Week 12: 14th ~ 20th September

Distance 74km

Time       6:49:39

This week I have been more busy with real life stuff than I had planned to be. I still managed to get 4 runs in and keep my weight in check. Normally when I get busy, my diet is the first thing that goes out the window, but this week I managed to stay away from the snack vending machine, at least more that usual. That is the best news of the week.

Monday 

HRV 74

RHR 43

Rest Day

Although Monday is usually a rest day I was in good form and looking forward to a recovery run. Unfortunately I got delayed and only got home at 9:30pm so I had to knock that on the head. It was the sign of things to come.

Tuesday 

HRV 70

RHR 47

Rest Day

Devil Craft

Tuesday I was meeting a friend over for Singapore so obviously no running. You would have to know my non-running friends. We went to Devil Craft in Hamamatsucho which is a relatively new Craft Beer restaurant, well new to me anyway. It has a large variety of different beers and great pizza. It was good to meet several friends, some I have known for more than 20 years in Japan and discuss Abe’s foreign policy and the state of Japan’s top corporations. I think that it is fair to say that we could do better with both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday

HRV 67

RHR 55

Namban Intervals

ithlete Pro 16 Sep

My first HRV red mark in three months. I thought about taking a rest and not going to the track, but as I had gotten home late the night before, I put it down to lack of sleep and packed my bag. It was tough from the start. I don’t know if it was the effects of the craft beer,  the long run on Sunday or a result of not agreeing with the Japan constitutional reform, but I was feeling it from the start. My legs were heavy, I really could not get going and my times reflected that. Not long ago I was seeing the 600ms under 2:10, the 800ms under 3:00 and a 1000m under 3:40. Hopefully a rest and a taper will see me right but I might not have enough time before Dublin which is just 5 weeks away.

600m 2:17 /800m 3:06 /1000m 3:47 /1200m 4:37 /1000m 3:56 /800m 3:01 /600m 2:16

 

 

Thursday

HRV 77

RHR 50

12.4km Recovery Run

I call this a recovery run as my average heart rate was at 125 and my max never went above 135. This is very unusual for me and I took it as a sign that I was recovering. Actually, it is quite bizarre for me to run at 6 min/km pace for an hour and my average heart rate not me in the mid 130s.

Friday

HRV 84

RHR 44

Rest Day

I was surprised to see my HRV back in good such good shape on Friday morning. ithlete Pro was telling me that I was recovered and to go back and do some intense intervals. Unfortunately, I had an appointment after work and could not get any running done. It is a shame to see such a good day go to waste but them’s the breaks.

 

 

 

 

Saturday

HRV 75

RHR 40

MAF Run 15km (Not really MAF)

I had a bunch of children related things to do on Saturday morning and afternoon but I had hoped to get out to run my 15km MAF run before dinner. Again, real life stuff got in the way and I only started at nearly 9pm. Even though I was only running at a 6 min/km pace my  heart rate averaged at 141 and that was after it had come down considerably in the second half of the run. I was also running at the same 6 min pace as on Thursday when was my HR was at 125, so something was definitely not right. Anyway I muddled my way through the run and hoped for better the next day.

Sunday

HRV 70

RHR 46 

34km Long Run w/ 6km at Marathon Pace (It was supposed to be 16km)

Vending Machine at 18km

Coach Stan had told me to try an 8km warm up, 16km at Marathon Pace and then an 8km cool down. That should not be too difficult 5 weeks out from the main event. Unfortunately it was not to be. I was still feeling the effects of the previous night but I got up at 6am as my son had an event that I had to take him to. I eventually made it out the door at 9am when it was already 23 degrees C and I was not feeling the best. I got a bottle of water just before the 8km mark as I knew I would not be able to go 16km without a drink. Actually, I was not able to run more that 6km. I was running at around 4:33/km pace which is similar to what I had been running last week for 7km, but this week it was too hard. When I got to 6km I knew that there was a drinks machine just off to the side of the track and I stopped my watch headed off for some shade and a cool beverage. I guess that I could have turned back at that point put then it would only have left me with 28km for the Long Run and less than 70km for the week. Hardly a stellar performance. I picked myself up and headed back out into the morning sun and up the track to Inagi where I crossed the bridge for the third consecutive Sunday and headed back towards Kawasaki.

Just over the bridge is probably my favourite vending machine of the whole route as it has a wooden owl guarding it. You can just about make him out on his perch in the photo on the right. The fact that it comes at the 18km mark when I am officially in the second half of the run is an added bonus. I headed back down the Tamagawa river towards KitaMikata with vague ideas that I would try to hit Marathon Pace again once I reached Noborito, but that never worked out either. I stopped a few more times on my way back as the sun rose and I felt more and more thirsty. I would like to meet the man who coined the phrase “Drink to thirst”. What do you expect? That is what I was doing for the last 10km of the run as I stopped in the shade to get some respite from the sun and to do my squats to get some respite from the pain in my right shoulder. It had been getting better of late, and I had been neglecting my exercises. On Saturday night it flared up again and on the Long Run it got pretty bad at times. Of course I only have myself to blame for not taking Pat’s advice and doing a bit of yoga.

I was happy to get home and into the shade again. I took a brief rest outside my building and tried some more squats. I had been hoping that by the end of September I would be getting better weather and that the Long Runs would start to approach what I was doing last Autumn when I ran this 34km course in 2:51. with Harrisson. Today it took me 3:02.