Holiday Running

 

Holiday season is here with lots of time for running. Christmas running and family running and new year running. For me, I hope to catch up on my running because the cold weather tells me not to go outside. But hopefully around Christmas I can run in the daytime without freezing to the tracks. After my last marathon in November I have lost my appetite to run. No goals and cold weather besides a busy work schedule keeps my running shoes in the closet.

Sunday morning run

Finally I have reached the 30K peak in my marathon training. It has been over one year since I participated in the Kasumigaura marathon in Ibaraki prefecture Japan and ran so long that my legs hurt the next day (today). With my next marathon planned at the end of November, I hope to have to more runs of around 32 to 34K before beginning with tapering. Yesterday was a great day, starting off cool at 17C with clear blue skies the temperature rose to 24C. I choose a 3K course and went round ten times, running in the shadow of trees and in the sun at about same amount of time. The 29th kilometer was hardest and for the last one I gave it all I had.

Maybe if I had eaten a better dinner with more carbohydrates it could have been and easier run. Also, I usually run without having breakfast which could have provided some additional carbs but I’m not sure what it’ll do to my stomach and if I can digest it at all.

Pace Improvement

Finally summers seems to have passed on to other parts of the planet. Early autumn smells good and temperatures are optimal for running. Now every morning I'm fortunate to see the sun come up while running my morning training session. The sky turns red to orange to yellow which is great to gaze at while hearing the birds sing their morning songs. I'm already seeing improvements in my pace since I loose less sweat and my core temperature doesn't go up too high while running. I was becoming worried about my pace not improving much as I ramp up my weekly mileage.

Just two months and a bit before my marathon race. Hopefully I can keep up with my long runs and avoid a burnout. I feel very motivated and ready to set new personal best.

The end of summer?

Tomorrow we'll get some rain in the morning brought by a typhoon. I've had enough summer for one year. One whole month without rain and daily temperatures over 30 degrees centigrade and soaring humidity. It's become increasingly difficult to run because my body is unable to cool down. Breathing either hot air or dry air from air conditioners. draining all fluids when running and trying to replenish during the day.

Tomorrow the winds will make it tough to run but I want to run in cool weather no matter it rains or not... Typhoon running report will come later

Hot Summer

It was hot when I wrote my previous post and it still hot this week. For over three weeks its been over 30 degrees centigrade with the exception of one day, it was 29 degrees. Humidity is between 80 and 90 percent in the morning and becomes less as the sun reaches its peak around one p.m. especially this summer it is hard to run even in the morning because there is little wind and high humidity. Evenings are still hot until 8 or 9 p.m. which is too late for me to run.

Last week the boss was out for three days so there wasn’t anyone to cook me any vegetables. Nor was there anyone to buy and feed me fruit. It really left me tired at the end of the week. On top of that my skin gives me some rash from sweating too much and probably from a vitamin deficiency. This usually happens during summer but this time is worse than recent years…

According to the news this summer is not going to end any time soon, so I’m trying to increase my vegetables and fruit intake.

Running in Summer

Now here in Japan we are going to enter into the third week of the "real" summer. The real summer here means getting slammed with temperatures of more than 30 degrees centigrade (=86F). Most days it has been around 34 to 36 degrees centigrade (=93 to 97F) which wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't for the 80 to 90 percent humidity level! If you've never experienced hot weather with high humidity it could be hard to imagine, but I can tell you that it is not stimulating to go out for a run. Around the country many people do not survive the heat and national warnings are send out through the media to spend your days in air-conditioned places and replace lost fluids frequently.

This week is my first week of an 18-week marathon training schedule which required me to run on five very hot days. I tried to run late in the evening when the sun had gone down around 7pm,but the air was still hot and stale without any wind. Running in the summer is always a challenge,however, running my 5k easy run wasn't a real problem but Wednesday's 8k tempo run caused me to loose more than one kilogram from sweating. I was clever enough to drink lots and lots of fluids throughout the day so it didn't do much damage but this was the most intense sweating I've ever done in my life. Returning home I quickly had sports drinks and fresh orange juice before hitting the cold shower. I've done tempo runs many times before, some even longer and faster but this time I could really feel it in my legs the next day.

Luckily the weekend forecasts some rain which would raise the humidity level to about 90% but the temperature would drop down to the lower 30s. Whatever the weather, I'll have to run my long run on Sunday morning. Lets hope for wind! 

Runners Check List

There is a new page for marathon runners with tips and advise for healthy running. Check out these guides and bookmark it for future reference. This quick check list is for beginning and intermediate runners with some experience who are still learning about marathon running a sport and athletic challenge.

Feedback From Fellow Runners

I'm trying to keep up with current technology to promote my blog and my website as much as possible. I hope that blogging about my running experiences would spark comments from fellow runners to help me and others improve by sharing information or personal experiences. I've just finished updating my social link buttons at the bottom of each post to give my whole site a more professional look. Also i have tried to link my RSS feed to my twitter account so that they would be shared with an even greater audience.

To get back to running, my social and official engagements are prohibiting me to run my full training schedule and there has been some serious cutting. Luckily I'm still in the mileage buildup phase, but things really need to settle down in a couple of weeks so that I can start my 18 week training schedule for my full marathon race.

Sore Glutes

Somehow my butt feels a little sore which is probably because of changes in my running form. Inspired by a marathon training video called “evolution running” I’m trying to land more on my forefoot instead of heals or mid-foot. This was something I have been trying to from before I watched this video but at that time I was still trusting off with my upper-legs and toes. After watching this video I got one more clue which was to push off using my gluteus maximus muscle. Because according to the guy on the video this is the largest muscle and this would require less energy to keep our forward momentum. A great side-effect of this push-off is that it allows me to lean more forward and land on my forefoot.

Marathon running is a game of energy efficiency and of staying injury free. And according (not only to the people on this video but ) many professional and amateur runners this kind of foot strike is the most desirable.

This video called Evolution Running delivers some nice advice and shows some interesting drills but is not worth the price they ask for it. On the whole it looks like a video amateur put together a few Youtube videos and taped an explanation for support of his theory.

Those of you who want to know more about this movie/ video or who want to know some of the drills could leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you.

Good luck with your marathon training!

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.