Double Training Part 2: 10.2 K Barefoot Run

Jan. 7, 2019

5.1 K: 27:52.51

5.1 K: 26:23.76

Total 10:2 K: 54:16.27

After taking a nap for two hours, I woke up to feel like a new man. Soreness in my legs caused by the 32.5 K run before dinner was gone. Not a sign of stiffness was felt. I was ready to go.

I chose to run the new 5.1 K course that I had Google-Mapped recently. One merit of this course is a public toilet is available at two different locations, and so is tap water. Another merit is it's rich in undulation. The course in Tateyama has fairly hilly. There is a particularly long and steep incline near the 30 K mark. I want to be ready for that challenge. 

The road felt incredibly cold on bare feet. I was afraid my toes could come off from frostbite especially right after I started running. But slowly I got used to the cold, and from a certain point on I was able to cruise on just like every other time.

It was almost eleven at night. There wasn't much traffic on the streets. I felt undisturbed, and focused. 

The turning point of this course is the bottom of a long downhill. My goal for this session was to run a negative split, running the second half faster than the first. Though there was no serious soreness or stiffness in any of my legs, but they were reasonably fatigued from the previous training, so they wouldn't respond as well as I wanted them to. Taking longer strides to surge was especially hard. I just couldn't do it. So I took shorter strides and increased cadence to score gain no matter how small it might be. 

Running a negative split isn't easy with this course, because after the turn point you must run an upward incline for about 300 meters. If you push here, you waste energy, and can risk slowing down after that. If you slow down too much here, it will be hard to make up for the time loss. So I ran up it as economically as I could to save energy but without sacrificing speed so much, and with 2 K remaining, changed the gear and picked up the pace.

When I stopped the timer and compared the first and second lap, I knew I negative split it. I felt satisfied. 

Today I ran a total of 42.7 K. Mission accomplished. Now I'll hit the road again, this time on my Kawasaki Vulcan S 650 ABS for a reward night ride, and feed my body with protein and iron.