Wednesday Night in the Park

Last night was the first Wednesday night run of the year with the regular sento/park crowd: Gareth, Mika, Colin, Satohi, and Stuart.

The G-man wanted to run a warm-up lap plus a couple of 3.14-km loops at his marathon pace of 4:30/km. The pace sounded good to me, though I wanted a bit more distance. Mika went off to the speedwork session at the track after our warm up lap and away we went. My heart rate told me we were going faster than target pace, then Colin found us and was not quite as warmed up. I was happy to run and chat with him at the real 4:30 pace (a bit slower in fact on the second lap) while the other three slowly pulled ahead. So much for Gareth's announcement that he was so unfit that he may not be able to maintain 4:30 pace. We did another slower lap to finish for, I suppose, about 14 km all up and total time of 1:12:18.

After the sento we slipped easily into our ritual of having a couple of Yona Yonas at the "bar" (a flat-topped sign outside a convenince store near our sento) and then set off to an Indian restaurant.  I only stayed for one quick beer and then headed home. Unfortunately it wasn't quick enough to save me from a minor dressing down. The modem and stuff arrived for the broadband connection yesterday and somebody was anxious to get it installed I think. Oh well, you win some, you lose some...hopefully we will get it set up tonight.


Edit: the foot was a lot better than the day before. I ran in loosely laced old shoes, and that helped. I'll continue with that strategy for a while.