Race for Rylie 5K

Nockamixon Marina

I'm not a speedy guy. Aside from the occasional fartlek, I rarely do any speed work at all. I know this might sound counterintuitive, but when I focus on going fast, running starts to seem more of a bothersome chore, losing that pristine Martin Sheen glean, compared to those happy-go-lucky long distance runs that I thrive on. 

Today was my second race ever. The last one I ran was a bit longer, by about 38km, so I wasn't too worried about going into a 5k, somewhat, untrained. I have been running leisurely without a schedule for the past few months now, so I knew my base endurance was covered, it was the speed that was up in the air like a kite with a key waiting to discover electricity. As a bit of a strategic precaution, I opted not to wear my marathon hat, even though it is the most comfortable cap I own; I just didn't want to be singled out as the guy to beat (because I'm certainly not), nor did I want to face the chance of embarrassment incase I was unable to finish a 5k while parading around like a peacock in my precious Tokyo Marathon 2011 commemorative headgear. If it came to that, I probably would have cannonball ran into the lake to hide my tears in the wake of the sailboats drifting by like rippling reflections of the clouds above. 

The plan was to wake up at 6am to sip some coffee and eat bananas, blueberries, and maybe an apple. The plan changed when I woke up at 7am instead. Luckily, I had leftover green smoothie from the day before in the fridge. There was just enough for a full pint glass. Pete & his Pop came by to pick me up at 7:30am, for a race that was 40 minutes away and starting in about an hour.

Onto the race...

Know thy enemy

This week was yet another week where the rhythm of running was sacrificed at the altar of work. I think I only ran once or twice over the week because I was so busy. One of those runs was a memorable "I just got home, it's 2 a.m.; screw it, I'm going running anyway" sort of run. I ran down a street I had never ran down before in the dead of night, and enjoyed the slight drizzle that was coming down, even as I prayed for more rain. The street took me towards Gotanda, and I turned back near the station.

Today was my long run. Seeing as I hadn't gotten as much running as I had hoped over the week, I considered cutting it back. But then my earlier attitude resurged, and I said, "Screw it, I'm doing the whole thing."

That was the plan, but since I didn't really map out a route beforehand, and I still haven't calibrated my Nike+ with my Vibrams, I was sort of winging it on the distance. I figured my pace would be about 9:30/mile, and with a target distance of 9 miles, I figured I'd just turn around when I hit 42:30.

But what really made today's run fun was that I ran nearly all of it along the route of the Tokyo marathon.

Rhythm Method: The Black Keys "All Hands Against His Own"

Before they broke through the top of the billboard with a brass-knuckled-blues-rock fist and went gold (toothed) with Brothers, before they started collaborating with Danger Mouse, and before their songs started showing up as background tracks in pretty much every television commercial for anything from videogames to lingerie, film soundtrack, or HBO series preview, Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney, who aren't really brothers, lest you be confused by the title of the aforementioned album, wandered into an abandoned tire factory, in Akron Ohio, to record their third album, the aptly titled Rubber Factory. In that factory, they captured the immediacy of their garageband inklings, while never straying away from their grimy blues swagger. It's the sound of a garageband in a much bigger garage, and a blues band without all that mopiness. The album is stacked, like the tires on the cover, with tracks ready to be plucked as ripe singles. It's no wonder so may of them were, indeed, used as such. 

To Yoyogi and back

So my Thursday run got nixed by work. I was actually in Osaka from Thursday night to Friday on business, so I brought my running stuff with big plans to sneak in a morning or afternoon run as a nice little hors d'oeuvre of the Osaka marathon, but it was not meant to be.

I decided to flip weekend cross training and the long weekend run so I did my cross training on Saturday. I stationary biked through two episodes of Mad Men. An hour and a half of that bike and it still doesn't feel like I did all that much.

Today I ran the 8 miles on Hal's Novice 2 training guide, "a slight step upwards in difficulty from Novice 1". I thought Novice 1's never-ending 3-mile runs at the outset were a bit to short for me, but Novice 2 seems to be a bit better fit. That said, I got injured on Novice 1 so perhaps that was even too hard. I'll just sweep that argument under the rug for now.

I decided to run today's 8-miler in normal running shoes. Since I haven't ran in Vibrams since last Tuesday, and took a break from them after that because my feet were kind of sore, I didn't think it'd be a stellar plan to jump back into them with an 8-miler. I'll be back to Virbam's for Tuesday's 3-miler.

I clocked in today's 8-miler at 9:18 per mile. As usual, that was not counting water breaks and stopping at lights and other times when I lazied out, as I pause Nike+ whenever I'm stopped or walking. I ran up to and around Yoyogi Park (which is about 3 miles from my apartment). There were two water fountains in Yoyogi Park that I hit coming in and going back, and another near Arisagawa Park, closing to my apartment, all of which were long break point to drench myself and drink.

I can't say today's run was too challenging, but I was definitely hoping to hit red lights towards the end to get those sweet forced breaks. Because I thought I had copped too many breaks during the run, I decided to tough it out on this hill towards the ends that I often take a walking break on. From that point on, it was basically sweet cruising home.

As an aside, one of the major downers of running in Tokyo at night is the smokers. Running next to cars, I can rarely smell their exhaust, but a single smoker will give me 10-20 meters of oxygen-depriving tobacco smoke. The worst today was at the water fountain near Arisagawa Park; a smoker was sitting right next to it puffing away and the wind was pushing it right to the fountain. At that point I was dying for a drink (it'd been more than 2 miles in Yoyogi Park since my last drink), so I just had to bear it. I wonder if I can come up with a route that lets me avoid smokers...

Snake in the Hills

[photo by:@cdharrison]

I don't know if you want to consider it a sport (marathons are olympic events), but to me, it's hard not to think of running as more of a game. It's fun to play, and you don't necessarily have to be athletic to run, you just sorta need to start moving your feet faster than you can walk with determination; eventually, you start racking up miles like heart containers in The Legend of Zelda, and every time you pick up the controller, ready to play again, you wonder how will this one go? 

Look at Kelly Gneiting, a 400 pound sumo wrestler who finished the L.A. Marathon nearly 15 minutes shy of 10 hours. He was quoted as saying "I honestly think I'm one of the best athletes in the world". Who am I to argue? Running a marathon is personal. You set your own goals, then go out and be whatever type of all-star you want out on that road. 

To avoid growing tired of the same old routines I modified my hometown running course recently, or essentially, changed the level I was playing on in order to keep it exciting. The newest addition to the running repertoire is a 6.3 mile course, coiled like a King cobra in a snake charmer's basket, that I've front loaded with five heavy hills within the first 3 miles, then a relatively flat, if not downhill, middle 2 miles, and lastly a hybrid overlapping final mile with two more major hills that sit like venomous fangs inside the reptilian mouth of an old familiar friendly bit of road ready to strike my spindly legs as I coast into the homestretch. I affectionately refer to this run as snake in the hills, with its course length weaving back and forth through streets in side neighborhoods like a game of chutes (AKA, snakes) & ladders.

Since I haven't started training for any upcoming races yet (though something big might be on the horizon), my approach to runs recently has consisted of how far I feel like going at any given time. Sometimes, I'll stick to a familiar course like wet angel hair to the kitchen wall and omnisciently know exactly how far I have to go & how long it will take to get it done. Other times, I'll just head out the door & Google map my trail after I get back to where I once belonged. Since Apple never responded to my emails, I'm back to running Zen again, effectively putting my gameplay statistics on pause, with only the sounds of nature to keep me company along the way. It's how I started as a runner, and it's what I've returned to once again. No big deal.

I'm not really much of a gamer, but I spent a fair amount of time as a youth mashing buttons on my NES controllers (when I wasn't out skateboarding). Mapping out courses on Google maps makes me giddy at times, mainly because it comes with a kick of nostalgia, reminding me of what it was like to play Excitbike as a kid on Nintendo; specifically the part where you build your own course to race through. Ah, the halcyon rainy afternoons of childhood...  

Sore soles in my Vibrams

So I did a 3-miler in the Vibrams yesterday. The calves continue to be crazy tight, but I'll get over that. What was more concerning was that the bottom of my feet felt sore. Not sure if it's my feet muscles adjusting to the new shoe, or if it's just the pounding without padding. If it's the former, I'll get over that too, but if it's the latter my Vibram trial might be much shorter than a marathon.

When I was running in the Vibrams back in the States this didn't happen at all. There are two reasons I can think of that might have led to the difference. First, I was running less; I might not have gotten the critical mass of distance needed to get sore soles. Second, I was running a lot on grass; ever since high school running around suburbia, I've made it a habit to run on grass when it's there between the sidewalk and the curb or otherwise, and that would have certainly softened the blows to my feet.

That seems to lead into one of the core criticisms of this whole barefoot running craze; when we were evolving these awesome running feet, we were running around on dirt, etc. Now us city boys have concrete to run on, and we're just not evolved for it. Let's hope that's not the case.

Anyway, today I decided to put my old heel-to-ball Nikes back on and take them for a 5-mile run.

Using the Nike+ system with the Vibram Five Fingers

So I've had a LaceLid to use my Nike+ sensor with non-Nike shoes for some time, but as Vibram Five Fingers have no laces, that alone wasn't going to be of much use. So I decided to do a little DIY to get the Nike+ sensor to stay on my Vibrams.

All you need to a get a LaceLid working with your Vibrams is a pair of scissors, some tape (optionally) and some shoelaces, string, etc. I decided I'd shorten an old shoelace. First, I wrapped the Scotch tape around the point in the shoelace where I was going to make the cut; this has the effect of giving it on of those shoelace endings with the lace wrapped in plastic. Then I cut right in the middle of the tape, leaving both the old shoelace and the new stub with shoelace endings.

Once I had my stub shoelace, I tucked the sensor, which was in the LaceLid, behind the velcro strap of one of the Vibrams and then simply used the stub shoelace to tie it around the other side of the strap. That sensor wouldn't be going anywhere.

But I was a bit too early in declaring victory over my Vibram/Nike+ conundrum.

Some thoughts on running in Vibrams + Target (sort of) acquired

Well, turns out the Arakawa "Marathon" is not a marathon in the English sense of the term (i.e., 42.195 km), but in the Japanese sense (i.e., a road race of any distance, including but not limited to 42.195 km). I was thrown because the info I got was in English, and hence I thought we were talking about the English term. Nevertheless, I'm now signed up for a half marathon at Arakawa and trying to get into the Osaka Marathon (a real English-sense marathon) two weeks later. Conveniently, the Arakawa half fit into the schedule nicely on a weekend calling for a 12-mile run; figure it won't be a big deal to bump that up to a little over 13.

Turning to today's run, I decided I'd bump it up from the 3 miles I ran yesterday to 4, which is more my normal just-getting-started kind of distance. However, given that all my other Vibram runs were not long after the marathon and were often shortened by knee issues, I think today marks my longest run thus far in the Vibrams (although that's going to quickly go up with the long weekend runs I have coming my way).

So I thought I'd float a few points I noticed about running in Vibrams.

Seeking target

So I'm attempting to sign up for a marathon in October; either the Arakawa Marathon on October 16, here in Tokyo, or the Osaka Marathon on October 30 in, obviously, Osaka. For the Arakawa Marathon, I might be able to get my hands on a free entry, but if not let's hope it's still open for registration. For the Osaka Marathon, registration is closed but they're apparently still looking for foreigners to fill their foreigner target of 3,000 people, so if I can't register for the more conveniently located Arakawa Marathon, Osaka it'll be.

That means my 18-week training program starts... on Monday.

Since the last run I posted about (on March 4), I've only been running here and there. I ran a bunch while back in the States as a flyjin, all in my Vibrams. However, since my post-marathon knee was still acting up, I basically decided to stop running and let that heal completely. Once back in Japan in April, I basically didn't run for the rest of that month and, since then, I've only ran sporadically.

So today I went for a quick little run, maybe 3 miles. My 6-year-old daughter insisted on coming, so I started the run with a 1 kilometer loop around the neighborhood. She called it after the first loop, so I ran off down my usual path up the hill towards Arisugawa Park. The run was nice and slow, and I didn't feel particularly beat after it, although after stretching I noticed just how sore my calves were—a side effect of the running position Vibrams put you into.

And, with today's run, I will hopefully be kicking off my training for the marathon, with the intention of doing all training and the marathon in Vibrams. I'll run another lazy run tomorrow and then jump into the training schedule. In contrast to the last marathon, I'll be seeking to get in a lot more stretching, which will hopefully work some wonders with regard to injury prevention. If I can avoid injury, then the only challenge should be squeezing runs into my work schedule, which as you may remember from my last jaunt with marathon training can be quite a challenge.

So here we go again...

Raw Summer Long

I'm going raw for the summer. That's right, summer is here, the old birthday is right around the corner, and I feel the need to challenge myself a bit more. I've never been much for New Year's resolutions, but in recent years I have taken on my own version of this idea at the summer's onset by challenging (and/or rewarding) myself with projects that are geared towards, in essence, building a better Joe (apologies for the third person reference; I usually don't think of myself in that way). The benefits that motivate these "gifts" are pretty simply & apparent: I want to be healthier, and do better things for the environment.

In order to be considered raw, one must consume at least 75% of a raw vegetable based diet, meaning only 25% of your intake can be processed & cooked above 118°F (48°C). As a vegan since the age of 15, most would assume that I'm already near that point anyway, right? Not exactly. Nowadays, it's all too easy to be lured into being a disengaged vegan, I don't mean a cheater who surreptitiously eats chocolate covered bacon (it exists!), but maybe a lazy one, who subsists on "junk-ish" foods that, sure, don't contain animal byproducts, but probably aren't the best things to offer your body. This is where we get into the growing popularity & convenience of meat analogues (i.e. veggie burgers, Tofurkey, & such), baked goods, & rice (navigating through the rocky balboa waters of vegan Japanese cuisine just got a bit trickier, eh?); even coffee beans are roasted, which means it's blacklisted like a suspected communist sympathizer during the McCarthy era, or at least relegated to the 25% section of the diet. By doing this experiment I'm rethinking the way—and indeed the why—I am vegan. So how strict am I going to be for this experiment? Probably pretty lenient, hovering, like a hummingbird sipping sweet nectar from the supple yellow pedals of an evening primrose on the fly, in the 70% vicinity. Regardless, it will still remain an interesting challenge to undertake. 

Sometime last year I picked up Thrive by Brandon Brazier, which is not entirely a raw vegan diet, but it's close, and specifically addresses the nutritional needs of athletes. There's a lot of interesting tidbits to be found about the benefits of consuming various nutrient dense plant-based foods, with a raw state of mind, and even a bunch of recipes that are pretty easy to follow. I'm not so much a fan of the meal plan section of the book, but I can see how some might find it nice to have a suggested guideline for how he would eat over the course of 12 weeks. I would have preferred it to contain photos of the prepared meals, but that's just the visual section of my mind craving aesthetic satisfaction, like putting  together LEGOs when I was a younger (notice I didn't say "kid"; 恥ずかしい), I like to prop up the box to see what I'm working towards. To be fair, some of my favorite cookbooks, like Veganomicon* & Vegan Planet, don't reserve much, if any, space for photos either. Probably most important for beginners, he urges a more graceful transition into going raw (or just whenever changing your diet), rather than a Eyes Wide Shut cannonball dive into the deep end when you're not exactly sure how to swim, and the lifeguard is busy playing Angry Birds on his smartphone. 

I am curious how this shift will affect my distance running. Obviously, I'm hoping for an improvement, but since raw tends to have a lower carb intake than I'm used to, I'm going to have to proceed with careful consideration if I notice any drastic decline in my performance level, but I have a feeling this won't be a problem if I'm eating right. Ladies & Gentlemen, let the great experiment begin. 


Footnotes:
*Also worth checking out is Vegan with a Vengeance by coauthor Isa Chandra Moskowitz. 

Rotten Apples

So, in this modern world of commerce, a desperate kid in China sells his kidney to get his hands on a new ipad; it's sad that someone would go that far for a product, sacrificing personal health for the privilege of prestige, especially since he's going to be disappointed when it conks out on him after the Apple Care runs out.  

I've recently had my own dealings with a defunct ipod nano that Apple has washed their hands clean of, maybe to sterilize them, in preparation for my own organ harvest in the near future. 

My letter to Apple feedback:

"Sigh, I'm disappointed in you Apple. 

First off, I'm not a complainer at heart. Dwelling on negativity just breeds more negativity, right? I'm also not really a lucky person either, but I thought I was when I received a brand new ipod nano (5th gen., because I don't like the design of the 6th gen.) for Christmas, accompanied by a Nike+ kit, to assist with my marathon training. For a runner, the nano & Nike+ combo was a fantastic dream, but I guess we all must wake up at some point, since, by February the Nike+ sensor died, after just two short months of use: merely a brief nap. Nike never got back to me on why this happened, they just didn't care. 

Sadly, last week, just short of 6 months of use, my beloved ipod nano died on me. After shutting itself down, and restarting, the click wheel became unresponsive. I took it into the Apple store today with the hopes of a solution, but was told by a genius that this problem was a hardware issue, and she didn't even try to do anything to fix it, because the ipod nano I have is too old to be covered. I was confused that something I've only used for 6 months was considered too old, but that's what I was told. The only solution I was offered was purchasing a replacement unit for $80—salt on an open wound, so they say—I'm not sure why I would pay $80 for something that's probably only going to last another 5 to 6 months. I prefer spending money on things with a little longevity. 

I woke up this morning an avid Apple supporter, but it seems like I'm going to bed a disillusioned dupe. A truly sad day, indeed."

Calling Sister Midnight

So once again I'm back on old familiar terrain, with a crib for my mom on the outskirts of Philly, you tryin' to flex on me? Don't be silly...Putting Will Smith aside (for the moment), old familiar terrain starts to quickly become woefully unfamiliar when you cheat the day, and try to beat the heat, by taking a 5 mile run at nighttime when you can't seem to see your feet, nor the street. Part of this danger is how ill lit my little town of Bethlehem, or more accurately, Oreland, is. I've been fortunate enough to have had safely lit paths to run along at any given time of night, both in Tokyo and Ocean City, these past 4 months. The other part is that I made the simple, yet potentially shortsighted, style choice of purchasing black running shoes that blend effortlessly into the hard dark evening air, and absorb into the asphalt below like pitch black panthers panting with giraffe-like tongues penned up in dank caverns, on moonless nights, lappin' bitter bowls of thick Texas tea, baby! So...they're kinda hard to see.

Finding ways to be cool, when you are not...

Rhythm Method: GO!GO!7188 "ジェットにんじん"

It's a sly bit of an inside joke for me here, it's not naughty by nature, but how shall I explain it, I'll take you frame by frame it, as to not leave anyone out of the loop. Upon arriving in Japan, I had to make up for a lost day of running due to (time) travel and jetlag. First thing the morning after I landed, I donned an orange (pretty much my favorite color) running shirt and headed out the door for an 8 mile run with Yuko following me on her bike, to ensure I didn't get lost in my new neighborhood. Before I left the house though, it was brought to my attention by both Yuko & her mom, that I looked like a carrot. Verifying their accusation in the mirror, I concurred, whereupon I dubbed myself the にんじん外人 (Ninjin Gaijin), or, the Carrot Foreigner.

にんじん外人 (Ninjin Gaijin)
The Carrot Foreigner
in Rocky stance

Continue on, for more carrot shenanigans...

Beach Combing Blues

As noted in the previous post, the past 2 weeks were spent standing on the sands of the Jersey shore. Ocean City is a quaint little kinda place when you are there off season, and a busy buzzing beehive of beach combers during the peak holiday weeks, like this past memorial day. Many a summer day were spent here in my younger years, but it wasn't until this past year or so that going there was rewarded with the benefit of a built in 2.5 mile running route: the boardwalk. With every quarter mile from either direction clearly marked off along the way, runners can delight in being treated to their own running lane, right down the slightly crooked spine of this slumbering wooden beast*. 

The weather shifted drastically while I was there, going from needing chilly gear for early morning runs to not needing any gear at all per se, but wearing it anyway, just to be part of decent society, and to conserve sunblock as often as possible; that stuff is expensive! So, in the beginning it was iffy, rain, chills, and abundance of fog...

A Foggy Day in London Town
(Or, Ocean City)

More beach chronicles await...