Wheels of Fortune

Finishing off yesterday's easy slice of half marathon pie, like a returning champion at a food eating contest, struck a line through another taper week on the calendar, and left me feeling refreshed & optimistic about today's cross training challenge. I received a new-to-me bicycle over the weekend (thanks Pete!), and was eagerly eyeing it up all Sunday with anticipation for a nice long ride on Monday's scheduled cross training session. 

A sunny, yet brisk, 68°F day & a new bicycle led me on an adventure to Valley Green park (a long and winding stretch of public park that reaches out like an artery from the heart of Philadelphia to touch, ever so lovingly, the shoulder of the wide suburban sprawl. Edgar Allan Poe was even a noted fan of the area). It had been a long time since I was last there, even though in the past it has served as a staple of activity for walking, running, and even hiking*—it's an especially perfect path for HOT summer days, because it's such an oh so shady lane—yet, I've never biked there before. I suppose the main reason for that previous life omission is because I've never really had a bicycle before, at least not one tempered to take on the off-road elements of Forbidden Drive (that's really its name kids, no foolin').

Classy Covered Bridge!

I left home with thoughts of taking it easy on the ride, since I know all too well that I'm standing in the shadow of the colossus that is this weekend's 20 mile long run, but husbandry be damned, the day was just too nice to lend worry to such things as excess. Although I set out to ride no more than 14 miles (22.5km), I ended up pulling in a total of 20 miles (32km). I know this, because my sweet new ride has a fancy old odometer. I'm no longer confined to the preplanned routes of yesteryear, and because this bike is a hybrid (as opposed to the road bike I had been riding before**), I can finally follow fleeting whims and go off road for a bit of unpaved shenanigans. 

I knew my last bicycle was a bit of a lemon, but didn't realize just how sour it was until today. Riding a bike with a frame that actually fit my height, being able to switch gears effortlessly, having pedals that aren't being held together with duct tape, and so forth, are all contributing factors to a relatively fear free jaunt through the forest road. For once, I could simply enjoy the ride with the confidence that less things were likely to go wrong. 

Footnotes:

Building a Better Runner

Though I missed the Philadelphia Naked Bike Ride* (this year, though last year is a different story), this week did see me figuratively don The Emperor's New Clothes and parade through the streets with a suit sewn from the finest fabric that a surplus of cycling has to offer. That is to say, I barreled through week 10 with a lot more cross training than I normally take on. Not for any particular reason, other than I felt like I had extra energy to burn like an Autumn scented aromatherapy candle, in addition to rather enjoying the prolonged state of functionality Schwinny Cooper has graced me with lately, by remaining, mostly, intact. In the typical course of marathon training, perception of miles is prone to shrinkage, like a sack of hand knitted Cosby sweaters in an Alaskan laundromat, so if a round trip to the produce junction, or the library, adds 5-10 extra cycling miles per trip to the week, what's the big deal? 

Dapper, indeed! 

For the most part, despite mildly fatigued legs from time to time, the benefit of sticking to a more consistent cross training schedule has done exactly what it promised to do: build a better runner by balancing out slightly different muscles, without adding too much additional stress. This week's excess of energy speaks volumes on behalf of the benefits of steadily building up the experience points from cross training, and then cashing them in for a higher endurance level across the board. So, even with these unscheduled additional miles everything was going good this week, that is, until the slight glitch in the matrix during yesterday's 17 mile LSD. I had completely forgotten how far that great of a distance on foot actually feels. 17 miles is the longest run I've done since actually completing the marathon way back in February. So, while I remain somewhat familiar with its face, I had forgotten certain less-than-desirable personality traits that begin to grate on your nerves when the distance overstays its welcome. One of the more vexing aspects is that it just plain takes forever to complete. At least, if you run it like you're supposed to, which is near the speed of a Galapagos tortoise, which has a life expectancy of 170+ years! So, they don't really need to rush.

More long slow distance shenanigans below...

Cross Training on the Shoulders of Giants

I spent the weekend in Yokohama, and while I didn't have much time for running, I did do a substantial amount of walking. Which, if you do it for long enough, starts to seem semi-respectable; as I'm sure a number of olympic racewalkers would undoubtedly assure you that it most certainly is. For whatever reason, most of the top record holders for race walking are either from Russia (née Soviet Union) or China (feel free speculate on why that is in our handy comments section below). A lot of the walking I did initially took place Saturday morning on the rainy streets of Chinatown in Yokohama. The skies eventually cleared up to reveal a stellar latter half of the day, but not before thoroughly soaking my feet, and undoubtedly drenching me in radioactive particles: しょうがないね (it can't be helped).

A Rainy Day in Yokohama:

The Chinatown Chronicles

The continued walking adventures await...

Sore sure, But Otherwise A-OK

I woke up this morning feeling like while I slumbered the night away mafia goons were busy burying my legs in wet cement, ready to push me off a pier into choppy waved water where I would be swimming with the fishes for my cross training activity of the day. I quickly went down the list of intergalactic gangsters I may have recently wronged, but came up with zilch, giving me no real reason to believe the Hutts placed a bounty on my head and somewhere along the way my legs were encased in carbonite as a dry run to test the capabilities of the carbonite capturing equipment. The soreness I was feeling, was just the normal repercussions of muscles made to move for excessive distances. Phew...  

So in the afternoon, tired, yet more importantly, pain free, I had errands to run, and decided to meld cross training in with them, getting things done in one fell swoop of productivity! I peddled to the library (about a 2 mile ride), to return John Adams (which I thought was great!), then Schwinny Cooper and I decided to take the long way home together. Part of the motivation here was to scope out what lies beyond the parameter of my normal running paths. Sure, I'm aware of the area, and Google Maps is certainly aware of the area too, but I wanted a clearer idea of the terrain for the 10 miles coming up next Saturday (not to mention some of the more daunting miles from there on out). Most of the areas I rode through were hilly, and you might think that is not so much of a problem on a 12 speed road bike, and in a normal circumstance I'd agree, but, and I believe I've mentioned this before, my bike is a rolling calamity waiting to happen. My 12 speed is basically rendered a 3 speed, because every time I switch gears beyond that limited base, the chain pops off. So considering I'm not a cyclist, taking on hills with no more than a 3 gear range really was a bit of effort. 

This is probably common sense to everyone else, but one of the first things I realized today, as the cold tipped daggers of wind were whipping the Scottish blood beneath my face into a frozen fury fueled frenzy, if I'm going to continue cycling through the winter months, gloves & cycling pants will become creature comforts well worth investing in. The ride ended up being about 6.5 miles. My legs felt like they had put in a good day's work, though I probably could have gone a bit farther, I really didn't want to push it. I'll probably go for a brisk walk later in the evening, just to balance out the cross training a bit more. With that, week 4 ends...so it goes. 

Cross training: Failing to reach Yoyogi and dance party with offspring

Tokyo, Week 4, Day 7; Maybe 7 or 8 miles on a bike + some groovin'.

Today was cross training day once again, and I didn't manage to get around to it until around 4:30, as it was already starting to get dark. Not particularly enthusiastic about riding around in traffic at dusk, but not feeling like walking again and actually kind of eager to get out into the 16ºC (60ºF) temps we've had tonight (and still have as I write this around 9 p.m.; do I need to remind anyone that it's practically December?), I geared up and went out the door.

My gear was basically my typical running gear, less the iPod so I can hear traffic, plus a helmet and a reflective vest that I wear when running at night. The helmet came as part of a set of skateboarding pads, so it's clearly not a biking helmet. On top of that, it has some corny logo on the side that a 12-year-old kid might think is totally bodacious, so I was truly rocking it. The reflective thing looks goofy on a good day, so it's that much worse when I'm wearing the I'm-a-runner-who's-cross-training-on-a-bike get-up.

To the average person, I probably look pretty serious. I'm wearing a helmet and, despite Japan being anal about safety in just about every other facet of life, the only people ever wearing helmets on a bike are small kids. So, basically, if you're wearing a helmet you're either hardcore or you're paranoid. I've got long-sleeve Underarmour leggings crawling to my wrists and ankles. And I'm always pedaling; I figure that I'm cross training so even when I could coast down hill I pedal—even if that means I need to ride the brake at the same time.

To a person who actually bikes, however, I probably look pretty ridiculous. My bike is a ¥10,000-yen (or about $100-dollar) mountain bike from a department store, complete with a basket on the front. Come to think of it, that might be a giveaway to your average Tanaka that I really have no clue what I'm doing on a bike, but it's a convenient place to store my GPS navigation system (i.e., Google Maps on my iPhone), so I ain't parting with it.

Today's goal was to do a dry run to Yoyogi Park, the destination of my long run next week. I looked it up on Google Maps before I left, and it seemed pretty straightforward. I just had to head the same way towards the grave yard, but take a road to the left instead of the road to the right that leads to the graveyard. Didn't work out quite like that though.

First I rode a bit down the road towards the graveyard. Once I recognized what I had done, I rode down to the next light and crossed the street so I could go with the flow of traffic. Heading back, I made a right and knew I'd have to make another right almost right away. However, thinking I'd be going onto a big street, I skipped the numerous tiny little streets and made a right at the next light. I think that was what threw me off; I should have been going down one of those small streets.

Anywho, that led me to zigzagging through Tokyo, checking the GPS occasionally. However, the not-so-accurate compass plus directions that always started with "Go southeast" or something like that left me less than sure as to where I was. Eventually I made my way over to Shibuya, one of Tokyo's approximations of New York's Times Square, but with fewer tourists and many locals there to hang out. I got stuck at the light as thousands of people crossed the main intersection in front of me, and I seemed to have been the lone person on a bike traipsing through that particular section of urban jungle.

I rode around a bit more until I realized via Google Maps that it would now be a pain to get to Yoyogi, so I just decided to head home. The path took me through Ebisu and ultimately linked me up to one of the routes I've been running for those easy 3-milers that have been in the schedule over the past few weeks.

After I got home, I still didn't find myself particularly tired, and when my kids (ages 6 and about 3, plus the wee little one who found herself caught up in the chaos) wanted to play music and dance, I found myself part of their little plans. We were dancing around the room for maybe 45 minutes or something, and I strangely found that I worked up about as much of a sweat as I had while biking (although that is probably explained by my kids wanting me to dance while carrying one of them on each of my shoulders).

After it all, I'm feeling pretty good and I kind of wish I had a run tomorrow morning (it's an off day), but I s'pose I'll rest up and what I can make of it on Tuesday.

Building cross training into the schedule

Tokyo, Week 2, Day 6; 10km on a bike.

Today I had to go into the office, so instead of assuming my strap hanger pose I decided to make the 5km distance trek on bike to cover my cross training for the week. I learned two things today. First, Tokyo is damn hilly (something I learned more on the uphill parts than on the downhill parts). Second, having to frequently stop for red lights, other bikes, pedestrians, cars, etc., is really annoying. It's much easier to avoid that when running because you can just turn a bit up the street while waiting, but that's not so easy on a bike. I wonder if there's a path somewhere around here that I can bike on without needing to stop so much.

The Short Shrift Cycling Shorts

I'm certainly no cyclist. I never have been. I was a skater growing up, and while applying grip tape could be a messy task to take on from time to time, a board with wheels is definitely a whole hell of a lot simpler to deal with than the moving mechanisms of a bicycle. I stated earlier in the week that cycling was somewhere in my future plans for effective cross training, but with the state of disrepair my bicycle was in, I wasn't considering taking it on anytime soon. However, in the full spirit of the marathon, I wanted to broaden my cross training options, so I dutifully went and got a new tire and a portable pump for my Schwinny Cooper.

While changing the back tire, I felt around the inside rim and found the culprit behind my flat. A sliver of metal so slim that it would shame an average staple into an abysmal obesity complex. After pumping up the new tire, I took it for a quick spin, and was satisfied with things appearing OK for the time being. I did have visions of the wheel that I just screwed back on coming off, and me breaking my face and legs in an over the handlebars dive due strictly to my mechanical incompetence. But hopefully the vision is the closest that this scenario comes to a reality. This fear is founded on the fact my bicycle is a crap trap of frustrating defects. I got burnt on craigslist because the guy selling it knew a lot, and I knew not nearly enough above nothing to realize how much work it really needed. I literally have electrical tape keeping the straps on my pedals in place. Seriously, how safe can that be?

I plotted a 10 mile course around the neighborhood using Google maps. I use this same method for scoping out runs ahead of time too; I highly recommend it. In my mind, 10 miles on a bicycle didn't seem far at all, but I wanted to take it easy my first day out as to avoid any chance of overexertion this early in my training schedule. As much as it would suck to get an injury anytime during this process, I think it would be the most frustrating on a cross training day, because I'm not even running. I threw on a pair of running shorts, despite knowing beforehand how chilly it was outside, but the only pants I have are loose legged, and therefore run the risk of getting snagged on the chain. This shorts call was a bad one. They weren't cycling shorts at all. Just plan shorts I wear running; I won't even go so far to call them running shorts, since I'm not even sure they were meant to do even that. Unfortunately, they are far removed from sufficient cycling shorts since they rode up high along my thighs as the biting bitter cold wind invited itself along for the ride. 10 miles quickly became what seemed like FOREVER. I'm not even sure how long I was gone. It felt like Luke before Han stuffed him into the Tauntaun. Unfortunately my bicycle has no belly to keep me warm, so if I fell out here, Hoth be damned, I was going to freeze. 

My chain has a tendency to pop off at the most inconvenient times; I know, what constitutes a convenient time for this? I can only reply, when I'm not on it? For this ride, it happened while struggling up a steep hill, with drafty winds nipping at my nethers, that runs alongside a golf course. Many times I've entertained the danger of being beamed by a golf ball in this scenario, either out of accident or spite, ever since the day I was running alongside another golf course, and the parked van about 15 feet ahead of me got pinged by ball. I have no reason to believe the golfers were aiming at me, but one never knows...

Anyway, I made it home, cold, sweaty, and tired from what I figured was going to be an easy day of cross training. I was wrong on all accounts. I think next week I shall incorporate cross-cross training into the mix, until I develop more cycling strength, which will consist of me biking 4 miles to a park, walking a few miles while there, then biking the 4 miles home. This seems along the lines of a bikers version of The Art of Amateur Fartleking, that I spoke of for running. 

The Curious Kayaker

I woke up curious about something today: if I add up all the miles I will run while training for this marathon, how far would that actually get me? Over the course of the next 18 weeks, I will be running 435 miles (461.2 including the Tokyo Marathon). That means I could run back and forth from Philadelphia to NYC about 5 times. I could make it to DC and back 3 and a half times. Or I could run to Toronto Canada, and still have enough miles left over to jog about and see the sights! This would save me lots on bus fare, but I guess once I crossed over, I'd have to convert to kilometers. Ah, sweet sweet metric. I suppose I should get used to keeping track of kilometers, since the marathon is in Japan.

My next question was, how far would those miles get me if I were to set a course for Tokyo right now. A quick Google maps search led me to discover the suggested route is 9,574 miles, which takes an estimated 36 days and 5 hours (127 days, if by foot, which I'm already too late to partake in; maybe next year) from Philadelphia to Tokyo. You might wonder how Google maps thinks this voyage is possible, and I was quite pleased to see that once I make my way to the to the opposite end of America, a quick Kayaking trip of 14 days across the Pacific Ocean will land me in Hawaii. From there, after reliving a few key scenes from Lost (my suggestion, not Google's), it's only another 20 days of kayaking the open sea until the land of the rising sun is met by me. So it seems if rest days were never a necessity, and it didn't cut into my regular marathon training schedule, then this method of travel would cover all my cross training requirements, and then some. I wonder if Hal Higdon has a secret advanced program that embraces this method?

From Philly to Tokyo

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.