3 Weeks out!

Update (see video) and as for my shaking house, stopped and hasn't started since so I hope that's the last of it. Still have no idea why!

What the Hell!?

My house has been shaking like this since yesterday? Very freaky stuff? Watch video and tell me what you think!

Good News

This morning I received a package in the post and on opening it I was surprised to find a trophy for 6th place in my age group in the Takatsuki marathon! You remember the one where they stopped us so close to home. I didn't end up contacting them as I found in the small print where they said they may have to stop because of traffic concerns, so I just accepted it.

But it seemed someone knew what happened. It was either an official or the guy that passed me to get 6th that helped with this but I shouldn't have doubted that things would be put right. It is not for no reason that the Japanese are known for being honest and honorable. I was very happy about this.

5 weeks to go!

Not really related to running but this clip is amazing to watch (Thanks Mary). A year in the life of Japan and its earthquakes. To know just how much seismic activity there is here and still be able to sleep at night says a lot about us here. Good and bad! Note March 11th 2011! Coincidently the Kyoto marathon will be held on the 1st anniversary of this tragic event.





The next 5 weeks I have this basic plan. Firstly to get down to 60kgs or slightly less (63kgs now).

To get faster. I feel I have some speed but will start on some intervals and a lot of smooth fast pace striding over the next 4 weeks to improve on that.

I need to build my endurance: Yesterday I did a hilly 32Ks at about 4:30 per K pace and feel beat up today. So maybe I should slow down on these runs. My marathon plan has me tapering on the long runs from the week after next but I haven't been getting in many long runs because of so many races on Sundays recently. So I'm not going to taper that hard. I want to get in at least 3 more over 30K long runs in before the marathon as I need them for confidence and to help get the weight off.

As the Kyoto marathon is hilly I can't go into it carrying any extra weight. I know that if I'm light and race fit I'll be able to handle the hills. It is really up and down until about 25K and if I can get to there on pace it's overall down from there and I'll definitely be looking at a PB!

So if I can stay healthy, fix my lingering groin problems, and get to the line light and with a big enough endurance base and I can jag a good weather day in March, I might be looking at hitting the 2:30s!

A lot of bloody "ifs" I know but this is the game!



Running with Album: Odyssey Number Five (above) these days. Easy to run to!