MASH SF

I see I was recently added to the MASH blog roll. Does that mean I'm a hipster now?

www.mashsf.com

New 5km PB!

Today, at Oda Field in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, I ran 17.32 for 5km. The time is only 1 second faster than my previous PB, but it's a major breakthrough for me. It felt easy all the way and I never went into oxygen debt - so I know I can do a faster time. I've upped my weekly mileage and lost weight - and now I can see it's paying off. This was my only PB of the year.

I'm doing Okutama Ekiden on Dec. 7; Shibuya Ekiden on Jan. 18 and Tokyo Marathon on March 22. Hopefully, my times will keep improving.

Great news for Japanese cycling

Former national road race champion Yukira Arashiro has been signed by French team bouygues Telecom, which is great news because Bouygues will field a team in next year's Tour de France - and Arashiro is a "rouler" - the type of rider made for stage racing, long breakaways and rolling terrain.

The rider has certainly put in years of hard work, riding for the Vang team before getting picked up by Dutch/Japanese team Skil-Shimano.

But now he's in the big league riding the big races - perhaps Paris-Nice, Route du Sud, Paris Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The races you can see on TV - races young kids in Japan can watch on J-Sports. I hope Arashiro scores a few wins so we see more kids go get on a bike.

Tokyo International Womens Marathon

Results of the 30th and final Tokyo International Womens Marathon

1. Yoshimi Ozaki (2.23.30 - new PB)
2. Yuri Kano 2.24.27
3. Mara Yamauchi (2.25.03 - new PB by 7 seconds)
4. Yoko Shibui 2.25.51 (faded badly near the end)
5. Salina Kosgei 2.30.34

Ozaki came home very strongly, going from 3rd to 1st at about the 38km mark.
Shibui, who led for much of the race, faded badly as she moved from 1st to 4th. At around 38km her pace had dropped from 3.30/km to 3.40/km, but appeared to slow even more.

Cycle Mode Tokyo part 3 - Road bikes and TT rigs

Tom Boonen's bike













Oscar Freire's bike






Great hidden rear caliper on this Cherubim






Interesting lug on this Anchor





Something for the trackies
The best looking frame of all?

Cycle Mode Tokyo part 2 - Mini velos, Cervelos and velos

Cycle Mode Tokyo