July 13, 2019
6.3 K: 33:25.28 (5:18/K)
5 K: 25:45.14 (5:09/K)
5 K: 24:35.17 (4:55/K)
4.3 K: 19:49.99 (4:37/K)
20.6 K: 1:43:35 (5:01/K)
It's Saturday night. I will usually feel bushed on Saturday night after a week long hard work. And I often put my legs up and watch a movie just to relax, forgetting about work and athletic effort. But tonight, though I should feel tired, and I did actually feel so, I felt this urge to run welling up from within. I attribute this interesting advent of motivation to diet rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber on the one hand, and low in animal fat and absence of alcohol on the other. It doesn't overly excite your mind. It keeps it nice and calm. It allows you to make sound judgments regarding what one should do best. Tonight I should go for a practice run, because I haven't been able to run between Wednesday and Friday, the reason being there was a big seminar for corporate clients on Friday and I skipped training on the previous night to save energy, and also that there was an early start and a tight schedule on Saturday, so I chose to save energy of work by skipping training. I have been away from training too long. Another day of absence of training could kill all the precious gain from previous effort.
Bringing myself to the road was somewhat effortless, because the temperature was just right for a run, and it was drizzling a little. Perfect condition for a barefoot runner!
I started off without setting a fixed goal in terms of neither time nor distance. I just went with the flow. But I wanted to run at least 20 K. Anything beyond that depends on how I will feel along the way. In terms of the pace, I wasn't so ambition. Because I didn't run for three days, so I knew it would take a while for my body to adjust to the running mode. But there was one goal I wanted to cling to. That is to gradually increase pace and run at the fastest pace in the last 4 K or so.
The course tonight ended up being exactly the same as the one I ran on Tuesday night. I ran the first 6.3 K segment fairly slowly. That's OK. I went as I had a dialogue with my mind-body about how far and fast I could go tonight.
But once I came to the 5 K loop in the Yuhkarigaoka residential district, I injected the pace, aiming to hammer out 4:58/K pace. It's my target pace for the Dec. 1 marathon in Shonan.
To my disappointment, the first lap wasn't even close to it. I was 11 seconds slower than the target per kilometer. The reason wasn't so much for limited cardio-vascular capacity; but rather because I ran a bit too carefully not to damage my soles. They didn't feel as durable as usual, perhaps because they had softened a bit while I was away from training...
I didn't want to fail to meet the goal in the second lap, so I made conscious effort to run faster by running on the center line which is painted, and which therefore has smoother surface. It was past midnight, and traffic was scarce, so that helped me to do it without causing anyone trouble.
I ran the second lap well under the target. I was glad.
Now came the last 4.3 K segment. I wanted to run it the fastest. My ideal pace is 4:30/K. How close would I be able to get to it?
I significantly increased cadence. I was listening to Jean Luc Ponty's "Mystical Adventures" while running. I kept up with its tempo, which was tough, but that seemed exactly the pace I should be keeping in the final phase of the target race if I want to run a sub-3.5 marathon.
Eventually keeping that tempo became impossible, but I did my best to stay as close to it until I finally reached home.
I was 7 seconds slower (4:37)per kilometer than my target (4:30), but nonetheless, I did run the segment the fastest, so I patted myself on the shoulder.
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