Monday, November 15, 2010

Country runnin', daughter bikin', temp fallin'

Saitama, Week 3, Day 6; 5 miles, 8:46/mile.
Tokyo, Week 3, Day 7; 30-minute walk.
Tokyo, Week 4, Day 2; 3 miles, 8:59/mile.

On Saturday I was up in Saitama at the in-laws', so that gave me a chance to run along this great path that goes through the area next to a river. I was told the path goes up to Kawagoe, but Kawagoe is a city and all I saw from that path was countryside. In any case, I was more than happy to get away from the traffic of Tokyo for a run for once.

The run itself felt faster than it was. I was expecting to come in somewhere in the 8:30s, but I ended up coming in at about the same pace I had been running on my easy days over the week (which sounds about right, according to Hal). I must have ran the first half slow, because during the second half my iPod told me I was running 7-something pace once or twice. (I even clocked in at 6:45 at one point, but that was just me fooling around and seeing how fast I'd go matching the rhythm of a song that I thought sounded particularly upbeat; naturally that pace didn't hold for long.)

Sunday I had planned to do a nice long bike ride, but stuff during the day kept me away from that until dusk. Not feeling particularly in the mood to brave Tokyo's streets at the most dangerous time of day, I decided I'd go for a quick walk and let my daughter tag along on her bike. Needless to say, she smoked me and had to keep waiting up for me, but it was a nice change of pace.

Monday was a welcome day off, and today was one of those mornings when I had to push myself a bit to get myself out the door. For some reason, I felt a bit sore when I woke up (I don't recall feeling sore yesterday). It was cold and pouring when I came home last night, and I was expecting the same thing. Luckily, it wasn't pouring but it was still kind of cold (8ºC or 46ºF). And on top of all that I was kind of sleepy. So, being sore and sleepy on my first really cold day in this training schedule, I didn't expect to do anything impressive, and I ended up coming in at around 9:00/mile for the 3 miles scheduled for the day.

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