Ironman Japan

Keren
170th (Category F 14th)
11:45:13
S 1:15:48
B 6:30:28
R 3:58:57

Jay
226th (Category E 36th)
12:14:08
S 1:27:46
B 7:13:41
R 3:32:41

Stuart
374th (Category D 78th)
13:22:36
S 1:22:36
B 8:09:24
R 3:50:29

Akira
DNF (What happened?)
S 1:26:52

Mitsu
198th (Category N 8th)
11:58:02
S 1:17:46
B 6:30:30
R 4:09:46

Congrats to all of these brave Iron men and woman!
http://www.ironmanjapan.com/english/index.html

Monday swim squad.

With this monday regular swim squad, I swam 3 days in a row. Maybe because of that, I could swim more confortably this time. Coach Greg kept telling me to relax, but "trying to relax" is as hard as being natural in front of a camera lens. Anyway, this time I tried to get a sort of swinging rhythm when I move my arms and I seemed to have succeeded as Greg said I swam the best ever.

This day, I also learn back stroke and breast stroke. I think there are still so many things to learn in my life.

◎Swim: 1km (more or less, with crawl, kick, back stroke and breast stroke)

Training with Iron Men.

Saturday morning, I joined Keren's workout at Arakawa. He said we would do "brick workout", but I actually didn't know what it was and just blindly followed him. After some kilometers of bike ride, we stopped at a track along the riverbank and took off helmets, changed shoes into running shoes, then started running 3 laps of 400m track. Then wore helmets and bike shoes again and started another lap of bike ride. After all, we did 5 times of 5km bike rides & 1200m runs. It was hard (for me). Each time I ran at the track, my time got 20 seconds slower and I was almost dying at the end. But it was very good practice for bike/run transition, and also for using different muscles alternately.

In the evening, I joined a wetsuit swim at Yoyogi Taiikukan swimming pool with Keren and David. I was in the slower group and did 100m x 15 intervals, then 500m of drifting. It was hard (for me) and got really exhausted after the morning brick thing, but Keren, who was supposed to be tapering, did even more.

Sunday morning, I went out for an open water swim with Keren and Jay in Hakkeijima. It was the first experience for me to swim in the ocean, but thanks to the instruction by Keren the master of OW swim, I survived in the sea without drawning, I even enjoyed the experience. But I learnt how hard swimming straight in the ocean is, and how salty the sea water is. After that, we went out for jogging around Hakkeijima. (BTW, Hakkeijima is a great place for a training weekend. We talked about proposing a run/swim/BBQ weekend with Namban people sometime in summer.)

It was a tough weekend for me, training with these Iron Men, and I really wonder if Keren is actually tapering...But Keren, I would say you missed one thing. You skipped the Gary & Mami's party part. It was actually a bike/run/swim/party day. I am the only one who completed whole programme!!! :-D

◎Bike: 85km(Sat)
◎Run: 6km(Sat) and 8km jog(Sun)
◎Swim: 2km(Sat) and 1.5km(Sun)

Is bike bad for running?

Wednesday, I went to regular Namban track workout and joined 1000m x 6 intervals. During the 4th one, I got cramp for my calves and hamstrings for both legs and had to pull out from the session. Couldn't see the reason why this occured to me. Hmmm, maybe because I am not fully recovered from the cold last week (still some symptoms remain)? Or more likely, the hard bike workout last Sunday made my legs worn out? But it had been already 2days since that.

Steve and Gareth's verdict:
"Bike is bad for running, you are going into the dark side".

Maybe, but the darkside always looks sexier.

Monday, swim squad.

Monday evening, I joined the regular swim squad at Tokyo Taiikukan swimming pool. Coach Greg told me to count my strokes while I swim 50m and to try making less strokes each time, and also shortening time. It was hard! While I was doing 8 times of 50m, the number of strokes stayed almost the same, or sometimes more and the time got slower as I got tired. 48 strokes was the best I could do, and 63 sec. was the best time. It was also difficult to count numbers while I was swimming hard.

50m x 4 of warm-up (some drills and slow crawl)
50m x 8 of hard swim, counting strokes
150m x 3 of 100m slow and last 50m fast
250m free
200m cool-down

◎Swim: 1500m

Sunday, Yoyogi, Thai fes and Ooi Futo.

I was going to ride with Westy people in the morning, but due to rain, I gave up and headed to Yoyogi Park to run with Namban mates. I ran 18km altogether with mostly aerobic pace. I think this is the longest distance for these couple of weeks. I have been lazy about running for long time.

After running, we, Satohi, Steve and me went to Thai Food Festival nearby. Gareth and Takao, and their friends, then Gary and Mami joined a bit later. Had a yummy and good time with variety of Thai food and 3 tins of beer.

Since the weather cleared up, I decided to go to Ooi Futo to fulfill my bike ride mission. Did 40km there hard. I was tring to ride with 30km/h average, but it turned out to be 29.7km/h average. Well, almost!

◎Run: 18km
◎Bike: 62km (40km hard, 22km just come and back)

はじめての、ウェットスーツスイム。

水曜に走ったのがたたり、風邪は悪化の一途を辿ったが、なんとか今日のウェットスーツスイムまでに回復。

ケレンとスチュアートに教えてもらったウェットスーツスイム。代々木体育館の50mプールで、ウェスティ（トライアスロンショップ）のしらいしさんの指導のもと、行われた。

ウェットスーツってとにかくきつい！ファスナーを渾身の力をこめて上げる。サイズが違うのではないか？と思うほど。特に私のは、ワンピース型なので着脱が大変。このままでは鬱血して死ぬのでは？と不安になったが、水に入ってみるとあら不思議！すごーくラク。なーんの努力もしなくても、ぷっかぷっか浮くのだ。まるで自分が浮きになったみたい。あとは足をテキトーにばたばたさせて、腕を動かしてれば前に進む。たのしー！もちろん、腕の運びはグレッグコーチに教わった通りに気をつけながら泳ぐ。

月曜日のように、ひとり違うメニューで泳ぐこともなく、女子の中では2番目あたりの位置で泳ぐことができた。（１番は、アイアンウーマン、ゆきさん。彼女は男子より速い！すごい！）

ウォームアップの後、100mを4本、その後200mを8本泳いだところで、足がクランプ！結局このクランプのせいで、残りの練習は棄権となってしまった。がっくし。でも、楽しかった！

My first wetsuit swim.

Although my cold got worse after the track workout and had to stay at home another working day, I somehow managed to join the wetsuit swimming session at Yoyogi on Saturday.

It was my first ever experience to swim in a wetsuit, and was soooooooooooooooooooo much fun! I felt as if I am a good swimmer! My anxiety about swimming part cleared away. I think I can complete the swim part with this suit. :-)

Because of my health condition, or because I was just too excited by this brand-new experience, I ended up with terrible leg cramp and couldn't complete the whole workout. Cramp...my new anxiety for the race.....

100m × 4（2:00 for each 100m）
200m × 8（4:20-4:30 for each 200m）
100m × 1 (cooling down）

◎Swim: 2100m

風邪。

月曜日から通常営業を始めたと思ったら、火曜朝から喉が痛い。風邪らしい。水曜になると、まるで花粉症みたいに鼻水だらだら。結局火曜、水曜と自宅で仕事することに。パジャマのまま1日過ごしていると、まだゴールデンウィーク中みたいだ。や、仕事はやってるんですよ、かなり必死で（〆切り地獄）。ただ、化粧もせず、靴も履かず、誰ともしゃべらずに2日間自宅にこもっていると、なんかこう、どんどん社会性が失われていく感じがして。実は結構それが心地よかったりもするんだが。ヒッキー予備軍なのか? オレ。

で、風邪は完治してなかったが、夜、南蛮のトラックワークアウトへ行くことにした。遅れて到着すると、
みんなは南蛮マイル中。私はその後の800m×5だけ参加。ゼイゼイヒューヒュー言いながらなんとかこなして、ハイ終了。

2:59
3:05
3:00
3:03
3:07

この日は、トライアスリートのミツさんとユキさんが南蛮練習に初参加。ふたりともトラックは初めてだそう。南蛮には今、女子トライアスリートがいないので、おふたりが常連になるといいなあ。土曜日のウェットスーツスイムは、ユキさんにお世話になるのだ。

ところで大島トライアスロン。すわ、たった一人で行って帰ってくるのか？初マラソンのときみたいに？と思っていたのだが、蓋をあけてみたら、スチュアート、アダム、アキラがエントリー。もとぞうが保留中。たえこさんとまみちゃん＆ギャリーが応援と、賑やかになりそう。こりゃ、うかつにリタイヤできないなあ。でも楽しみ。あくまでホリデイレースだからね（すでに言い訳の伏線）。

その前に、土曜日までには風邪を治さなきゃ！

通常営業。

ゴールデンウィークも終わってしまった。思えば今年もトレーニングに明け暮れた連休であった。。。

さて、月曜日からいやいやながら通常営業。連休中にちょっとぐらいは進めておくべきだったことをサボっていたため、仕事山積み。しかしそれを尻目に夜はいそいそと東京体育館のプールへ。それでも30分ほど遅刻してしまった。

この日もグレッグコーチのもと、フォーム改善＆習得のためのさまざまなドリルをやった。今日はなぜか、嫌にプールが混んでたなあ。みんな仕事から逃避してきたのか?ってまさかね。

ケレンとスチュアートに、今週土曜日、ウェットスーツを着てのスイム練習会がある、と教えてもらった。行かなくては！

Back to normal days.

Golden Week is over. I got back to normal working days reluctantly. Monday, despite the loads of work to do, I left the office quite early (for me) and joined regular swim squad in Tokyo Taiikukan swimming pool.

Today I did...

200m one hand stroke drill
300m holding stream line drill (I can't discribe!)
400m 25m fast 25m slow swim
200m can't remember....
300m free cool down swim

The pool was very crowded somehow. Keren and Stuart told me about wet suit swim coming Saturday. I have to do it!

◎Swim: 1.4km

Relaxed 10km at Yoyogi Park.

I was wavering what to do this morning, bike? swim? or run?, and at 9:30am I finally decided to go to Yoyogi park to run with Namban squad. I did nice relaxed sociable 4 laps of Yoyogi loop, then cycled back home. It was a good recovery run from yesterday's race.

◎Run: 10km

GW, run, bike and run/swim.

Wednesday, 1000m x 6 at Oda field. Struggled to make under 4 min each time. I am definitely losing running speed. Dinner and Karaoke afterwards with Namban mates were so much fun!

3:47
3:51
3:55
3:57
3:53
3:56

Thursday, went out for a bike ride with Keren, Stu and Denis in Itsukaichi-Hinohara-Kosuge-Okutama area. Perfect weather for a bike ride. We did over 100km with 5 big hills. Compared to those iron guys, I am outstandingly slow at uphills, but somehow I am fast at downhill, which you only need daredevil-ness. Anyway I really enjoyed the day.

Friday, no training.

Saturday, TELL race. I did 10km and came 5th. Time was 43:14. Pretty slow, but I am happy to get a Nike bag and Roti dinner ticket. Keren made under 40min. He is definitely reaching to the higher level as a ruuner. A bit jealous, but he deserves it considering how hard he is training for the IM. After the race I went to Tokyo Taiikukan for a swim. I enjoyed a relaxed 1.2km swim.

◎Run: 10km (Wed), 10km (Sat)
◎Bike: 110km (Thu)
◎Swim: 1.2km (Sat)

スイム。

月曜恒例のスイム教室。今日もみんなとは違うレーンで初心者用レッスン。

片腕のびドリル（何て名付けたらいいんだ、この練習） 300m
25m仰向けバタ足＋25mゆっくりスイム　200m
25mダッシュ+25mゆっくりスイム　300m
ウォームダウン　300m

土曜日から中1日しか経っていないせいか、いつもより水をとらえるのが上手くなっているような。1日おきぐらいにやれば、かなり水に慣れることができるのかも。せめてGW中だけでも、もっと頻繁に泳いでみようかなあ。Gregコーチからは、ゆっくり泳いでいる時より速く泳いでいる時の方がフォームがよい、と言われた。必死にばしゃばしゃやってるだけなんすけどね。

今日も塩素たっぷりの水を飲んだ飲んだ（笑）。

Swim squad.

Monday regular swim squad. I was doing the beginner's workout in the separate lane as usual.

I felt I have improved in capturing water especially today, maybe because it's been only 2 days since last I swam. I heard that more often you swim, the more efficiently you learn, because getting used to be in the water is important as it is not a usual thing to do in your daily life. I will try to swim more often at least during this Golden Week. Coach Greg told me my form is better when I swim faster. Well I am just tring as hard as I can and never concerned about my form...

◎Today's effort: 1,100m swim