Tokyo Marathon

Marathons are one of the great mysteries of the universe, along with Swiss cheese, cats’ ability to land on their feet, and the number 42. The idea of a marathon totally defies Epicurean law, as it requires a person to push themselves beyond comfort, reason, and ultimately, sanity. The final stages of insanity are truly reached when, after competing a marathon, the poor crazed victim, now under the illusion that it wasn’t so bad, begins to train for another.

From the authoritive guide to human knowledge

Seems we are all pushing the limit a bit more as the race gets closer & closer. Congrats to Joe K for breaking the 15 k barrier and reaching 20k!!! I just want to be sure & avoid that ’serial’ universe Paul mentions below… it sounds painfull and is likely that everything moves very slow. ; -)

I started off for a run today at about 11am the weather was nice although a bit on the chilly side. I wasnt sure how far i would go but was leaning to the idea of a run in the morning & another later in the evening.

The course where i run is along the Sumida river a few blocks from my aparment. It not a straight shot as i have to cross a few bridges were two rivers branchs meet. When i get the to end, I just turn around and go back the same way… so im essentially running back & forth like an idiot.

I like running there as the view is quite nice, the paths are wide and un-obstructed, no stop lights or streets to cross, and not many people running, walking, or biking. Im not certain how far it is but im estimating it to be about 4k based on my times.

Sooo… today didnt start so well because my legs were feeling very tight on the very first lap. Not sure why but they just didnt feel ‘fresh’ even though I have only been running twice a week lately. I felt much better on laps 3, 4, & 5, and the weather was still nice… so i decided to see how far i could go.

I stopped a for a few short water breaks and some quick stretches on laps 6 and 7, but i was really really getting tired and hungry. For a split second i had aspirations of going a full 10 laps(40k), but my knees & feet were having none of it today. I stopped at 8 and had to sit on a park bench for a good 20 mins before I could muster up the energy to walk home.

32k – 3 hrs 20 min 37 sec

Just back from a 20K run in 1hr 56 mins. Burned a total of 1285 Calories. Not bad for a old codger like me !

Am pretty pleased with myself. Yesterday did 16km – made up of 10km run, 2,5 km walk then 3.5 run. Then later in the evening ran another 5km in just under 30 minutes.

But today I have a damn cold

I think it essential to pay attention to any signs that your body sends you. They could be signs of a possible, or developing, injury. It would be heartbreaking to carry out all that training only to injure yourself during the weeks before the marathon.

I did hear of one professional marathon runner whose training scheme was to run a short while. And then, depending upon what his body was telling him, he would adjust his distance/time accordingly . I will see if I can find more details on this story.

Currently on a business trip in Hong Kong. I did have glorious dreams of running the 5km and 10km scheduled runs over the island.

Problem is work, wine, women and gin got the better of me and I ended up missing the training day ie) Yesterday Tuesday of 5km.  Plus I forgot my shorts which meant I would have to run in my under pants – not a very nice sight to see I can guarantee you !!

Anyway today, Wednesyda, I bought shorts, sobered up and hit the hotel gym. I ran the scheduled 10km but I am wondering what to do about the 5m I missed yesterday !! I walked 3 km and ran 3km so in total covered 16 km on the tread mill in one session.  Does that cover yesterdays session ? Do I need to run another 5km later today ? What the hell, I will try and do it.