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.

Downpour

My interval training run yesterday was timed with a wonderful downpour of rain. Obviously the rainy season has started with will make my running more difficult than the cold winter winds. I started my warm-up routine as usual by jogging for about five minutes, doing some dynamic stretches before doing my static stretches. Altogether it took me 15 minutes (I timed my warm-up routine for future purposes). Just as I had started running the skies turned darker and darker and wet water came falling down. I was worried about my form so I changed the interval run into Fartlek running.

By the end of my 8K training run I was completely soaked but it felt great because it was still about 25 degrees centigrade. The rain had made me run faster than I had planned because during the first halve I thought I would be able to out-run the rain… The day had turned into a dark evening and only flashes of lightning were reflecting in the massive puddles. I haven’t had a cold for about three years now so the only thing I worried about was my (fairly) new running shoes which were white when I left home. After coming home I took my new Nike’s with me to the shower and cleaned them thoroughly, they seemed to have survived the black puddles…

One more thing: while I was running in this crazy rain I had two cars pull over and inquire if I was alright? Meaning either they were worried about my health or looking to contact the nut house I escaped from. Either way their kind gestures made me happy and running with a broad smile all the way.

Marathon Interval Training

Finally it seems that my legs are accepting interval training for prolonged time. I’ve tried interval training before but started with 1000 meter increased pace with a couple of hundred meters jogging interval. But that gave me lots of pain in my calves and Achilles. Now I’ve adjusted my plan and do only 500 meters at increased pace with a 300 meter interval jog. My pace is at 4:40 per kilometer so 2:20 for the 500 meter. Yesterday I ran 8K with 6x500 meters increased pace work. I clocked in at 42 minutes for the whole 8K which isn’t a bad time for me.

In the future I hope to continue doing interval training in preparation for my marathon. I can feel that running faster pace is easier but at the end of the week I can also feel the exhaustion of the harder training workouts. This interval training will make me faster for sure.

If there is anyone with suggestion for my interval training or interval training in general leave a reply on this post.