speed seems to be gone forever, although one can hope — managing to do a steady diet of 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100-minute runs in July. Plus the usual Wednesday night club interval workouts (typically 1000m x 6).

One slight change in the training regimen — I decided to take two days off a week, instead of one. So Thursday and Friday, after the Wednesday intervals, are rest days.
The week is something like:
Saturday: 90 minutes or a tempo run (starting at 6k easy, 6k tempo, working up to 10/10). The tempo run is designed to help get me in shape for a 10K race in October, and is a "hard" workout, which is one reason for the two days rest.
Sunday: 100 minutes, working up to 140.
Monday: 80/90 minutes
Tuesday: 60 minutes
Wednesday: intervals or 5,000m time trial (last wednesday of the month)
Other than tempo and intervals, all runs are at an easy pace.

"Easy" by the way, is very easy these days, as you've probably heard about the Japan heatwave. I like the heat, but running in the afternoon is too much even for me — 35~38C (38 = 100F), and that's in the shade! And it's humid as well. So I've taken to eating dinner at 4:30 (work? who works?) and running at 9pm.
The club intervals are of course at night — 7:30.

Speaking of the interval workouts, my legs are fairly tired each week, even with cutting back to 60 minutes on tuesday, but I've been working hard and running them pretty well. This week's 6 x 1000 was done in 4:28 (need one to get loose), 3:57, 4:02, 4:03, 4:08, 4:00 (about 4min walk interval).
And that was at 32C/60% (at night 32 actually feels a bit cooler - a bit).

It's fun, as I had four others to run with at the head of the "B" group. Fast guys, and women, are in the "A" group (4 mins and under). We have 30 or 40 in each group.

The time trial the week before, however, was done in 22:03. That's partly due to the heat and partly to the fact that I'm just slowing down. It didn't seem that slow! (If you're working hard and feel like you're running a 20:00 pace, but the time is 22:00, that's not a good sign.) Hopefully I'll be able to get some speed back by October.

So that will be the schedule for the next two months, maybe I'll post again in September to let you know how things are going.
Hope you are all running well!

By the way, speaking of the Tokyo heat, Brett Larner ran the Olympic marathon course the other day at 7:00am - two years before the event. Very interesting. If you don't read his blog, it's at
http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2018/08/running-2020-olympic-marathon-course.html

Half Marathon and Coaching

It's taken me a while to post this, but I ran the Karuizawa Half Marathon on Sunday, May 20th. Karuizawa is a famous resort area in Nagano prefecture, a 3-hour drive north of Tokyo.

 It was a nice course - mostly flat, and quite a bit of it on roads through woods, with many, many turns to keep it interesting. The weather was also good - 8°C at the start, but sunny so didn't feel too cold. 

I had a good, but not great, race. My dodgy hamstring held up ok, but I was worried about it, so didn't really "stride out" as I usually do, especially in the last 6km. 

I was hoping for mid 1:30s and ran 1:38:20, so not too bad. Won my age group by five and a half minutes. No awards ceremony, but they sent me a prize: a set of three jars of jam from the area (which is also known for craft beer - would have preferred that).

The altitude was 1,000m - I wonder if that affects your racing. They say that you can feel the effects when running at 1500 or even 1200m, but when you're racing a half marathon and have greater oxygen requirements, maybe 1000m can affect you. I didn't actually feel it, although I was on 1:35 pace for the first half and then slowed, and not looking for an excuse, just wondering. Anyone have an opinion about that?

I was 438th male out of 3,841.

On a different topic, this past track season I was an official coach at the American School in Japan, rather than just helping out. I coached the 800, 1600 and 3200m runners, boys and girls. Had about 25 runners.
The season recently concluded with the Far East Championships for international and US military schools (some of the military schools are very big, with lots of good athletes).
My runners did very well — a boy won the 800 and was 2nd in the 1600. Another boy won the 3200 - by about 150m). A girl won the 3200 and was 3rd in the 1600. 
And what I found out was that the feeling of satisfaction, the thrill, the emotional charge you get when runners that you coach win is much greater than from your own racing. Especially when my 3200m girl (a freshman,i.e. 9th grader) outkicked another girl to win by .5 second, I thought my heart might burst out of my chest.
Interesting - I never before realized that you can actually get more satisfaction from coaching than from running yourself. Although maybe this is truer when coaching high school students, because they're almost like your own sons and daughters, and you REALLY want them to do well.
So...I recommend coaching, if you ever get the opportunity.

Back with a 20K

Hi. Hope you've all been running well, with few aches and injuries.

I did a lot of long, slow distance for three months, finally getting up to 100km a week. In mid March I  dialed it down a bit, and did some tempo runs - 6-10k moderately hard.

My hamstring has been slightly sore, meaning I can feel something, but it doesn't prevent me from running. It's that annoying feeling like, if I try to run fast, this will really start to hurt.

Anyway, I decided I should give it a test, so entered a 20K on April 8th - yesterday. I planned to run it at a comfortable pace, and pick up the last 5k if I felt all right. Which is what happened - that is, the hamstring passed the test. It was a bit sore, but didn’t get worse. I was hoping to run about 4:40/km, and ran 4:44, for a 1:34:33. I ran about 24:00/5k for 15k, then 22:17 for the last 5k, so that was good.
I even passed an old rival (been racing him for 30+ years) with 2k to go, a nice way to end the race.

The race was Yokohama Road Race, not in the city of Yokohama, but a ways out in the suburbs. The flat course was along an asphalt path next to a river. It was a small, friendly race, 105 people in the 20K and 202 people in the 12K (men and women). I was 24th out of the 105, and there were a few 60s age groupers ahead of me, in fact, a 63-year-old ran 1:23:55.

It was warm when the sun was out, a bit cool when it wasn’t, and even cooler when you were running into the wind, which was moderately strong all day long.

I'll rest for 3 or 4 days, then start up again with light jogging. My next race, which is the one I'm really pointing to, is a half marathon on May 20th. Hope to run faster at that one.

Happy New Year (Happy meaning no injuries)

Haven't had much to report - more eating and drinking than running.
2017 did not end too well, running-wise, as I picked up some hamstring issues. Was looking forward to running a good 10K at the East Japan Masters Championships on Dec. 16, but was worried about the hamstring. It was ok - for 5k. At that exact point it began to tell me to slow down, so I did. Too bad, but I was at least able to finish.

So, have been resting and running easily, and seem to be pain and injury free. I'm planning to do nothing but long, slow runs for three months to build strength. Work up to two and three hours every day. I'll do the occasional interval workout, but not all-out.

I don't run races in the winter, so you may not hear from me again for a while. Hope to read some good results from you guys, however.

May we all stay injury-free in 2018!!!

Half Marathon: Not Bad but Not Great

I ran my annual fall half marathon on Sunday the 19th, finishing in 1:36:08. That's 4:33/km.
I was 8th in the 60s age group, they didn't have a 70s, so I was running against guys 10 years younger than me. Last year I was 6th. They gave out prizes to the top six.
I was also slower by two minutes than last year, the difference being the last 6k. Last year I sped up by one minute, this year I slowed down by one minute.
Still, it was not too bad, since as I said last time, I was not really in good shape for a half marathon.
Fortunately, my glue/hamstring benefitted from an easy week and three days rest prior to the race - it didn't bother me - it was just that my legs wouldn't move as well the last 4k.

Splits were: 4:15,37,32,27,38,35,29,26,26,27 (10K) 28,31,38,29,35,33,44,37,39,54,5:06.
The 20k split is wrong, they always have the mark in the wrong place. The last two were probably 5:44, 5:16.

The course is good, two slight hills on each of the two loops, so not really an issue. The weather was a good 14°C, mostly sunny, but it was fairly windy - it was in our faces about half the time,which I could have done without.

I had a good 10k from 3k to 13k, as I was running next to the No. 2 woman, and we were right behind another guy. Unfortunately, they picked up the pace from about 13k and I slowed down, so they pulled away from me.

All in all, a pretty good effort, but next year I'll probably run the 10K, where I would have been in the top six.

I'm resting all of this week.
Dec. 3rd is the Okutama ekiden, for which I organize our teams. I have 18 guys (3 teams of 6), so won't be running unless someone drops out.
I signed up for a 10K on Dec. 16th, the East Japan Masters Road Race, where I'll be in my own age group, so that should be fun.

Happy Thanksgiving! I stuffed myself with turkey - I guess maybe that's just an American thing.