25km pace run and US olympic trial.

I did 25km pace run at the Palace with Harriers group. I joined 4:40/k group but I kind of wanted to run faster, I took off at 2km and ran by myself to the finish. Still there are many runners running around the Palace and I tried to keep the pace by targeting and catching up one by one. My laps were: 23:25/22:08/21:56/21:56/21:53
I felt OK till the end. Happy with it.

Today is the day of the US olympic marathon trial and Brett and I were so much looking forward to watching it via the Internet. However, we found out that the Internet broadcasting was blocked for international viewers. We got shocked. Especially Brett did, and he spent almost an hour to find out the way to break the block, and finally, he found the link to a (sort of) independent broadcasting site! Thank God! Thank Brett!

We could watch more than half of the race and...it was great! Not only witnessing Ryan Hall's brilliant victory, whole race was so dramatic. It was just like we were watching a sport movie. The result was:

1. Ryan Hall
2. Dathan Ritzenheim
3. Brian Sell
4. Khalid Khannouchi
5. Jason Lehmulke

いやー、すごかったよ。

39k, failure.

Today's run supposed to be the last long run and the longest run before Tokyo Women's. However, it turned out to be a failure attempt.

I started at the National Stadium with Motozo and ran with pretty good pace (4:50/k) up to 3rd lap of the Imperial Palace, but during the 4th lap, I started to feel heavy on my stomach. Digestion problem! I know the feeling, I have experienced it twice during marathon races. Once I have it, I just can't run anymore. I had to slow down, and then, to walk. I walked and slow-jogged back to the National Stadium. I think I ate breakfast too close to the starting time. Short of sleep for these 3 days might have affected in some way, too. Anyway, my last chance to do a long run was screwed like this. Bad day...

Yasso 800s with 3min.

Yesterday, I tried Yasso 800s at the track. Despite my last minute notice, 4 people joined me. (Arnaud, Joachim, Rie and Omar, thanks so much!).
What we did was, 10 times of 800ms in 3 minutes with 400m of recovery jogs (nearly 3 minutes). We managed to do it fairly strongly, and I am quite happy about how I felt afterwards. It wasn't easy for me, but it wasn't that bad. When I did the same thing last year, the damage afterwards was awful and I had to change my training programme.

>>Consequence of Yasso 800 (Sep. 2006)

I can't say I can run 3 hour marathon right away just because of this, but it turned out to be a good confident builder.

3:05/2:58/2:59/2:57/2:59/2:58/2:58/2:58/2:56/2:57

34k including Tokyo Women's course.

Last Sunday, I did another long run with Rie, Yuri and Akira.

Started from the National Stadium, followed the course of Tokyo Women's up to Jimbocho, then headed to the Imperial Palace, did 4 laps and came back the same course to the National Stadium Marathon Gate.

This time we didn't really care about the pace, just kept a bit faster than 5min/k until the Yotsuya uphill, since pushing at the hill with tired legs was the purpose for this long run. When the hill started, we tried to run faster, and faster, but I was the one who had to try the hardest perhaps. Yuri seemed easy following me, Rie was looking just OK and Akira passed me at the end of the hill. Anyway, everyone finished strongly at the National Stadium and I was quite happy with it.

Only regret was, I miscalculated the distance. I thought it was 36k altogether but actually it was around 34k.

This made my weekly mileage 103km.

30km at the Palace.

Sunday, I ran 30km, 6 laps of the Imperial Palace. Seven Nambanners started together but soon after we split into 2 or 3 packs. I ran with Bob all the way and thanks to him, I could do the run with the planned pace (30sec faster in each lap), well, almost!

24:47/24:34/23:51/23:07/22:56/22:34
2h21m53s in total.

Monday morning, I helped Harriers at their 30k pace run in Yoyogi park, mostly doing water hand-out and helped pacing 5min+/k group for 10k. After the workout, we invited Harriers coaches to our place to watch Izumo Ekiden and Chicago Marathon video with Pizza and Coke. Chicago finish, both women and men was spectacular. It was fun afternoon.

32k in the rain.

On the day of dreadful weather like today, it's essential to make a prior appointment with other runner fellows, otherwise I would have skipped this long run today.

Thanks to the company by Jason and Neil, Paddy and I did 32k and Christian 38k (with 4:30 pace!!), despite the rain, muddy road and headwind sometimes.

This made my weekly mileage 123km, monthely mileage 393.5km. Considering that I had injured weeks, I should be happy about these numbers.

In the evening, I got trial acupuncture by Russ. I thought I should do something for my quad after this high mileage weekend because it was getting tight these days. It was the first time for me so I was a bit scared, but it was fine and he gave me many useful advieses. He did something (I couldn't see what he was doing...just too scary) for loosening my tight muscles. I hope it will work on my problem.

On the last words for today....
Congratulations to Gebrselassie! 2:04:26 a new marathon world record!

Coming back to runner's life.

The tri experience left me glorious memory. Now, I quickly have to shift to runner's training programme.

This morning, I ran 31km. This is the first over 30k since London Marathon in April. I started around 6:30am. The weather was perfectly cool with a little bit of rain. I ran through Yoyogi park, Harajuku, National Stadium area, Akasaka Palace, 3 laps of the Imperial Palace, then came back with the same route.

I ran about 5:40 to 5:11/km pace and felt OK till the end. Good.

I came across Gareth and Katakura-san in Yoyogi park when I came back.

◎Tuesday, 21 Aug.
Run: 11.5k fartlek at Yoyogi Park
Swim: 1.1k

◎Wednesday, 22 Aug.
Run: 5.5k in the morning at Yoyogi Park
15.2k in the evening at Oda field, 1200/1200/1000/1000/800/800 5:00/4:58/3:56/4:01/3:19/3:05

◎Thursday, 23 Aug.
Run: 5.8k jog

◎Friday, 24 Aug.
Run: 6k jog
Swim: 1k

◎Sunday, 26 Aug.
Race

●Weekly mileage (run)
67km

◎Tuesday, 28 Aug.
Run: 11.5k

◎Wednesday, 29 Aug.
Run: 5.5k in the morning at Yoyogi Park, 14.6k in the evening at Oda field (5k TT 21:24 total, 4:37/4:24/4:16/4:11/4:06)

◎Thursday, 30 Aug.
Run: 10.5k at Yoyogi Park

◎Friday, 31 Aug.
Run: 10.3k around the neighbourhood

●Monthly mileage for August (run)
384.7km

◎Saturday, 1 Sep.
Run: 31km

Coming back to night shift.

Because of this fierce heat in Tokyo, I am giving up the morning runs these days. This evening, I ran around Picture Gallery with escalating pace. The air in center of Tokyo is now better because of Obon holiday.

◎Tuesday, 14
Run: 11km at aerobic pace, up to 4:35/km pace.

2k swim.

Last week, I only swam 600m. That's not at all enough for my situation. So Monday evening I went to Tokyo gym pool in Sendagaya and swam 2km in a row. It took 50 min, but I was happy that I could swim as far as 2km. Adding warming up and warming down, it was 2.5km altogether, the distance of Suzu course!

At the moment, I am ignoring the fact that I have to cycle 100k and run 23k afterwards. My goal is to get to the bike in one piece.

◎Monday, 13
Swim: 2.5km at Sendagaya
Run: 6.5km easy to and from the swimming pool

Hakuba weekend.

I went to Hakuba (north Alps) for family reunion. I was expecting nice, cool weather there, but actually it was very hot.

Saturday, we went up to Happo-one (ridge). We went up by ropeway and ski lift and then my brother and I decided to go further up. We left our parents , sister-in-low and 3 year old nephew there and started speed trekking. When we almost reached the top of Karamatsu-dake, we decided to return because we realised we kept them wait too long. It took 3 hours return and they were very angry when we got there. Only my nephew Goro looked happy because he had good one hour nap in the fresh mountain air.

Sunday, I decided to go out for run by myself, I was hoping to do a nice trail running but I couldn't find any trail around the hotel I stayed, so I reluctantly started to run up the mountain roads that completely exposed to the sun. I would say Yoyogi park course has much more shade than this. After 2h 20m run, I got worn out and decided to stop. Hakuba supposed to be a place to escape from the heat. Why is it so hot here? Is it the global warming or just because it's summer?

This week not much swimming and no bike at all.

◎Friday, 10th
Run: 14k at Gosho course
(Skipped swimming)

◎Saturday, 11th
3 hour trekking at Happo-one (say, 1ok)

◎Sunday, 12th
Run: 20k at Hakuba road (hills).

●Weekly mileage (for run)
96.6km

Earlier morning.

This week, I am able to run in the hour most people would agree to call it morning, around 7:30am. Compare to the hour I called "morning", it's far nicer to run especially in this season. Cooler and smells nicer in the Yoyogi woods. The only problem is that my body is still asleep during the run and get sleepy during the day. I guess I am still nocturnal. Can this habit be reformed?

◎Tuesday, 7th
Run: 10.5km at Yoyogi park

◎Wednesday, 8th
Run: 5.5km in the morning at Yoyogi park
15.1km in the evening at the track and Yoyogi park

Just a log.

◎Friday, 27th
Run: 13k easy at Yoyogi park

◎Saturday, 28th
Bike: 98k at Okutama
Swim: Form lesson

◎Sunday, 29th
Run: 16k at Yoyogi park
Swim: 1.5k in 35min with weatsuit at the swim squad in Yoyogi

●Weekly mileage (for run)
66.5k (5.5k short)

◎Monday, 30th
Run: 10k easy at Yoyogi park
Swim: 1k at Olympic centre (100m x 6 + w.u. & w.d.)

◎Tuedsay, 31st
Run: 8k easy at Yoyogi park

◎Wednesday, 1st Aug.
Swim: 1.1k
Run: 13k at Oda field (1000m x 6)

◎Thursday, 2nd
Run: 10.5 at Yoyogi park

◎Friday, 3rd
Swim: 1.4k at Daikanyama
Run: 17k at Gosho

◎Saturday, 4th
Run: 9k around neighbourhood
Swim: 1.5k in 33min with weatsuit at the swim squad in Yoyogi

◎Sunday, 5th
Bike: 60k at Ooi futo
Run: 20.3k at Yoyogi park

●Weekly mileage (for run)
89.3k

◎Monday, 6th
Run: 11.5k at Yoyogi park
Swim: 0.6k at Olympic centre

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

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