Komazawa-chan, o-hisashiburi...

Sunday is the religiously observed long run day. My wife and kids are occupied with more conventional devotional activities and I go for my long run with my friends in Yoyogi Park. But today, with our move a mere two days away, there was no chance. I didn't even try. So we got stuck into all the chores, and then around 3:00 it seemed like we had done about as much as we could. So I threw out an acoustic signal that I might go for a run, and to my surprise the acoustic reflection was not entirely negative. So at 3:30 I got out the door and headed straight for Komazawa park. Just before starting this post I checked when  I last ran there prior to the marathon. The run where I said "ja mata ne" to the park. And to my surprise it was exactly a month ago. So I just started running without any particular plan or pace in mind other than to run aerobically for maybe one and a half hours. It was cold. About 5 degrees. Heavy snow was falling over much of Japan, but not here just yet. There was a women's corporate ekiden on TV during the day and it was snowing so much that the women were getting snow drifts building up on their eyebrows and hairline. Crazy stuff. Anyway, I just seemed to fall into a fairly brisk pace and ended up running almost the whole run at a heart rate of 150 or higher. Much of it in the ower mid-150s. The pace to and from the park averaged about to 4:40/km and in the park 4:20 to 4:30/km.  At the end, with having rugged up pretty well, I had worked up a good sweat. It felt good to do a nice solid workout liek this again. There were a few little niggles, especially the old left hip and even a bit of soreness in the left knee. Early in the run my right foot was doing the tendonitus sonata, but it quietened down later. Hop it stays that way. Strange to have these niggles when I have not been running much. Still, I did manage to scrape together just over 42 km for the week, which is not bad considering it feels like I have been in bludge city.

We had our Namban Bonnenkai (year-end party) on Friday night and it was a hoot. We actually had the luxury of gathering at a private residence, a very unusual treat in this city. Much revelry and dancing and cavorting, the details of which are best left behind closed doors. I do remember falling over on the dance floor at one stage and have had quite a sore left elbow as a result...and a bruise on my left thigh. But I showed a lot orestraint to be honest and headed home before midnight due to having to attend a wedding the next day. Now, that, the wedding, is almost worth another entry all by itself. Perhaps when I have the photos.