Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Wobbly but steadying

My self-assessment dropped a point to 6/10 after last weekend because I missed a day of training on Saturday due to a particularly heavy bonenkai/farewell party on the Friday night (and until 4:30 Saturday morning...I hate Roppongi!). The hangover developed into a cold and sore throat on Saturday night. Sunday morning the throat was not good and the head still doughy, so I rested more, downed vitamin C, and resigned myself to a crap week of not nearly enough running. It was a colder than normal day as well, which did not help any incentive I might have to get out the door.

After lunch that nagging voice got louder and louder and finally at 2:30 I got dressed and headed out the door with the intention of running at least 10k, just to salvage some pride. As I got moving I realized I wasn't feeling too bad after all and ended up running 20.5 km at 4:44/km average (and pretty evenly...no slow start, hard finish). One thing that run did was take me over 4000 km for the year. Not a bad achievement I suppose, but still pretty modest by some people's standards.

This is my last week in my current job, so even though I am scrambling to get things finished, it feels a bit like a holiday. I called into the gym yesterday morning and did 10 km on the treadmill, 5k fairly easy and 5k on a moderate sort of hill program. Last night the boss took me out for a goodbye drink. Several flasks of good sake (cold of course) and lots of fish! Then today I ran three laps (5k/lap) of the Palace at lunch time. The first was north of 5:00/km pace as I ran with Ms Uchida from my company, then the next two were at a bit slower than 4:20/km. So like the title says, steadying. I just have to follow through for the rest of the week. I think all the partying is over for now...at least I hope so.

Here is something to show you what 16/17 year-old boys get up to for kicks (pun intended) these days. To make it easier, Tatsuya is in the darker colored shoes. His mate is the better trickster, but Tats is proud of his free kicks:

5 comments:

Pete said...

You've taken the best shots the bonnenkai and sobetsukai can offer and you are wobbly but still on your feet. Great job! Hang in there, enjoy your trip.

Those kids have skills!

Robert Song said...

He should be proud of those free kicks. I am always amazed at anybody who can do those juggling skills. I have trouble just controlling the ball for more than three or fours touches.

You are right about telcos and broadband in Australia. I big rip off.

Samurai Running said...

Wow Stephen your son is fantastic! You must be very proud.

We went to a teachers-parent meeting the other day and my 7 year old son's teacher
while gushing over him was at pains to point out that, sportingwise, he had little future.

I'm going to show him that clip and hope that there is a small chance that it will motivate him to do better ;)

Ewen said...

Great talent there Steve. If only soccer ball juggling were an Olympic sport!

It seems that "not nearly enough running" is something many of us are putting up with this time of the year. I should just drown my sorrows and go drink sake with the mafia.

Safe traveling.

Tesso said...

Wow, how good are those kids! Love the Aussie music to go with it too :-)