Jelly fish sting.

Last Sunday, I joined Kamakura open water swim with Jay and Keren. As soon as we started, two experts swam away and immediately went out of my sight. They were so fast. I felt I was swimming backwards....So I never had a chance to actually swim with them, but I swam some distance anyway.

Still it was good to experience open water, it's been more than a year since last time I swam in the sea (Oshima tri 2006).

Next morning, I realised that I got stung by something. My feet are covered with numerous red spots and they are super itchy! I remember I had some electric-like shock when I was in the water. Must be jelly fish! Ahhh it's so itchy and looks really ugly!

◎Sunday
OW swim: ??km

◎Weekly mileage
54.1k

◎Monday
Run: 10.5k

◎Tuesday
Run: 5.5k

◎Wednesday
Run: 13k (Incl. 5000m TT, time was very slow)

◎Thursday
Run: 8.5k
Swim: 1.3k

To train in the moring.

It's always hard for me to secure evening time for training. Therefore I used to train in the midnight. But I realised that it's far more stressful and in the first place unhealthy. Now I try to train in the morning (morning for me means anytime before noon).

Recently I have been successful in training in the morning time, before breakfast, and I realised that it's really effective to lose weight! I often run 5 to 10km then go to swim straight after and recently I lost more than 3kg. As I lost weight, I feel better and more motivated. I think morning training has much more benefit than you think.

◎Thursday
Run: 5km slow

◎Friday
Run: 11km upper aerobic at Yoyogi Park
Swim: 1.8km at Olympic Centre

◎Saturday
Run: 15km at Yoyogi Park
Swim: Form lesson

Track.

Swam in the morning. I think I am getting better and feel easier in the water than pre TI era. Still need lots of practice.

In the evening we did a sort of big ladder, 800m/1200m/1600m/1200m/800m/400m. I wasn't brilliant, but kept pushing until the end. (Thanks to ultra girl Kuri-chan)

◎Today
Swim: 1.5km at Olympic Centre
Run: 13.1km total at Oda field

Rest.

The damage from yesterday's ride & run was bigger than I thought and I am totally worn out today. So I skipped the swim and took complete rest.

Meanwhile, I would like to report my post anaemia condition. Still, I am not feeling 100% fit when I run, but I gave up troubling about it and settled my mind to just keep taking iron tabs everyday. Now, I am taking around 30 to 40 mg of iron everyday plus vitamin C, plus multi vitamin. Patience and steadiness, that's all I need.

Okutama after typhoon.

Keren and I went out for a bike ride in Okutama. This time, we started from Musashi-Itsukaichi station and rode over Kazehari Toge and down to just before Okutama lake, then turned back. I had a flat tyre and thanks to master Keren, I learned how to fix it. It was a good hard ride. After coming back, I left my bike and luggage at home and went to Yoyogi Park to run. I met Adam Y. there, the second time for today!

◎Today
Bike: 88km with big hills.
Run: 10km at Yoyogi koen.

Learning "Total Immersion".

I borrowed Total Immersion DVD from Stuart and watched it Friday night. Before I watched, I though it would be like Billy's Boot Camp for swimmers, but actually it was totally different. It was the method to tell you how to feel natural and relaxed in the water and how to swim with minimum water registance. It's nice just to watch actually because they swim so beautifully. Keren told me that his friend improved his time by only watching the DVD and now I can believe it. Imprinting the image of ideal swimming form is useful. But a beginner like me needs something more than that, and I was wondering how to acually learn this method. While I was watching the DVD, I tried it on the floor, but it didn't really work.

Saturday was my first come back day for Shiraishi-san's swim lesson after more than 1 year. I told him my desparate situation and asked him to teach me the form. I wasn't sure what he was going to teach me but it turned out that he teaches TI method! Good! He taught me all the basics and it was very useful for me. I am alreadly feeling better in the water!

Sunday, after running 10k with Steve at Yoyogi park, I ran to Olympic Center and swam in the pool. Try to drill the TI method. I can't do it perfectly after only 1 hour lesson, but I feel the difference now.

BTW, Shiraishi-san is organizing this swim squad Saturday evening at Yoyogi Taiikukan swimming pool. If you just want to join the intervals, it costs 1,000yen, and if you want to learn TI from him, costs 2,000yen. If you are interested, please let me know.

◎Saturday
Run: Easy 8k at Yoyogi park
Swim: TI lesson at Yoyogi pool

◎Sunday
Run: Easy 12k at Yoyogi park
Swim: 2k at Olympic center

◎Weekly mileage for running
52km

Starting training log again.

This suppose to be a motivation blog. I have forgotten about it for a while. So back to the basics, I start my training log again here.

◎Yesterday
Run easy 7k at Yoyogi park
Swim 1.6k at Olympic center pool

◎Today
Run easy 8k at Yoyogi park

Sprint tri at Showa Memorial Park.

Last Sunday, I did a triathlon at Tachikawa. It's sprint distance (S750m/B20km/R5km) and I thought it would be a good practice for Suzu.

This race revealed my crucial weakness. Swim.

Here is my result.
Overall time 1:29:38, place 27th out of 87 women. (6th in age)
Swim 21:04 85th
Bike 44:56 11th for bike part (45th split pl.)
Run 23:38 8th for run part

I was the 3rd from the bottom at swim part. I knew that I wasn't a good swimmer, but this result is quite shocking. We swam 2 and 1/3 laps in a swimming pool and top group lapped me!!! Winning time of swim part was 10:17 and most people finished a way under 20 minutes. I wonder how do they swim that fast....

50 days before Suzu. Can I really complete 2.5km swim part there?