Breakthrough

On Wednesday I had a normal slow morning run. We run every morning together, Loran and I, at about 6:30. It is tough to get out the door at times but we always do it. The runs are quite slow, mostly because of me. I am usually so sore and tired in the morning
In the afternoon I made another attempt at the speedwork that I was supposed to do yesterday. In my warmup I felt the same, totally dead. But I decided to do the workout anyway. The workout was 4 x 1000, each one progressively faster. I was supposed to start at 4:10 and work down from there. The first one I ran 4:11, the next was3:56, the third was 3:45 and the last was 3:36. I felt quick and smooth for the first time in a long while. 3:36 is a respectable time for me for 1K so I am feeling more confident. I wrote to my coach Tinman, about the workout and he says that I "have arrived" . I am not sure about that, but I know I am headed in the right direction and am progessing nicely. Of course I owe a great deal to him. I couldn't have done it alone.
If I can get another two months of this kind of training in, I will be very fit for the fall. I so much want to run fast again. It is such a powerful feeling to run fast and to win. I don't really have to many more chances to actually win races at my age, 45, but I want to be fit enough to take advantage of the situation if the chance arises. I would hate to be in a race that is won in 17 minutes and not win it

Dead legs

Sunday was one of those runs that starts out bad and gets worse. From the beginning I felt slow and though I didn't slow down that much I never really warmed up. It was a 16.75 mile crawl. I took me 3:45 an incredibly slow time. The only reason I admit to it in public is that hopefully months from now I will be able to look back on it and laugh. I have lots of excuses, general fatigue, hills and humidity, but in reality it was a very painful, unpleasant run full of unmentionable chafing so I will spare my readers the gory details. At least I did it and am ahead of 70 mile pace for the week.
Monday I felt surpprisingly good. My legs weren't as tired as I thought they would be. It was a easy day of 3 and 4 miles.
Tuesday I did an easy 4 in the morning but in the afternoon I tried to do speedwork. When I started my warmup I was totally deadlegged. I crawled about half a mile and then started walking. I haven't felt that bad in a long time. I walked home and called it a day.

another week

I have finished one more week, 63 miles. Not perfect but not so bad. I missed a couple of runs but got in two good speed sessions and a long run, I'll take it. Next week I want to defintely get a solid 70. My speed session went well on Friday. I ran 3 miles at tempo pace. 1 minute per mile over race pace. Race pace is 6:20 so tempo pace is 7:20. It felt pretty easy but it was still work. I followed this with 8 x 200. I just tried to run relaxed and smooth. I started at 40 and finishes at around 38's. It felt great to run "fast". I would like to run that tempo more often.

Rainy days and Thursdays

Today was an ordinary day of training. 4.1 in the morning in the drizzle. Work all day and 6.1 in the evening for 10.2 for the day. An easy day. I tried to run slow and easy both runs so I will be rested for tomorrow's runs. Tomorrow's plan is 4 in the morning and a 3 mile tempo + 8x 200 in the afternoon.
In my soft running years, the years when I ran enough to call myself a runner but not seriously enough to run fast I would always avoid running in the rain. It seems whenever I ran in the rain I would get sick. But when you are trying to average 70 a week you can't miss many runs because of rain. I have relearned that running in the rain is not so bad if you are dressed for it. The first 10 minutes are a bit uncomfortable but soon you can't even feel it.
This is the official rainy season in Japan. When I first came to Japan many years ago many people warned me about the rainy season and how miserable it was. I had all of these expectations of monsoons but was pleasantly surprised that rainy season in Japan means it usually rains during the day, but not all day and not so hard usually. And it only lasts a month or so. Growing up in Washington State made Japan's rainy season seem like a piece of cake. In Washington it can rain consistently through the whole winter with out much letup. So for the next month or so I will have to get used to being wet.

fatigue

Today Wednesday, I ran 4.1 this morning and did a speed workout this afternoon. I did 2 w/u and 4 x 1k with each getting progressively faster starting at 4:10 and working down to 3:43. It was a tough workout but not so difficult. The track team was on the track too so it was nice to have company. I warmed down two miles and ran into the volleyball team on the road near the track. They are preparing for a 24 hour relay and have asked me to run with them. I am not so excited about doing it but I have never done one before so it might be interesting. Recently I have been so tired from the mileage I am running. Running higher mileage makes me incredibly, deeply tired. When I sleep it is like the dead. It is kind of a nostalgic feeling. I haven't felt this way in many years. It is a satisfying feeling. After four days I have run 37 miles. I need 33 miles in 3 days to get 70 this week.

Teaching

I haven't really written much about teaching so I will talk a bit about how things are going. I know several weeks ago I was complaining about some aspect of teaching. It is sometimes a pain to go through the process of retraining students to be productive as students and in the classroom. There are many things they have to learn for example to stay in English, how to do homework, what is appropriate classroom behavior etc. I guess after teaching so many years I get tired about going though the process again and again.
Things have basically turned around in my classes. I would say they are all going well, students are working well together and the dynamic is good.

Update

The last two weeks have had their ups and downs. Two weeks ago I ran about 36 miles because I was sick for a few days with a fever and sore throat. Last week I bounced back with 60 so I feel like I am back on track. Today, Sunday I went for my long run. The plan was for 15 but it turned into 17.3 as I made a wrong turn on one trail. I did my Kurondo ike loop. The only point of interest was when I was on the trails I came up behind a group of senior hikers. On Sundays the trails are usually full of larger groups of elderly hikers so it can be a bit difficult to get past them sometimes. So as I started to weave my way through one group, I noticed an elderly gentleman had decided to join me on the run. We chatted a bit and he helped me navigate and get people to move to the side of the trail as we came by. As we reached the front of the group he dropped off, not literally, and I resumed the run on my own. But at that point I also discovered I had taken a wrong turn and make my run a little longer than I wanted it to be. I knew it was going to be a long run so I just tried to run relaxed and run steady pace the whole way. It is the farthest I have run in quite a while so I am happy about my progress.