Tokyo Marathon

Ran (almost) twice around the Palace last night, accompanied by Joe, Joseph, Sidh and Fujiwara-san and then I peeled off towards the end to run home to Shibuya, about another 5Km.

Discovered a whole new world of excruciating knee pain, tried to run through it, didnt help, broke on through to a parallel universe ( universes are seldom serial .. ) of agony and continued onward past galaxies of hurt, eventually spiralling into a black hole of physical impairment and sensory singularity.

Great.

Hey… my first post in quite a while.  Unfortunatly, i didnt make any progress training in the month of October so I decided to be a bit more agressive this month. 

I ran 32k on Saturday, 16 in the morning (yes in the rain) and then 16 in the evening and I it was pretty difficult in the evening.  I know its not the same as runing continuously but im hoping to ease my body & psyche into the idea of the full 42k.

Here is the breakdown of my training for Nov thus far:

3 Nov – 20k with Andy 1hr 55min

8 Nov - squats/lunges then 12k 1hr 15min

11 Nov – 16k in the am 1hr 30min

11 Nov – 16k in the pm 1hr 32min 

Running really helps put things into perspective. Without a walkman to listen to, all you have are your thoughts to keep you mind off the pain in your legs.

 Still following Hals schedule. Tuesday was a very difficult 5km run. Difficult because I couldnt find my breath and was weazing like a weak smoker.

Missed wednesday but kind of made up for it by running around the palace at lunchtime. From my office in kamiyacho and back is around 8km. Friday was a holiday.

Today, Saturday, ran 15km on the treadmill in the gymn. dull dull dull but it was either the treadmill or running in the rain.

Next week in Hong Kong. Looking forward to running around the island.. 

Hmm, week 17 on the countdown and again not a decent week:

By my reckoning this means that I did about 5km more than I needed too, but not in the right units. Oh well.

My experimentation with Bombay Sapphire continued this week, however I adjourned to a cheaper location (Mumbai) to imbibe. Unfortunately I think that I passed the point where it is a performance enhancer. Mumbai turns out to be about as good for running as my condominium in Singapore. Once you get on that treadmill and turn on the IPOD it really doesn’t matter where you are.

On Saturday I arrived back in Singapore fairly early and although I kept telling myself that I should go for a run somehow I never got out. So Sunday morning I headed off to the Mac Richie Reservoir again. This is a short run of about 3km to get there and then about a 10km run around the Reservoir. However one of the paths was closed and I decided to see the HSBC treetop walk which made it about a 17km run.

Ohh, now here is a problem which I anticipate costing me a fair bit of money. In the reservoir is a lookout tower with a circular stair case. Being one whom appreciates the view and thought it would be good exercise I rapidly climbed the 4 or 5 levels. Just as I was reaching the top my Polar Footpod caught the underside of the step and tore off, sailing down the stairs to the bottom. It took me an additional trip up and down the tower to find all the parts and it seems that the only broken bit is the rubber thingy that clips it on – so tomorrow I have to search for spare parts for Polars. Should be fun.

Hmm better sign off. Next post probably back in HK then Mumbai (sigh)

The week started off well. Ran a 10km on Saturday and cross training on Sunday. Monday was rest but Tuesday was a run around the imperial palace with the manhole gang.

That run was great. It is the first time I have enjoyed the company of running partners. Certainly the chat during the run helped pass the time. That last sprint at the end was so invigorating.

 But after that Tuesday it all went bad. Wednesday was a dinner with colleagues where my no drinking rule was broken. It was only 2 glasses of red wine which I counted as medicine.

And Thursday, last night, was too many glasses of white wine, a pint of guiness and tantanmen. The things I do for Reuters !