MyNichi

Running Times – Sun 12th February, 2012

13:49pm. 8C, 4m/sec N wind and dry

A good effort today. Half marathon distance in sub- 1:30. Including a 2km warm-up. Didn’t feel too hard which is good on an 80km week. Averaged 4:15/k which is Tokyo target pace. 4m/sec headwind on the way out helped me on the way back. Don’t want to jinx myself, but I am feeling pretty confident in the condition of my legs, just need to be careful over the next two weeks. Good to see the average weekly pace coming down too.

Running Times – Sat 11th February, 2012

12:28pm. 8C, light wind and dry

Running Times – Fri 10th February, 2012 

6:44am. 3C, calm and dry

11.35km – 56:48 – 5:00/km

Legs still feeling heavy. No drop in weight despite being off the drink for 10 days. When I finished I saw a smart dressed businessman looking at the sun and praying.

Running Times – Wed 8th February, 2012

6:26am. 7C, 5m/sec wind from north

12.05km – 1:03:20 – 5:16/km

Might try and make a habit of bringing my camera out on my training runs. Today felt much harder than I expected. Wind was really quite strong – wouldn’t fancy Tokyo in these conditions.

The chosen pair

Chiba Marine Half Marathon

The plan from the outset was to run this as a Tokyo race-pace tune up. So I wanted to finish sub 1:30. Came in in 1:29:04. Reasonably happy with how I felt. Much better than in the Namban Half I ran a few weeks before Ohtawara last Nov. I had also ran 21k the afternoon before so my legs should have had a bit of accumulated fatigue for the race. I need two very solid BIG weeks now and see where that gets me.

Suwako Half

The global economic squeeze has meant that I’ve been making race entry decisions based on how easy, and more importantly, cheap it is to get to them. A while ago when considering the Suwako Half I was assured it was a day tripper. I signed up.

On closer inspection it seemed whilst a day trip was technically possible, staying the night before was the right way to do it. Still, I had the alarm clock primed and was psychologically prepared for the 4am start on race day when I received an urgent email from Namban Phil. A late cancellation meant there was a Super Azusa ticket and a room for me in a friend of a friends house.

The friend was a lovely Australian guy called Kim and his place was a spectacular wooden house, high in the hills overlooking the lake. It was 5-star treatment from arrival till leaving the following day. There was fine wine, craft beer, home-made bread and a pie made from zucchinis grown by the owners. I could get used to this …

Oh, yes yes, the race yes there was a race too.

A Half around the beautiful lake Suwa. Essentially flat, good surface. The weather was a little warm to begin with but cooled about halfway in for me. Others complained it was humid, something I’m normally pretty sensitive to, but the elite Watarase hot and humid half a month earlier must have conditioned me for it.

I wanted to run sub-1:25 at least. So did Cory (aka Beckham, according to a fan on the course), we jostled for position, till about 12k. I think we started a little fast, but then settled into 3:55/k pace till around 12k. Then I struggled a bit through the next 6-7k. He pulled out a lead that he held till the end. I was able to push a bit on the run home and with a sprint finish against an unknown adversary (who I beat!!!). I clocked 1:23:57.

A good satisfying run. Leg strength felt fine, don’t think I’ve done any damage. Thankfully my bastard calfs behaved themselves. Exactly four weeks till Ohtawara. Runners World race predictor suggests a 2:58 is possible for a Full, which I’d be very happy with given the last few disappointments.

In summary, a lovely trip, a fine race and a good effort from your man.

Here are the splits.

Better than expected TELL 10k

Having not run 10k in a while, and a recent 5k that I couldn’t even break 20 minutes, I wasn’t feeling too confident going into this race. 

It actually went very well. I finished in 38:44 (8th place). All the Nagano training wasn’t a complete waste then. I started fairly steady and was able to gradually increase the intensity as it went on. I gradually reeled in three guys who had passed me early on. A fourth managed a sprint finish to beat me by a couple of seconds. 

The race was two loops around the Palace. It’s basically flat apart from two decent hills on the north (up) and south (down) sides. I had done a few days of really tough hill work near Eiko’s parents home during Golden Week and I think some of it paid off. I started the final hill climb with the eventual 7th place runner beside me. I really powered up it. My heart-rate hit 186 at one point. Highest I’ve yet recorded. I was in front at the top but felt completely wrecked. My stride was all sloppy for a few seconds but I managed to get back into it and keep going till just at the finish he sped past me. I couldn’t respond.

Still very happy with my time and the bottle of brandy that I picked up for my troubles. Should be able to target a mid 18 minutes at the next 5k TT.