The Weekly Sunday Sauna

Run type: Long -- no heart rate monitor
distance: 27.5 km
Time: 2:27:32
Average pace: 5:22
Cumulative weekly km: 96

Arranged to meet Colin at 8:00 at Yoyogi Park this morning to put in a few laps before the 9:00 starters on our way to 11 laps, or 27.5 km. Pleasantly surprised to find Jim waiting there as well, so there were three of us. Jim had his Garmin 301 all programmed to take him through the run within certain heart rate zones.

There was more rain last night and the temperature might have been down a touch to between 25 to 27 degrees. But the humidity...oh my goodness, it is just relentless. Day in, day out. Mould heaven. So we set off at 5:30 pace and basically stayed there for the first five laps or so. Were joined in turn by Satohi, Rebecca (new English lady, arrived via a long stint in France; has run an 87 minute half), and eventually Jay. Chiba san and Rie were also there somewhere. But anyway, through the heat and humidity we just kept churning them out. Laps 7 to 10 were all under 5:20 pace, and then finally pulled out a 4:51/km for the last lap.

Felt pretty much spent at the end, but probably could have continued if I'd really needed to. Overall time was 2:27:32 versus 2:30:38 for the same distance last week. I think last week was actually slightly hotter. Anyway, it's a good distance to stick at for a little while and then build on as soon as we get a break in the sauna-like conditions.

Went to Meguro Pool in the afternoon with Kohta, Chiaki and Rei. Rei catching cicadas left, right and centre! Now writing this up while watching the women's marathon at the Helsinki World Championships. The Japanese are well out of it and it is hard to justify showing shots of them on screen at all times, but still they do it. Right now, at around 31 km, we have had five or more unbroken minutes of the fourth placed (big gap to third) Japanese runner, who is running entirely by herself, while up front Radcliff is fighting hard to try and ease away from Dita. I'm listening to audio commntary from some web site. Like two different races. But here we go, Ndereba has overtaken Dita and might be closing the gap on Radcliff...time to turn my full attention to it..

Postscript: Paula won in 2:20:50 ... never really challenged and she seemed to pull up looking quite fresh and relaxed. The highest placed Japanese runner was fifth. Worst result in years and they were second to Kenya in the teams. Much gnashing of teeth.