Marathons and your heart: Long term, good; short term, bad

This is kind of scary.

The Long Haul

I know it's going to sound slightly masochistic, but I've been looking forward to my long run all week. Since starting the Hal Higdon schedule, I've actually whittled down the milage per week I have grown accustomed to, and in an illogically backwards chain of events, I feel like I've had more difficulty getting through the new routine, despite the drop in distance. So with the approach of today's 6 miles on the horizon, I see an opportunity to return to my comfort zone once again: the long slow distance (LSD). Why is this the case? I have a few theories: 

1) Running Fasterer—subconsciously, I've cranked the volume to 11 compensating for the knowing lack of length in my jaunts through the streets of O-town. Therefore, I'm burning myself out early on by hitting the hilly course too hard. 

2) Another day/Another dollar—While it's true I'm running less miles per week, this new routine has effectively added another day to my schedule. Before, I was running 5 miles 2 (or 3) days a week, Tuesday & Thursday (with optional Saturdays). On Sundays, I would run a long slow distance (LSD) of about 8-10 miles. But here in Higdon country, I no longer have the luxury of that rest day in the middle of the week. So when Thursday rolled around this week, I was aching straight out of the gate. I should also note that my run on Wednesday was late in the evening, with my Thursday run early in the morning. Recovery time, and nutritional replenishment was in short supply. 

3) Where Is My Mind?—The week prior to commencing this marathon training endeavor I was pretty excited to get things underway. The program starts on a Monday, and Monday happened to be a rest day. I'm a big fan of any new routine that begins with me having to do nothing. Instant success! Now, Monday leads to Tuesday, as so often is the case, and I feel like I psyched myself out about the importance of this first run. It shouldn't have mattered that much, but it was a big deal, since in 125 days from the moment I took that first step, I would be doing this thing for real, where it counted most, surrounded by a whole hell of a lot of other people trying to get through this same thing alive. 

We'll see how week two goes. Despite the weather growing increasingly bitter cold, I remain optimistic. 

Rhythm Method: The Ulfuls' "Gattsu Da Ze"

In contrast to what Joe wrote, I'm not so sure that running music is all that subjective. I recall reading a while back that there was a study that showed that people tend to line up their pace with the pace of the music they're listening to, so faster music means faster running. This seems like once of those no-duh things that you didn't need a study to prove, but basically you should get music whose beats per minute (BPM) matches the pace you want to run.

That said, it still probably helps if it's music you actually like as opposed to something that drives you nuts.

So, being in Japan, I thought I'd start with a Japanese song, so here's one of my long-time favorites, Gattsu Da Ze (ガッツだぜ) by the Ulfuls. Not only does it have a decent BPM, but it also has lyrics that are basically telling you kick some butt, all mixed together with a nice dollop of Ulful silliness, which is much more apparent in the video (which I had never actually seen until writing this post).

Cross training on a bike

Tokyo, Week 1, Day 7; 3.3 miles on a bike.

So I've never actually bothered to consistently cross train before. Back in high school and college (and, randomly, one of the times I was in Beijing), I often went for a quick swim after running since there was a pool right next to the lockers, and always loved how loose you feel after that. The problem is I'd actually have to shell out cash and spend time going somewhere to pull that off here, so that swimming off the list.

Back in high school, we also had stationary bikes that I used to use for a post-warmdown warmdown sometimes, and that had a similar effect of loosening things up. Well, as a I have a cheap bike (complete with a basket on the front for carrying things) that I bought at Saty primarily for transportation purposes back when I was living it the 'burbs of Tokyo, I broke it out for the first time since moving to Tokyo proper for today's work-out.

I was kind of time constrained because I needed to be back before my wife needed to go out, and that constraint got worse because I needed to pump the tires, get the bike out of where it was stored, etc. I ended up not having a lot of time, so I just decided I'd do the same course I did yesterday, but with only one lap around the park-like thing.

Since I don't have a wrist-borne time device of any sort (I use a Nike+ iPod when running, but that's not so useful when riding a bike), I had to improvise, so my wife gave me a kitchen timer to put in the bike's basket. It did the trick, but it almost fell out of the basket as it bounced violently around when I decided to ride the bike down some steps that are on the alley part of the loop.

Anyway, what's the verdict? A 3.3-mile bike ride feels like nothing, even for someone who never rides a bike. I barely broke a sweat and was back in no time at all, although I did get the loosening-up effect I was looking for. I'm definitely going to have to up the mileage next week so maybe I'll actually feel like I had a work-out.

The Rhythm Method 01

This will be an ongoing series of posts dedicated specifically to the music that gets us pumped to run. Obviously, more so than anywhere else on here, this will be the most subjective section. What works for us, may be way off the mark for others, but all the same, music is an important aspect of life we can often count on to get us in the right frame of mind to take on the miles ahead.  

In the process we might convert a few new fans to stuff you may not be aware of (or just forgot about). I know Vincent has a grab bag of goodies that will have you guessing as to their country of origin and native tongue. Or we might send you into a full-bodied convulsion fleeing towards the nearest fire escape with hands firmly planted over your precious assaulted aural anatomy. If nothing else, we've succeeded in what we promised to do: introduce music that makes you, for better or worse, want to run.

Final disclaimer: I grew up firmly planted in a freshly tilled bed of punk rock/post-punk soil. Though I have embraced a much broader palette of musical paints as I've aged, many of the portraits I paint now are reminiscent of those same fertile fields I wandered through as a wee lad, which still evoke a similar elation. To this day, for me, there's really nothing quite like the rumbling guitars that invite the monstrous swell of visceral energy that sends your heart into a frenzy trying to punch its way out of your chest in the opening seconds of Minor Threat's Filler on a warm spring afternoon. Ah, this post wasn't meant to wax nostalgic on the issue of music, but what the hell, there it is. 

First up: The dB's Black & White...

Running with Chaba through a fashion shoot

Tokyo, Week 1, Day 6; 6 miles, 9:53/mile.

Today was one of those days when you look out and you think, "Maybe if I wait a bit more, the rain will stop." Sadly, that's not going to work when you're at the front end of a typhoon. So despite the rain and wind, which both got progressively worse as I went along, Chaba and I enjoyed our little run.

Today's course was around the Institute of Nature Study, which looks like a big park in the middle of Tokyo on Google maps, but in fact is some kind of science thing like the Morris Arboretum back home. Bottom line for runners: you can't run through it, but you can run the perimeter.

And that's what I did. The south and east sides are right next to lots of green stuff, so you feel like you're in a park, while the north and west sides are mostly a kind of alley between houses on the outside and some big road on the inside. Part of it is covered completely from the rain.

It's about a mile from my house to the closest part of the perimeter, and then it's about a 1.3 mile loop around the park, so that meant three loops and change plus the runs to and back.

It was on my third and final complete loop that I had one of those only-in-Japan moments. I was running through the fairly secluded alley part on the north side in a part that was out of the rain, when I saw some guy holding one of those things you use to reflect light up at a photo shoot. As I got closer, I saw three photographers snapping pics of some girl modelling clothes, and it's definitely the first time a run has taken me through a photo shoot of any kind.

Day #2: Poo Shoes

I stepped in dog poo a week or so ago--it wasn't my fault, it usually never is. Which is to say, I didn't do it intentionally. I was walking down the street in a pair of "semi-retired" running shoes when I noticed a car barreling down my side of the road. Now, I'm what you might consider a dabbler in the fine art of self-preservation. It's just something I tend to do from time to time. I enjoy it. So the instinctual me, witnessing the girl behind the wheel looking down and to the right at what I can only assume was a text message, or thumbing through her ipod's Katy Perry playlist, thought the safest place for me to be was out of the way of the advancing automobile. Logical me agreed, and with an alarming quickness I followed their lead off to the side of the road. That would turn out to be the fatal step…well fatal in the sense that it was literally not so much, but the potential was there, possibly. So the car passes and I'm standing in dog poo. What is one to do? Neither instinctual nor logical me have a fail-safe for this scenario, so with slumped shoulders I sulked my way home. One could almost hear the Vince Guaraldi Trio playing on the heels of my traipsing footfalls.  

Anyway…about the running…today was a miserably rainy day, and being the second official day of my marathon training I wasn't going to entertain the idea of skipping out. Every day counts, even this early on: a precedent must be set. So the optimist within me sought long and hard before spotting a silver lining in the brown cloud, as it were, that had plagued my life a week prior. Though I had spent a good amount of time and chemicals cleaning the dog poo from my running shoes, there was still a lingering sense of something unsettling about the idea of what had happened to them. In consideration of the wet weather outside my window I decided it was the perfect condition for a further cleansing of my shoes. I would, in essence, take them to the rain-dro-mat, for a more thorough washing. I gingerly tied up the laces and was off. 

Given my choice of elements to run in, I'd probably pick a straight up rain over excessive heat, extreme winds, or snow, any day of the week. Don't get me wrong, running on a rainy day is never truly a good idea. Among the plethora of egregious aspects to deal with, you have slick surfaces, soggy socks, decreased visibility, and small reservoirs of muddy road water to leap over at any given intersection. At this time of year, with autumn fresh in the air, a leafy patch covering acorns scattered beneath its sprawl is a trap of slap-stick comedic calamity waiting to spring. The Japanese have wise words of warning one should abide by: 気をつけて。Be cautious, be careful. 

Today, with the cleanliness of my soles at the forefront of my thought process I embraced the puddles. Though I wouldn't say I recklessly ran towards them, as much as I just half-heartedly avoided them, ending up with soaked, but stench-free, shoes all the same. I'm pretty sure this method worked quite well. Though I left them banished to the basement to dry out overnight, as if they had done something wrong. If nothing else, the rain-dro-mat went a long way in assuaging the neurosis over the initial problem. Once they dry out, they should be in prime form for future walks in the coming weeks. As for now, much of my cross training days will be dedicated to walking. I realize that walking flirts dangerously close with its cousin running slowly, and therefore, almost incestuously, takes much of the "cross" out of the training, since you're exercising many of the same muscles, but from a recovery/biomechanics stand point, you're not attacking those joints and muscles with the same stressful ferocity as a run. So it works quite well in a pinch. Ideally, once I fix the flat tire on my bicycle, I'll be using that as my main source of cross training. But who knows when I'll actually get around to making that happen, since I don't even have a presta pump to put air in the tire once it's fixed/replaced. Someday…

Rejected by the powers that be at the Tokyo Marathon

In contrast to Joe's luck, this story starts with me not being selected to participate in the 2011 Tokyo Marathon. Joe and I had big plans to double team the Tokyo marathon with some mad O-town style, but the raffle gods frowned upon me and I didn't make the first cut. Now my only chance is making a second cut after people who made the first cut fail to pay, but I don't have high hopes for that.

So that leaves me wondering if I can somehow just stroll out in the mass of people who'll be running it and just run it all the same without registering. People do that in the States all the time at the 5-Ks and 10-Ks that I typically run, but they're pretty hardcore about preventing things like that here in Tokyo, and it'll become even more obvious as the pack spreads out. Will I be refused drinks at the water stands? Will some overzealous John McClane wannabe take me out in a full body tackle and cuff me when he sees I'm lacking a race number? Not sure I'd care to find out...

So since Joe's got me all pumped about running, my plan B is to map out my own marathon and run it on the same day, or maybe plan C is to find another marathon to run nearby, although I didn't find anything close on RunNet.jp.

So here's the quick about-me rundown... Like Joe, I've been vegan for about half my life (and only a month or two longer than him) and a mathoner never. Unlike Joe, I've been running for a bit longer than I've been vegan. I was a consistent runner throughout high school and college, but then became an off-and-on runner who would train for a race, run it, and then fade off for a bit, or haphazardly run for a bit with no goal in mind but then, again, fade off. Perhaps training for a marathon that I probably won't even be able to run is a sign that I'll be able to run consistently from here on...

For this elusive marathon, I'm also using Hal Higdon's Novice 1 marathon training program, which both Joe and I started on Monday, October 24 (conveniently a day of rest).

Blitzkreig Bop!

So it goes…this story starts with me being selected to participate in the Tokyo Marathon 2011 on February 27th. Amidst the initial feelings of exhilaration and, conversely, acute apprehension, I have roughly 125 days to convince myself that, OK, sure, human beings are capable of running 26.2 miles, and being human therefore means I, too, as well, can possibly, tap into this potential. If all goes well, come February, I'll be fording through the pedestrian flooded streets of Tokyo by the combined merit of my mind and feet alone. 


As you will learn, through the random twists & turns unfolding throughout this story, I've been vegan for half my life, a runner for a little over a year, and a marathoner never. The Tokyo Marathon will be the catalyst in a series of life events 2011 has hiding in the shadows of an ill lit decrepit back alley waiting to attack me with duel-fisted argyle dress socks, filled with nickels, swirling above its head like the blades of dust laden ceiling fans. And I'm allergic to dust! Duck and cover might work in this scenario, but who knows. Mainly the philosophy that I'm going to uphold for race day is: start running, and keep running until the finish line is behind me. Seems as reasonable as running 26.2 miles can be…I suppose. Along the way, I'll be using the Hal Higdon Novice 1 marathon training program. So here we are…day one…Hey ho, let's go!