2010/08/16

No Dogs This Time

A quick review on two runs I had recently. First, I went for a quick jog last Wednesday. As I was off that day, I set out around 8:30a.m. and took one of my regular course near my place. The distance is about 7km, which under normal circumstances is not a problem. But as I related last time, I haven't been exercising much recently, and it was pretty hot even this early in the morning, so the run was a little tough. But I could finish it without any major setbacks, and it put me in a good and relaxed mood for a interview with a TV director (check www.terophoto.blogspot.com for more info on that).

Then tonight I ran home from work, along the same path where a bunch of worthless canines had tried to intimidate me a few weeks back. When I set off on trail, my legs and body felt unresponsive and I thought the outing would be quite taxing. I kept quite a slow pace in the beginning, but with the music playing in my music player and the nice wind along the Yodo river, soon I was going at it easily. The moment of truth occurred when I decided that this was going to be a stamina session, not a speed or power build-up one. From then, I really felt good, especially after crossing the river when I ran along an unpaved path on top of the dike.

Soon I arrived in the 'danger zone', and I proceeded to take my bottle in one hand and half unhook my backpack in case the flea bags would want to play again. Actually, I think I saw them lazing in the middle of a baseball field, perhaps exhausted from the hot temperatures we had today. In any case, I jogged on through, enjoying the fireworks kids were setting off on the banks of the river.

After going through Juso, I jogged along the main road back to my place. Even when I went up the bridge passing over a train line, my pace did not lessen, and I felt great the whole time. I think I could have easily run another 2-3km tonight, and even pushed for an extra 5 if I would have really wanted it. But the sight of the two Shisha lions at the shrine near my place was more than welcome.

After my shower, I made a tofu and frozen fruit shake. I'll need to work on the recipe, mainly because of the consistency. But it felt nice nonetheless. I think that from now on and until the Sanjurokumine race in December, I'll avoid as much as possible deep fried food. I did put on a few kilos in the past month, possibly due to my cold, but also because of the munchies I've indulged in late at night.

2010/08/08

Sorry...

... about the long delay. I'll be completely honest, I haven't run much recently. Most of the runs I did were with the KFMH3. Not that the heat deterred me (well, it did a little), but the constant switch for screeching hot and humid to very air-conditioned atmosphere wreaked havoc on my system this year.

Today we had a run from Hankyu Kawanishi Ikeda and it was excellent. The hare (course designer), Man* ophobia did an outstanding job, and even if the course was a little long (for me at least, and I finished 1st!), it was very entertaining throughout. A few weeks back I scouted and hared for trails for the Nagoya H3 Nash Hash event, and hopefully our runs will be as entertaining (although they'll be more challenging, that's for sure)!