Riddle me this!

Osaka Half Marathon 2011

What do you call it when you don't go under your best time but had a race that you thought was your best ever?

Well whatever it's called I had one of those today! I'm waiting for the chip times to be posted but I have me about 40 seconds shy of my PB.

It was a good race, plenty of support, and I felt good throughout. A couple of things slowed me down and probably put pay to a PB. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "I was robbed" just making note of it cause I think it was significant.

Firstly, I was in the 2nd block back from the start which meant I had to battle my way through the first two K nudging slower runners when I had to. One fella wasn't too happy about this and threw his cold protecting "garbage bag" at me as I past. I lost about 10 seconds slowing down so I could give it back to him (Yes, I'm petty and vengeful too) ;)

After a few laps of Osaka Castle we were out on the road straight into a heavy head wind! This didn't help matters as it was just 3 degrees and the wind felt like it was going through the bones. Still, this was OK at first but with every turn it seemed to change course and be pushing back into our faces. This really didn't let up until the last 3K when it was at our backs. One guy I talked to later reckons that cost everyone at least two minutes and I agree the bloody thing almost bought me to a stop on occasion.

Well, I know I had a good race and that I'm in the best shape I've ever been so that's good enough for me! And another thing I'm pleased about is in the last K I past this guy I know to be a great runner and I have never beaten him before so unless he just had a really bad day; I'm making progress.

I've got another half in 3 weeks and even though it's a high climb up and back course I might PB there if it's a calm windless day ;)

The photo sees me heading for the goal (I'm the one in the attractive arm warmers in front of the guy in blue).



The boys and I after the race. Yes the sign says "Osaka Womens Marathon" the half I did was part of this and open to everyone. The elite women started at Nagai Stadium, our goal, and they looped back to Nagai stadium after running up to Osaka Castle, our start. The lead women past us at about our 10K mark. This along with the amount of crowd support, of course mostly for the ladies, was great and made us all feel like rock stars!



RESULTS JUST POSTED

1st 5K split (18:37)
10K 37:05 5K split (18:28)
15K 56:11 5K split (19:06)
20K 1:15:42 5K split (19:31)
last 1K and a bit(3:41)
Finish 1:19:23

Boys be Ambitous!

Once all the training is done if you want a PB, it's down to bold child like foolishness!

OSAKA MARATHON DETAILS

Breaking News



Just up, the details on the Osaka marathon in English. It seems that you will be able to apply yourself online on Feb the 15th, the day after Valentines, so lovers get your applications in early. Starts at 10:00am Japan time.

We at "Samurai Running" will still be organising great reasonable accommodation, tours/sightseeing and get togethers. Let us know you're coming and we'll help plan a trip that you'll never forget. Really it's going to be a great event. Come on over!!

http://www.osaka-marathon.com/2011/schema/gist_en.html

http://samurairunning.com/

http://www.osaka-marathon.com/2011/schema/pdf_en/course_en.pdf

"Slut"

Things are good, training is going to schedule. I'm really starting to feel like I've reached another level of fitness. I was running my own unscheduled 1K efforts today and did 3:17, 3:35, 3:19, 3:30, 3:16, 3:35, 3:19, 3:40 and finished feeling I could have done at least 3 more before slowing down. The thing that was different this time was that I was doing it relatively easy. Not that my heart rate reflected this cause for the fast ones it was near max, but I was doing those without busting a gut. I don't know if my heart rate is redlining and I feel like I'm not, if that is altogether a good thing? But it is a new development for me. We will see.

Have a look at the following my blog title is in reference to it, makes me laugh every time ;)

HR Training

Came across this blog somehow a few days ago.

I've not done it before, that is take whole chunks of other peoples post at put them here, but thought you'd be interested in what Tim Waggoner had to say and in his blog. I was, and am.

"And a little something to add. I've been doing MAF work since I had an ice cream with Mike Pigg after my first triathlon, the St. Croix International triathlon back in 1996. He told me to just train at HR 145-155 as much as possible and I would do anything I wanted. I listened and was the #1 amateur in the world at Ironman by 2000. I pretty much trained exclusively in that HR range. If you're patient enough to do the correct work you will see big gains. I posted a video on here in November where I was gasping for breath and walking up a hill to keep my HR down. Even jogging down a hill my HR would hit 150 with no effort. But I walked every hill and paid attention and I did the right thing. Today's run, just ~7 weeks after that video, illustrates what happens. I am a responder to this kind of training now because of the years I spent patiently building my economy. I was running sub 5:20 pace on the downhills today and my HR was holding right at ~155. Just sayin."

What do you reckon about what he said?

Recovered

Feeling better but took the second day off just as a precaution. Back to it tommorrow but in the meanwhile wanted to upload this cover of "Baker Street" which I was turned onto by a guy at work. Really like it. RIP Gerry Rafferty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8vXoFrKpa0&feature=related

Sorry couldn't upload here, copy and paste link.

Out of sorts

A day of rest.



Feeling a little out of sorts today and didn't run. I'm not sure if I'm just fighting off a bug or if I've just been running too much too fast of late. I had this kind of feeling at the end of my last training cycle when was doing 200K weeks. While I've only been running about half of that mileage recently I've done plenty of speedwork and I have a similar sort of pain in my lower back kidney area and I generally feel like someones put a big syringe in me and sucked out my energy!

Anyway should be fine after a couple of days rest and even feel a little better after spending time in the sauna tonight.

What I know now is I'm not going to run when I'm feeling like this anymore, I learnt this the hard way last time when I almost ended up in hospital! You can ignore most everything I say but I reckon, like Thomas, that recovery is the key to a long and successful running life and I'd advise you to forget about keeping up a "Running Streak" for its own sake. I reckon you don't have to take a break, day off, unless you feel bad but definitely have a down week, with less effort and mileage, once a month, whether you think you need it or not!

A minus

10K race report

Raced today. The local Sakai New Year "Marathon." They had a half, 10K, 5K, and 3K and 2K races for the school kids. I ran the 10K. It's the 4th time I've ran on this course, a 3K loop of Izumiryoukuchi park.

My time 35:52. That was 4th overall and 1st in my age group (40~50). It's not a PB but well pleased with the race as I felt strong, running well within myself and only really struggled the last 800m or so. Now I think about it I could of really pushed and got a PB but I don't know if I could have gone faster (things always look different after the race) anyways PBing is not always possible and it was a good workout for the upcoming full marathon, I just want to get used to running 17 to 18 mins per 5K at a clip were I feel strong and smooth and in control, and I think I at least did that.

Besides coming from an unhealthy base in September I've made steady progress with my fitness and speed (Oct 10K 38:26) (Dec 10K 37:26) (Jan 10K 35:52).

Next a half on Jan 30th and one on Feb 20th and another 10K on March 20th were I will target 34~33mins.

Denial

A recent poll taken and reported on the "Discovery" website reports...


"Of the 1,234 American adults polled, 89.7 percent said their diet was "somewhat" (52.6 percent), "very" (31.5 percent), or "extremely" healthy (5.6 percent).

But 43 percent of the survey respondents said they drank at least one sugary soda or other sweetened drink every day, and just one in four said they limited sweets, sugars or fats in their diet, the poll conducted in early November found.

Four in 10 Americans said they ate "pretty much everything" or "mostly everything" that they wanted, the poll found."

I've always wondered how us humans can hold two, or more, contradictory thoughts in our heads at the same time but we often do and need to be wary of it.

Some people wouldn't even see the irony of eating "healthy Asian" food at the following restaurant!

Same But Different

Speed-work and the Concrete Slide.

Yesterday I cleverly mixed a family day with my training when we went together to a park. While I was running the kids played in the children's playgrounds within the park.

My wife was with the boys and when I'd finished I found the eldest, the 10 year old, sitting sadly by himself. My wife told me that he wouldn't try the slider and she had been a little angry with him. While we love him dearly he is a wimpy kid and won't do anything that he is uncomfortable with.

In my best father's mode I told him....

"Look I just finished running 1km laps as fast as I could and each one was bloody painful and even though I thought I don't have to do this I could just quit and jog the session I sucked it up and finished knowing that it is only by doing things you don't want/like to do that you grow and get better."

"So get up there and slide down before I show you what it feels like to suffer the real pain of my foot up your arse!"

I know some will think I'm an arse for such rough treatment but I really believe that this lesson learnt early will save him a lot grief in the future and it's a case of being cruel to be kind.

My son did end up grimacing down the slide and I couldn't resist the "You'll thank me for this one day!" to which my wife replied "Mo eee!!" This can be roughly translated as "That's enough already!" (Always accompanied by the rolling of eyes).