City-Bay fun run Adelaide, South Australia

Should I feel pleased? I guess I should. After being unable to train properly since February I lined up in a 12km run in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Long ago, I marked this race as one I wanted to do well in - and had a time of no more than 45 minutes in mind.

But poor health meant virtually no training for 7 months. I was 5kg overweight, got drunk 2 nights before and walked all day the day before. I should have had an awful run.

I went through 1km in 3.30; 2km in 7.10; 3km in 10.45. Then crumbled. But I kind of held it together for a 48.56 (12km). Which I just found out is a PB - beating the time I ran when I was 25 years old by 2 seconds!

A good 5km

I turned up to Oda Field in Yoyogi Park on Wednesday dreading the idea of running 5km. My neck was hurting a lot - some kind of glandular pain - and I felt weary. But I figured I'd give it a go.

Then, after running 2km, my shoelace came undone, but I kept going.

And I was rewarded with a half-decent time - 17.33. My equal second best time. Of course, now I wish I'd run just a bit faster. Sub 17.30 would have been nice. But all things considered, I can't complain.

Did a good 2 hour run the next day.

Oda Field in the rain

Bit of an odd night of training tonight - it was cold and very wet.

The plan was 2km, 1km, 2km, 1km - but I missed the start of the first 2km, so I ran it as a warm-up.

Then I ran 3.09, 6.51, 3.14.

I felt OK, but I didn't realised my 3.09 was actually rather quick.

My achilles is just bothering me a little.

Getting fitter?

In June last year I did a 6 x 1,000m session at Oda Field. My times were:
3.23, 3.17, 3.22, 3.27, 3.22, 3.27.

Last night I ran:
3.19, 3.19, 3.13, 3.12, 3.19, and pulled out of the last one after 500m with stomach pain.

But if I can overlook the last effort it seems to show a definite improvement.

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.

Whatever it was seems to be going away

Well my glands around my neck are still making me look a little chipmonk like, but whatever the virus I had was seems to be going. I'm even toying with the idea of racing this Sunday afternoon.

Hmmm

Yesterday was meant to be a new PB for the 10km at Takashimadaira. Instead, I found myself walking back to the finish line after just 6km. I'm really run down, with a fever, sore throat, sore lymph glands and no energy. I've slept for over 20 hours since returning home from the run yesterday morning. I hope whatever I've got is a passing problem.

A NEW 5,000M PB!!!

I'm happy. Everything went to plan tonight and I managed to run a 17.33. That's 12 seconds off my PB.

I faded near the end—the lack of quality training miles showed—but overall I ran fairly even splits. In fact I surprised myself, running within 1 second of my schedule until 7 laps. At this point fellow club member Jay took over and put us back on schedule. jay finished in a great 17.26.

I was down 6 seconds in 17.30 pace with 4 laps to go, so I was happy to pull back 3 seconds.

As with my last Godo (godo means 'together') time trial, I got a bit confused about the laps. I forgot that our team's fast runner Patrick had lapped me, so the lap board was right for him, not me. I surged with what I thought was one lap to go, only to realise when I looked at my watch that I had another lap to go. My legs weren't at all happy about that, nor my heart, but I managed to find something for the last lap.

Thanks to everyone who stood in the rain to cheer the Nambanners on.

I guess everyone finishes a run thinking "I could have gone faster" - but this time I really feel like I could. I feel fine now, when usually I'm shattered after a 5km.

My knees felt sore on the train on the way to the TT - nerves making me a hypochondriac, I felt a sore throat coming on too. The pain and sore throat miraculously went away went the gun fired.

Right, time to stop blooging and enjoy an Ebisu beer and a cheesecake.