Wind Chill Factor Fifty Five Eff

The cherry blossoms are blossoming! The irises are irising, and the wind is still chilling us to our bones. Such is spring in Japan.

It hasn't been much of a running week so far. I could put it down to a taper for the 30-km trail run at Ome on Sunday, but I think it would be more honest to just say it has been a pretty ordinary week. I got to work on Monday morning all ready to hoe into the mountain of writing course exercises which threatens to strangle me, when what should happen but I get not one, but two urgent translations land on my desk. I farmed one out to my trustworthy outsource translator, but was stuck with the other and that basically took care of most of my waking hours for the week, since a proper translator I am not. Anyway, got them sent off to the clients tonight just in time to meet the deadline.

Still, I did manage to run a couple of times. Once on Tuesday morning, 14.2 km up to Komazawa Park. Calibrated the footpod after first setting the calibration factor to 1.0000 and then doing a run calibration over 2 km. It was very accurate after that. Then on Wednesday night, after working at home all day to get my wife's help with the translation, I went to Yoyogi Park. My wife was not that pleased about this. It seems it is easier to go running after work if I am at the office than if I spend the whole day at home. So, laden with guilt, I got away late and just ran to the sento at a fairly brisk pace, dropped my bag, and then met Colin in the park for another 7 km at a slightly more sedate pace. So a nice mix of upper and lower aerobic there. Pleasant dinner at the Vietnamese place in Shibuya afterwards.

I was at work until 11:00 last night (yes, working on that bloody translation), and not in bed until 1:00. So there was not going to be an early Friday morning run. I took some gear to work and after getting all the deadlines out of the way (the pile of writing course exercises are still mocking me) decided to run home. That was just over 10 km in 54 minutes of mixed pace through Gaien, Ometesando, and some back lanes of Ebisu. Many were streets I hadn't run before, and it was kind of interesting. Heard the roar of the crowd from Jingu stadium where the Swallows were shading the Tigers 4-3 in a Pacific League baseball game. And it was c-o-o-o-o-l-d. Well, 7 degrees C seems pretty darn cold to me for this time of year.

So that's about it. That gives me 340 km for the month, which is not too bad, really considering I am just trying to keep up my aerobic base and have enough miles in the legs to get through the trail run in one piece.  Speaking of which, the next update will be after Ome (pronounced Oh, May!) on Sunday. Perhaps some piccies eh? Unless I sneak in a hanamipost tomorrow.