Thurs Evening Long Hard & Aerobic; Fri AM recovery

Run type: Hard aerobic
Distance 22 km
Average pace: 4:22/km
Heart rate: ?? (probably 155)
Weather: 22 degrees & humid(18:00 am)

I had a feeling this week was going to be different and it is turning out to be so. The new(ish) salesman at work wanted to go for a drink on Wednesday night so we could get to know each other a bit better (!?). While it was not a late night nor particularly boozy, combined with the general tiredness I've been feeling it was enough to convince me to skip the Thursday morning run. But since I had to pack up my desk for a move to a new office, I figured I might be done early enough to fit in a run in the evening from the office to the Imperial Palace.

I managed to get changed and out the door at 6:00 pm. Ran from the office to Hanzomon (1 km) in 5 minutes, then began the first circumnavigation. I did not have a clear plan of what kind of run to do, but was feeling OK and thinking about the disrupted weekend that is coming up. For one thing, I am going to miss the Komazawa half marathon time trial because of the craftbeer party in Numazu that I'm going to. So that was on my mind. And I also got to thinking that I have been doing these 18k runs once or twice a week with maybe 60 minutes at HR150. I felt that I have become relatively comfortable with these and yet my legs could use some extra stimulus to harden up for running 42.2 km. It is only six weeks to go to the race, after all.

So I got it into my head that if I felt I could keep up something like 4:15/km pace for 3 or 4 laps, it would be a good step up from what I've been doing. The first lap came up in 21:45 (4:23/km). So about 30 seconds slow because I'd started out without much plan but formed it halfway around and had picked up the pace. For the second lap I held the same pace in which I finished the first lap to produce a 20:58 (4:10/km), which was 42:43 for the neat 10 km -- 13 seconds slower than target pace. (For those that know the Imperial Palace, I ran the first and fourth laps through the Sakuradamon gate, and the second and third laps around the outer course.)

The next lap was a 21:05 (4:11/km). Starting to get a bit tired, especially in the legs, and especially in the hamstrings. This makes me wonder if I do need to do a bit more peed work just to strengthen my hammies. Anyway, I gritted my teeth and got into the last one knowing I did not have to push too hard as I had made up the lost 30 seconds of the first lap. All I had to do was run this one in at 4:15. So I just eased off the slightest bit, which still meant working hard up the hill from Takebashi, and finished in 20:55 (4:13/km). That gave 1:24:43 for the four laps (20km), which could be safely extrapolated out to an 89:30 half marathon had I ran another 1.1 km.

An encouraging thing was that I did each lap on perceived effort only. I only checked my watch at the end of the lap, and was never far out from where I wanted to be. A discouraging thing was how tired this run left me, especially the fatigue in my legs. I need to be able to do a run like this and still feel pretty fresh if I am to do it for double the distance. I suppose the hill on the Palace course should not be discounted, and I probably crept into lactic territory to maintain the pace through that section, so that might go some way to explaining the leg fatigue.

This morning, because of the office move, I don't have to go to work until later, so I went out for a 7.5 km very slow recovery this morning. My hamstrings hurt quite a bit at first, and also my right achilles, which is a new problem altogether. Hope it is temporary. I did eventually warm up and I think it was an important run to do if I am to do a long run tomorrow.

いじょうです。