another 62

62 more miles this week. Obviously training to be a better runner isn't a terribly glamorous thing. 90% of it is by yourself, there is no one applauding you, there are no cheerleaders jumping up and down as you finish your workout. It is just week after week of semi-monotonous training with the hope that it will all pay off. The amazing thing is you could put all that training in and actually not improve. Or you could train like a madman, be at the peak of your fitness and then before the big race get injured and all the training would be for naught. My favorite anology for training (me 2004) is of pouring water into a bucket with a small hole in the bottom. If you pour in a lot of water your fitness increases but it you stop pouring it will all leak away. If you pour in less than is going out you will also lose fitness. So you are always trying to make sure more is going in than is leaking out. That is why I am training at the level I am now. I trained for three years in my 40's and each year in March I ran around 19:50 for 5k. All that work for a 19:50 5k. I was just breaking even in my "fitness bucket" If I am going to train hard I want to see some real improvement.

This week both of my track workouts went well. I did my tempo run on Tuesday but skipped the 200's because of sore shins. I did the 1000/600 workout on Thursday and it felt pretty quick.My shins have been aching quite a bit recently so I have decided to take next week "off" I will just run once a day with no speedwork. Just easy running. I figure the shin problem is either shin splints which is a very common injury or the first signs of a stress fracture. I am hoping it is shin splints which can be cured by icing and rest..

For the past couple of months I have been searching for the perfect long run course. I think I found it this past Sunday. It is about 15 miles, mostly on country roads. I see a lot of bicycle racers on that course so it seems to be a popular route. It is quite beautiful through mountain valleys, traditonal Japanese villages and past rice fields. There are some amazing places to run here. I think that is one of the best things about living in Japan, the scenery and the ordinary things that become extraordinary because they are here.