Kamakura Rough Water Swim 5k

人生初の5kmOWSは甘くなかった。。。なんとか完泳はしたものの、タイムオーバー。公式記録は出なかった。

コースは材木座海岸から沖へと並べられたブイに沿って4周。1周目が1.4k、2周目が1.3k、3周目が1.2k、4周目が1.3k。（お？合計が5.2kになってるぞ。。。）

1周目、チェックポイントを通った時点で41分。まあまあのペースだと思えた。2周目も中盤までは順調で、このままあと2周は楽勝じゃないかと思ったのだが、2周目岸側の折り返しで給水を受け取ってボートにつかまったら足がつってしまった。これでどーっと不安に。

とりあえず岸側の足がつくところまで泳いでいき、足をついてストレッチ、マッサージ。棄権するかどうか迷ったものの、とりあえず痙攣がおさまってきたので泳ぎ続けることに。 この時点で時計を見ると既に1時間25分経過。。。まずい。距離はあと半分残っているのに、タイムアウトまであと1時間5分しかない。。。それでもいけるところまで行って、できればアイアンマンの距離3.8km以上は泳ごうと、沖へ泳ぎだす。

この後は足の痙攣との闘い。足を使わず腕だけでそーっと泳いでいたものの、誰かの手があたったりすると、すぐにつる。つってもどうしようもないので、しょうがないからそのままそーっと泳ぎ続けるうちにおさまる。今度は逆のあしがつる。仰向けになってちょっとだけ足をストレッチしてまたそーっと泳ぎだす。その繰り返し。

3周目を終えて給水をとると（今度は変な姿勢にならないように慎重に）、私以外にもまだ泳いでいる人が2～3人いることがわかり、奮起して4周目。痙攣はもう、友達みたいなもんだ。う、また来た、あ、いなくなった、あ、また来たよいらっしゃい、そんな繰り返し。いつ、タイムオーバーでつかまるかびくびくしながらも、泳ぎ続けていくうちに、最後のブイをターン。ここまで来たら、タイムオーバーでもなんでも5km泳ぎきりたい！腕のストロークのピッチを早める。すると、周りにいる数少ない同志たちをスイスイ抜ける。最初からこのピッチで行ってれば、もうちょっと時間に余裕ができたのにな。だが、また足が痙攣。仰向けで休憩。また出発。これを繰り返しながらなんとか岸までたどり着いた。

とっくに泳ぎ終わっている仲間が出迎えてくれた。私はVサイン。時計を見たら2時間41分も経ってた。タイムオーバーだけど、やっぱり5km泳ぎ切れたのはうれしい。自信になった。 首の後ろとわきの下はウェットスーツの擦れで大きな擦り傷。手首や足首はクラゲに刺された。なんかもう、満身創痍。ひどく日焼けもしてしまった。

5kmは甘くなかったね。でもでも、これで痙攣もこわくなくなった。いや、こわいけど、DNFしなくても乗り切れることがわかった。 泳ぎきった感触としては、スタミナ的には補給なしで問題なし（その後75分のトレイルランも問題なくこなせた）。だが、やはりもっと速く泳がないといけない。今回、8時間でマラソンを走る人たちの気持ちがちょっとだけわかった。

いろいろいい経験になった。来年もやるぞ。そして時間内にゴールするのだ！

Murakami Triathlon, the mission completed

Last Sunday, I went out to Murakami for 51.5k triathlon with Ma to overcome Niijima swim DNF, and the mission was happlily completed. Here is the report I posted to Namban (my running club) list.

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2:43:51 71st overall, 1st AG

S 35:59 131st

B 1:21:16 77th

R 46:36 51st

This race wasn't on my annual race calendar until I had a traumatic Niijima experience. I decided to do this because I just couldn't leave it without doing anything. Therefore, my mission for this race was to finish and I am happy to be able to do so this time.

Swim

The sea was very calm and flat, and thanks to the Kamakura swim with Jay, David and Ma a week ago, I didn't have fear in the water anymore. I started at the very end of crowd to avoid any brutal battle and made sure to myself to start very, very slowly. About 10 minutes after, I found myself feeling comfortable in the sea, and also picking up the pace a little by little. I comleted 1.5k without problem and even had 4 minute PB.

Bike

The course was mostly straight and flat, and all you need to cope with was the wind. I regret that I didn't bring Keren's DH bar that I have been keeping for a long time. But after the turn around point, we had fabulous tail wind all the time. I was also lucky to have a woman company all the time. I had to work hard to keep up with her. Without transition, I think my bike time was about 75minutes. (Need to work more on transition!)

Run
The heat was the factor. Also I was afraid of having a cramp in my leg, but thanks to the electrolyte tab Mary gave me, it didn't happen to me this time. And maybe because of IM training these days, 10km run felt quite short for me, but it doesn't necessarily mean I could run faster, unfortunately.

I won my age group (out of only 5 people) and had 5kg of rice. Nice bonus! I like triathlons because of this! :-D

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On the final note, thanks to Ma, Motozo, Meg, Adam, David S., Ben, Tony, Vanessa and Tomoko for sharing a good time there.

Mt. Fuji Hill Climb

Yesterday, I did my first Mt. Fuji Hill Climb race. It's one of the biggest cycling events in Japan and more than 5,000 participants gathered in a park at north foot of Mt. Fuji. The weather turned out to be great and we could see gorgeous Mt. Fuji from the starting area as you see in the pic.

I like the colourfulness of bike races. It's fun to watch colourful bike gear and pricy bikes. Being always minority on the road, it's a nice feeling to see 5,000 cyclists at once and dominate whole road to 5th station of Mt. Fuji.

The course is about 25km all the way uphill to Mt. Fuji 5th station (go-gome), from 1,035m to 2,305m. It may sound tough, but ascent is very mild, there's no more than 8% slope, not like 15 % of Utsukushigahara. Still, you need some work to keep climbing for all the way 25km, but great scenary and cool fresh mountain air helped a lot.

After a 100 minutes of hard work, I finally reached the goal at the 5th station. Hundreds of racers who left me or passed me were already there, celebrating each other, eating, drinking and getting ready for descent.

This descent part is the most fun. I can say I climbed more than 1,000m because of this. You cannot race this part because it's too dangerous (I saw one accident on the way), but 25km all the way down hill with no car was such a thrill! It's the reward only for who complited the race.

My official time was 1:39:50, 14th in 36+ women category (out of 141 finishers, so I was top 10%).

This is highly recommendable bike race for beginners as well as experienced cyclinsts. They also allow flat handlebars and MTB's and I saw many bikes with small wheels. If you feel like doing something different next year, you should count on this.

The post-race udon was delicious!

不調。

毎年春から初夏は調子が悪い。冬場のマラソン練習でたまりにたまった疲労に逆襲されるような感じ。さらに花粉症に追い討ちをかけられる。シーズンオフ気分にひたって体重増加。モチベーションもどーんと下がる。ま、ここ3~4年ぐらいはだいたいそんな感じだ。

しかし、今年はそれに輪をかけて不調だ。体重の増加も著しく、身体のむくみや疲労感もより顕著。足指を打って怪我をしたり、先日のトライアスロンではスイムでおぼれそうになってDNFしたりと、どーもいけない。身体感覚がどうもヘンだ。なんなのだ、これは･･･、と思っていたところ、こんな記事を読んだ。トライアスリート、藤原裕司氏のトレーニングエッセイだ。
http://www.tri-x.jp/article/?p=112

人間の身体には生理的リズムがあり、パフォーマンスが順調に向上していく「順調期」と、疲弊した身体をリセットして復元させる「適応期」と呼ばれる期間があるそうだ。この適応期に気づかずに無理をするとドツボにはまり、長期的スランプに陥るという。読んでいくとあてはまる点が多数（無気力・疲労感・食欲ありすぎ・むくみ・倦怠感etc）。どうも今の私はこのドツボにはまっているようだ。

思えば今年は面白いほど体調の波が激しかった。

●年末～1月
大阪国際マラソンのための走りこみ月間で、過去最高のマイレージを刻んだ。疲労はたまったが特に故障もせず、走りこみの成果も実感できた。

●1月下旬～2月中旬
ターゲットレースをまずまずのタイムで終えた後、なぜかさらに調子が上向きに。マラソン3日後の5000mタイムトライアルでシーズンベスト。トラック練習でもスピード、スタミナ共に非常に充実。「もっともっと走れそう」というハイな気分になっていた。

●2月中旬
ある日（それはスキーに行って帰ってきた日）を境に突然走れなくなった。身体が重い。息が切れる。タイムがまったく出ない。つい3日前まで絶好調だったのに。

●3月
1月のトレーニングの貯金で東京マラソンをとりあえず完走。その後花粉症期に突入。日に日に体重増。モチベーションゼロで腰が重く、トライアスロンのトレーニングになかなか移行できない。

●4月
スイム特訓&バイク練開始。ランのマイレージは当然落ちる。トラックのタイムがどんどん落ちてくる。そしてどんどん太る。異常食欲。肌荒れ。身体のキレがまったくなくなる。

●5月
上旬に足指を怪我し、ランお休み。また太る。スイム特訓、オーバートレーニング気味に続ける。バイクは週1ペース。中旬、新島トライアスロンで呼吸困難DNF。トラック練習では絶好調時のキロ30秒落ちペースでせいいっぱい。ラストに必ず脚がつる。

●ここ1週間
異常食欲が収まり、とりあえず体重は微減中。ランはキロ6分ペースのジョグのみだが、なんとなく“底打ち”感が出てきた。調子のベクトル、上に向くか!?

・・・藤原氏の記事では、4週間が1周期だというが、私の不調は足掛け3ヶ月。どっかの「適応期」に対処を間違えてドツボにはまったのかも知れないし、別の理由もあるのかも知れない（今週、貧血検査の結果を聞きに行く）。

調子の波、というものをこんなに顕著に経験したのは初めてだ。トップ選手はこういうことも含めて調子を合わせていくのだろうな。人体とトレーニングの関係の奥深さを実感している。

Bike, swim and run weekend.

Saturday, 107km mountain ride from Sagami-ko to Yamanaka-ko out and back. Lots of hills, mostly ups for outwards and fun down hills for backwards. I saw gorgeous Mt. Fuji in Yamanaka-ko. I love mountain ride. Swam in the evening. 300m x 5 with wetsuit on. Tight, but managable. I haven't decided wheater ro buy new one or not.

Sunday morning, just went out to Yoyogi Park and ran 21k with iPod on. 6m30s/k pace. Took a swimming form lesson with Ma-san in the evening. It was good. I should take it every week from now.

DNF at Niijima Triathlon

Last weekend, I made a trip to Niijima with other Namban tri mates (Mary, Phil, Motozo, Jay and Nick) for my first triathlon race for the season. I took this Olympic distance one as a season opener and it was supposed to be a fun race.

When I looked at last year's results, I found out that third place woman's time was slower than my Oshima time last year. I suddenly got ambitious. "I might get podium."

I have been swimming a lot, compare to last year before Oshima. I joined early morning swim sessions twice a week, doing lots of drills and interval training for full 2 hours each. I also joined Saturday evening swim squad. My upper body especially arms got bigger because of it. I was the most confident ever about swimming and I was rather looking foward to it than being scared. But....

Here is the report I posted Namban list.
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Mika Tokairin DNF

My first DNF triathlon. It's ironic because this was almost first time I wasn't nervous about swim leg and I even had slight confidence from recent early morning swim sessions I have been joining.

I started with 2nd wave group and about couple of hundred meters after the start, around the first buoy, I started to have difficulty with breathing and I had to keep my head up all the time swimming with breast stroke. Lots of people passed me and even 3rd wave group was approaching me with furiously fast (I felt it that way) pace. The breathing problem got worse and worse and I started to feel fear, but thank God! I found a rescue guy near me. I held his rescue board for a while and regain my breath. The guy said to me "It should be all right. Just start slowly, don't rush, relax, you can do it!". "OK, I will try..." I said reluctantly and started to swim towards 2nd buoy.

First, it seemed to have worked out. My breathing was calm and steady. But super fast 1st wave group started to lap me with furiously fast pace (I felt it that way) and my heart rate reached to maximum level because of fear and I started to have breathing problem again. I tried to continue but it again got worse and worse and I really had to stop. "I can't do this any more, let's look for the rescue guy who helped me while ago." I looked around, and found that I was middle of nowhere (I felt it that way). But this time, I really. desparately needed help. I shouted "Hey!!!" while doing dog paddling. No one noticed me. Again, "Heeeeeey!!!!". No one responded. I panicked. My breathing problem was getting worse and worse and some negative idea crossed my mind. I shouted as loud as possible. "?#&%$(?=$#!!!!!!!!!!!", then "zgjhgbvwbiqzpwbnvtzabn!!!!" and "bnrmdohesdkfjhgakdf!!!!".

One rescue woman finally found me and started to come to me with super slow (I felt it that way) paddling, talking to me "Daijobu desuka---? (Are you OK?)". No. Definitely not OK. I was rescued and came back alive! My first triathlon of this year finished less than 20 minutes (I can't believe it all happened in such short time. I felt it was like forever).. Shame, but I am glad that I stopped. This is the first time I ever had a life-threatening moment in a race.

I don't know why this happened to me all over sudden. Some said my wetsuit is too tight. Could be true, I gained my weight and my upper body got bigger because of hard swim training (and too much eating). Some said it must be cold water. Could be. It actually felt cold to me when I went into it. Or there could be other reasons. Whatever the reason was, I have to get over this experience. I hope this will be good lessons for my future races, especially for my first Ironman in this August.

Congratulations to Mary (prize winner), Motozo, Jay, Phil, Nick and Sumie! Watching and cheering you guys was really fun and I felt it was worth coming even though I couldn't finish. And big thank you to Phil for arranging such great place to stay.

END
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Today, I went to the doctor. He is a internist and also a sports doctor Yoshiko introduced to me. He sees many marathoners. I told him what happened during the swim leg. He said, "It might be some allergic reaction. Do you have hey fever?" I said yes. He said "When your immune system goes down for some reasons, sometimes you will get sudden allergic reaction. Nervousness or too much excitement before the race can lower immunity. Over training, too."

"I'm not 100% sure, but since you are OK now, you don't need any medication. Just choose the right time for next race. Spring is not very good for who has allergy."

Hummmm, sounds like I can keep training. That's a good news. Let's hope it won't happen again in Canada.

Quick report on Osaka Women's Marathon 09

3h 11s 02s
5k 22:13 / 10k 22:00 / 15k 22:18 / 20k 22:05 / half 1:33:27 / 25k 22:29 / 30k 22:39 / 35k 22:58 / 40k 23:52 / last 2.2k 10:28

This was my 4th fastest time. Sounds mediocre...but I think this is decent result, at least it wasn't embarrassing faliure. Actually I was quite happy yesterday while I still remember the pain at the race. I told myself, "Mika, you did well. 3h 11s is good time. You should be proud of it."

A day after, I am not sure.....