77 miles

Training is going pretty well. I feel that I am adjusting to the higher mileage. 77 miles last week. That is a new record for me as a masters, over 40 runner. My record in my 20's was about 110. Maybe this winter I will go that high again. Today my long run went well. 16 miles. It felt pretty comfortable. It was a bit cooler than usual because there was a big rainstorm last night. I am doing the same loop every Sunday. Honestly it is getting a bit boring. It is a great loop to run, mostly country roads but doing the same loop every week is getting a little tedious. I am thinking of getting an ipod shuffle to listen to on the run. This is a bit blasphemous (sp?) because in my day, serious runners wouldn't use that kind of contraption. But I guess in my day they didn't really have them either.

Dogs

Last night's run was a little more exciting than usual. I was doing a 10 mile push run. The first 6 went well. I was running around 8 minute pace and I started to increase the tempo to about 7:20's . It was quite hard by that point and as I ran past a factory I saw four dogs come out the front gate in a mad sprint after me. Knowing that the flight option wouldn't be successful I decided to fight. The usual procedure in this case is to bend down like you are picking up a rock and then pretend, or actually, throw the rock. Since I was in the middle of the road and there were no rocks handy, I bluffed and combined the fake throw with some of my strongest swearing. Thank God they could see me because that was enough to send them retreating. The lead dog made one more charge but another fake throw sent him back to his pals. This method of dealing with dogs is internationally accepted by dogs of all nationalities. I have used it in the US many times and it always works. Some people might say I should have tried to befriend them or some other less agressive technique. I have found that packs of dogs or even single dogs that are in a chasing mood don't particularly want to be friends and really I didn't want to waste the time on negotiations. So even with two stops to defend myself i ran 7:30 for that mile and finally 7:20 for the last. Definitley a good run.

Another good week

Last week went pretty well, 76 miles. If anybody is reading this, it must be boring. Kind of like my running, not terribly exciting, just something I have to do. I am not particularly sure why I do it at times. Two hours a day, exhausted a lot of the time. Going upstairs and downstairs is painful. For what? For a ribbon or plaque every few months? I do it because I want to be good at something. I want to be better than average. Of course there are other things I am good at but they are not they same. Nobody claps after I teach a good class.

Most of the time I run so slowly. I run slowly because my legs are always dead. Always tired.. Once or twice a week I manage to run at a decent pace but then for the next couple of days I am crawling.

Kinkakuji

Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion, is one of my favorite temples in Kyoto. We very conveniently live equadistantly between Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. It is about an hour from our apartment to each of these cities. Last week we went to Kinkakuji which was quite beautiful and then we went to the Ritsumeikan University Museum of Peace.. It had a very balanced view of WWII which is quite unique in Japan. Japan generally has a victim mentality in regards to the war. Most Japanese see it as something that happened to them without much sense of national responsibilty. Anyway the museum was quite interesting.

Another week.

I had another good Sunday run. As usual I got up at 4, watched TV for an hour to let my body wake up and ran at 5. I was amazed that I could run because I only slept for 2-3 hours that night. I think I had too much cafeine (sp?) for dinner so I couldn't go to sleep until around 1:00 am. Anyway I got out the door on time and concentrated on running relaxed for the whole run. I didn't want to race it or compare it to the previous week. One of the problems with having the Garmin is that it is very easy to compare runs and of course want to run faster each time. So I just tried to run relaxed the entire run without really pushing it. I was also afraid I was going to crash because of lack of sleep but thankfully I didn't. I also added on a bit to bring it up to 16 miles. I want to stay at that distance for a while.

Another 70

Just finished another week of 70 miles. It is my second. I definitely could feel the effect of last week. I was exhausted most of the week especially in the morning runs. They were so slow. I was just crawling the entire run. Part of it was the effect of last week and part of it was because I haven't been sleeping enouugh. I can't run 70 miles of 6 hours of sleep a night. I have to change that aspect of my lifestyle. Also my 80 minute runs were quite tough especially at the end. Hopefully I will get used to the increased mileage and gradually speed up.

A good week

Last week went well. I got 75 miles in, which is a record for me after age 30. It wasn't particularly difficult though I felt like I was running all the time. That is the problem with training at the speed I train at now. I used to be able to do five miles easily in 40 minutes, now I am taking 45-or 50 to cover the same distance. That's ok because I think the times will eventually come down over time.

effortless

This week has gone pretty well so far. The plan is MWF 5 am, 5 pm. Tuesday, Thursday am 5, pm 80 minutes. So far I am on schedule. This morning I was totally dead. We were going so slow so I decided to bag it at three miles. This afternoon the 80 minute run went really well. It was one of those semi-magical runs that come along every once in a while when you run effortlessly. It didn't last for the whole run but there were sections that felt great. It is the way I remember running used to be. Anyway it was a great feeling.

I found a new loop that is mostly country roads with some great climbs. I love discovering new courses.

I have run 59.5 in 5 days. I will probably run 10 tomorrow and 5 Saturday for about 75. I hope to stay at that level for a while