Unlucky

This morning I woke up early because I had gone to bed faster than usual. We’ve been suffering from stormy weather due to the typhoon that is raging over Japan. Usually I don’t mind the wind but the rain is a pain in the bottom. This morning when I opened my eyes I couldn’t hear any rain, so I went downstairs and opened the curtains to confirm that it was not raining. I dressed in long trainers and long sleeve under-shirt under my running t-shirt and ran out the door. After a 5 minute warm-up jog and some stretching I continued with an easy run.

However, as you can guess from the title things didn’t go as hoped for after that. Ten minutes into my run some rain began to fall, and within 15 second it was raining cats and dogs as if the clouds just came crashing down. I considered going back but at this stage and this heavy rain I would be soaked anyway so I continued to run the rest of my run. Some puddles I couldn’t avoid came up to my ankles and made my shoes really heavy. I tried to keep good posture and landing on the ball of my foot but with both strong wind and rain it was hard to do. When I came home I washed my shoes and clothes and noticed my knees and upper legs were a bit soar from probably a combination of the added weight and the resistance from wet running wear.

It wasn’t too cold so I could finish my run with a smile.

Running through radiation

As you must know by now, I live in Japan at about 150K from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Here in my town the radiation levels are still a little higher than areas further to the south including Tokyo. Somehow life has returned to semi-normal conditions and most Japanese seem the believe or have accepted that life can and must go on as it was before. There is no way around the radiation that is in the air so people are running as usual and so am I. After a long winter break, the spring has given me wings and I just wanna go outside and run. My wife is very worried but doesn't tell me to stay inside or avoid running/ cycling. The only advantage that we have is the fact that we avoid tap water which has increased levels of radiation by ordering bottled water from far far away and also our vegetables come from the far south where the amount of contamination is minuscule.
Yesterday was my first interval run in a very long time, I practiced constraint but I do feel a little stiff. Again today it is about 25C so I hope to go out for another run or maybe a bicycle ride.