Catching up on some business

Time to do some blogging. Where have I been? I'm still here, always have been. Blogging has lost the luster that it had though so I'm visiting my own sight less frequently. Anyway I'll continue to update but it might not be so consistent.

First order of business: Kanuma Satsuki Half Marathon. What is there to say? 1:43:47. Obviously a sub par performance but about on par with where my training was at that point. Nice day, decent course, just didn't have it. I got out to a 1:35 pace and held that through 10k or so even though after just 4-5k I knew I didn't have it. I was surprised at how quickly I got into the "I don't care" phase. Didn't care about pace, finishing time, drinking water, anything. I just wanted to be done running. I carried a gel with me that I planned on taking at about the half way point. At that time though I had such indifference that I thought it was too much trouble. Not only that but it might make me feel better and then I'd run faster and that didn't sound like much fun, just more work. So there you have it.

Now on the other hand was last night's 5k time trial, in the rain, around Oda field. I was shooting for a time under 19:30 but figured I'd go out at a 19:10 pace and see how long I could hold it. Turns out I could hold it the whole way, finishing in 19:07. Quite happy with that, given my recent training (see paragraph above). In fact that is my 4th fastest time since moving to Japan. So now I have a little more confidence that I can perhaps step up the pace of my training a little bit. Put in a little tempo run here or there and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.