Love2Run

Happy New Year!

Things have settled down a little in my life. I have made some major decisions for my future, and also running with the team at school has come to an end, so I have more time to write on the blog. As a New Year's resolution I will try to be more faithful in writing.

AM: Ran 10 miles easy. It is New Year's morning and there is a Shrine near my home. There were many people coming and going from the shrine this morning. I will try to get in another run this afternoon.

Today I will spend a relaxing day watching the pro Ekiden race on TV.

There will be Ekiden on TV for the next three days. The Japanese love watching Ekiden.

PM: 6 miles easy.

Also, I ate too much today. :)

AM: Had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. It is the coldest day of winter so far and I just didn't feel like going out, but I decided I would just go out for an easy recovery run. Did about 6 easy miles. Maybe 7 minute pace.

Going to watch the first half of the "Hakone Ekiden" today.

I am cheering for the Tokai University team, because I did volunteer work with them at last spring's World Relays here in Japan, and got to be friends with a couple of the members on the team.

AM:

Started this morning with a 5 mile progression run. ( I have no idea what my pace was, because the battery in my watch has died.)

Then did 10 x 400m hills (walk down the hills after each)

Finished off with a cool down to reach about 12 miles.

I will watch the second half of the Hakone Ekiden today.

I am cheering for Tokai University. They are currently about 3 minutes behind that leader.

It has been a fast race this year. Nearly every stage record has been broken, and the course record for the first half of the race was also broken by the first four teams.

It is probably because nearly every runner is wearing the NIKE Vaporfly shoes.

Below is a link to a summary of the first day of the race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=cPvgb0s_ovo&feature=emb_logo

I will run more this afternoon.

PM:

6 easy miles

AM: About 8 miles at a fairly good pace to end out the week. Aoyama Gakuin University won the Hakone Ekiden. The team I was cheering for, Tokai University, had the fastest time over the return course on the second da, but it was not enough to catch Aoyama. Tokai University finished in second place. Both Aoyama and Tokai broke the existing course record. A link for the highlights of the second day is below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=343&v=IOfrAziqreE&feature=emb_logo

Went to church today. I am looking forward to Sunday school this year at church. We will be studying the Book of Mormon, which is my favorite scripture. I am always very thankful for those on the blog a few years ago that introduced me to the LDS church and the Book of Mormon. It has changed my life for the better.

I walked a mile from my home to the train station, then from the next train station I walked another mile and a half to the church. So for a round trip it was 5 miles of walking.

AM:

Ran a warm up.

Then 10 x 1000m fast (I don't know the time for the intervals because I still haven't replace the battery for my watch.)

Cool down to 10 miles.

PM:

8 miles easy

AM:

Did an easy 6 miles today. Felt a little sore from yesterday, so I thought it would be good to have an easy recovery day today.

AM:

It was raining this morning so I didn't go out running. One of the best things about running and training on my own instead of on a team is that when it is raining like it is today, I can roll over and go back to sleep instead of going out running, and I don't have to feel guilty about it. It is supposed to be nice weather this afternoon, so later today I will try to go for a nice run.

PM:

6 easy miles.  The sun came out and it was nice and warm this afternoon.

AM:

1 mile warm up.

Very fast 6 mile run. ( I really need to get my watch fixed. I would've really liked to have had a watch to time this run, because it really felt fast.)

1 mile cool down

AM:

3 mile warm up run. 10 x 400 meter hill sprints (walk down recovery) Cool down run to reach 10 miles.

PM:

8 easy miles. 

Went to a sushi restaurant for dinner tonight and ate too much.  

AM:  

6 easy miles.  Today is going to be a recovery day.

AM:

Went to church. Total of about 5 miles of walking in going to and coming home from church.

PM:

Just relaxed watching TV.

AM:

Warm up.

Ran 5K in 18:15.  Not a hard pace. No heavy breathing.  Legs started to feel it a little at the end.

I have a 10K race this coming weekend.

I would like to run about this pace for the 10K.

Cool down to about 6 miles.

PM:

6 easy miles.

AM:

3 mile easy run.

Did some hill sprints.  I usually do 10 x 400m hill sprints, but today they were doing some kind of construction work at the bottom of the hill, so I had to run a shortened version of the hill (about 370 m).  To make up for the shortened distance I ran 11 hills instead of 10.  I noticed after the first hill I wasn't feeling the burning in my legs at the top of the hill.  I think it running through that burning feeling and going to almost complete failure that brings about increased strength.  On the remaining hills I tried to run them faster than normal to reach failure quicker.  It seemed to work.

Cool down run to reach 10 miles.

PM:

Easy 6 miles

AM:

It is raining very hard this morning.  Good day for a rest day.  :)

Ran the course for this weekends 10K.

It is a real hard course.

The first 200 meters is level, then takes a steep downhill after which it is level until about 5K.  After that it gets brutal.  It is up and down.  At about 7K there is a steep downhill section for about 1K down to a turn around point and then back up the same hill.  I was about dead at the top of the hill.  It is then level to the end.

I am trying to figure out the best way to run this course.  I am thinking if I push it at the first and run the first 5K fairly fast, I may be able to just hold on during the last 5K to the finish and still get a good time.

I didn't realize that this was going to be this hard of a course.

If anyone has any good ideas on how would be best to run this type of hilly course, I am open for any suggestions.

AM: 6 easy miles

AM:

6 easy miles.   I think I am ready for tomorrows race. I just hope the weather is good.  It is really windy today.

PM:

3 very easy miles.  The weather has turned very cold.  There is even a chance of snow tomorrow during the race.  I am not sure what kind of clothing to wear for the race.  I don't run well in cold, but I also don't want to wear heavy clothing.  :(

Ran the Nomura Katabiragawa 10K.

According to the weather forecast it was supposed to be a cloudy cold and windy day, but the weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was sunny and warm.

I got to the race and did a good warm up.

At the start line, the front row was for the invited guest runners, and then somehow I was able to line up right behind them on the second row, so my starting position was good.

My race plan was to go out hard the first 5K and try to get a good time at the 5K, and then to somehow hang on during the hilly last half of the course.

At the start of the race I stayed with the guest female runners. I was surprised how easy it was to keep up with them, and then I thought, maybe they were running a different race strategy than me. I was running the first half hard, but maybe they were running the first half easy and then going to push it in the last half.

I stayed with them until about the 5K mark, then as soon as we hit the hills, they started getting away from me. I do a lot of hill training, but these hills were tough. My lack of strength showed.

I got to the long downhill section at about 7K. It felt so nice to kind of just coast down the hill. That little bit of rest was what I needed. It wasn't as bad coming back up the hill as I had imagined. Once reaching the top of the hill it was level running the rest of the way to the finish.

I ended up 3rd place among the women, and 25th place overall. I was hoping to run about 36 minutes, but I ended up 37:05. I ended up being more than a minute behind the two guest runners.

finished off with a short cool down.

On the podium after the race, I noticed of the men runners, all of the runners were wearing the Nike Vaporfly shoes. Of the women however, 1st place was wearing New Balance, 2nd was wearing the Vaporfly and I was wearing New Balance.

Very stiff and sore from the race.

Ran just an easy 6 miles.

Still sore today, so just another easy 6 miles today.  I think I will finish off the rest of the week with just an easy week.

AM: 6 easy miles

PM: 6 easy miles

AM:  Nice relaxing 6 mile run (more of a jog).

PM: 3 easy miles

AM: 6 miles

PM: 6 miles

AM: 3 easy miles.  Didn't feel very well, so I cut it short at 3 miles.

Went to church in the morning. Walked a total of 5 miles going and coming.

Then after church went home and watched the Osaka marathon on TV.

It was a good race with an exciting finish. The eventual winner was running to try and secure a spot on the Japanese Olympic marathon team. She had to run 2:22:22 or faster to do it. It was close, but she did it and finished in 2:21:47. She burst into tears at the finish and I couldn't help but cry with her.

AM: Ran 6 miles. First time since last week's race that I have pushed it a little hard. It felt good.

PM: Ran an easy 6 miles.

AM: It is raining very hard here this morning.  There is a chance of snow.  I slept in today instead of running.

PM: It stopped raining long enough to get in a 3 mile run before it started raining hard again.  The rain is supposed to last through tomorrow morning.

AM: There was very heavy rain all night and through the morning when I usually do my morning run, so I got some extra sleep this morning instead of running. The rain has finally stopped and I can see some blue sky, so I will do a run this afternoon.

PM: Ran an easy 6 miles.  

This evening we went to an Indian Curry restaurant for dinner.  I love Indian Curry.  The nan was delicious, but I ate way too much of it.  :(

AM:

Did a warm up run.

Ran 20 x 200 m sprints (with 200 m recovery run between each). 

Did a cool down run.

It really felt good today.  My plan for this coming year is to run a half marathon later on in Autumn.  The candidates for the marathon I am thinking of would be at the end of October or the beginning of November.  I am hoping to run several 5K and 10K races during the year to keep race sharp.  I need to do some research on how to train for a half marathon.

This March after finishing high school, I am hoping to go with some of my friends to Hawaii for a graduation trip.  I am hoping to stay at my real dad's house, but that all depends on if he is okay with it (and more importantly depends on whether or not he is shacked up with some bimbo at the time and she is okay with it).

PM:

Did an easy 10 mile run.  It was a good run and felt good even though this mornings workout was hard.  

But then about 50 meters from my home I was running on the sidewalk, when all of a sudden a guy delivering newspapers comes around the corner onto the sidewalk on his motorcycle.  I had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by the motorcycle, and when I did I landed wrong and twisted my ankle.  It was the same ankle that I broke a couple of years ago.

When I tried to stand I could not put any weight on my foot.  A kind man that saw it happen helped me to get home.  It is good that it happened close to home.

It really makes me mad that the man on the motorcycle didn't even say sorry or stop to see of I was okay.

My mom took me to the doctor and I had my foot X-rayed.  The doctor said he didn't see any fractures on the X-ray and that it looks like I had a bad sprain.  I must go to have an MRI tomorrow because small fractures don't always show up on an X-ray.

My ankle is all swollen now and I can't walk on it.  It is good that I still have my crutches from before.  I am on crutches again.

I hope that all it is, is a sprain and that it will heal quickly.

AM:

Went and had an MRI on my ankle. There is no fracture in my ankle, which is a very good thing.

I am still unable to put weight on my ankle, but the swelling today is much better than yesterday. It is still swollen though.

The doctor said to stay off of the ankle and use crutches for the next three days, then to try putting weight on it again. If it is still really painful, then to use the crutches again for the next three days, and keep repeating this until I am able to put weight on the foot.

I asked how long it would take before I could run on it. He warned me not to be tempted to start back running too soon. He said the worst think with athletes is they are afraid that they will lose their conditioning and so rush the recovery. He said often by rushing the recovery results re-injuring the location and so recovery ends up taking longer. It is better to take it slow and recover completely before training again.

He works with a lot of athletes so is aware of what kinds of things athletes are worried about. He gave me a list of some high intensity exercises that I can do without having to put any weight on my ankle. That way I can workout at an elevated heart rate so that I won't lose a lot of endurance. He also gave me some suggestions on weight training and other exercises that I can do so I won't lose a lot of muscle while I am recovering.

After I am able to put weight on my ankle again, he gave me some exercises to do to gradually increase my ankle strength.

He is a really good doctor and I really appreciate the amount of time that he spent with me today to ease my worries and help me with suggestions so that I can keep the loss of fitness to a minimum during recovery.