Midnight Bike Intervals: 6 Sets by 4:30 @ Medium Intensity with 1-Minute Active Rest

Jan. 19, 2022

I went out for a bike ride after a long time. It was freezing cold tonight. But nonetheless I had no intention to give up, because my mind-body was craving for some high intensity cardio.  With a knee still recovering from medial meniscus injury there is significant limitation to what I'm able to do. Fast running is out. Jumping is also not good either. My solution? Bike intervals. There is a long, mildly winding road several kilometers from home. I went there for the training.

One set is 4:30. You keep on kicking the pedals for 4:30 at medium intensity, which is somewhere around 25 km/h. The route has slight undulation. On upward incline I slowed down. On downhill I accelerated. I could feel my heart pounding as I climbed a hill, which is a feeling that I had missed so much.

During the 4th set I felt my legs so heavy that I thought of ending the interval session after this one was over. But then a brief moment of active rest that immediately followed it brought out renewed motivation. Soon I found myself heading into the 5th set.   

When the 5th set was over, I thought I did enough for the night. But then another side of me said, "Hey, what's the difference between 5 sets and 6 sets? Why not do it one more set and make it all together 6 sets." Soon I was into the 6th set. 

When the 6th set was over, stamina wasn't much of a problem, compared with both of my toes feeling numb from the freezing cold. Half of each of my feet was completely numb, and they felt like knuckles from the ankle below. I was afraid of frostbite. 

When I finally got home and took a long warm shower, the toes hurt on warm water like I'd never experienced before. It took a couple of minutes before a normal feeling was back.

Overall, the training was pain-free as far as my injured knee though cardio-wise it was fairly hard, but that's OK, because that is exactly what I wanted--cardio-vascular challenge!

I really think I must find a way to protect my toes from the cold if I want to make bike intervals a regular component of my winter endurance training. I am going to window-shop online tomorrow.    

On Integrity （いいかげんな言行一致の代償と誠実な言行一致の報酬）

Jan. 19, 2022

I read an interesting section from a textbook on different social styles. According to the writer sometimes you must pay a high price as a result of being dishonest. Here is a situation that illustrate the point:

There was a sales person who sold encyclopedia. One day he asked his sales trainer:

"What should I say if a prospective asks about our competitors?"

The trainer says, "Show this chart to the prospect. It is a comparative chart of major dealers including ourselves with the number of volumes, illustrations, pages and so on. Tell the prospective that our company is in the top of the list, but you don't need to tell the prospective that the names of dealers are alphabetically listed."

The writer argues that if the prospective actually buys the product, it is not the customer who is a loser, but rather the sales person who wasn't sincere, because he compromised on his integrity by not giving the information that would help him make a fair judgment. 

When you compromise on integirity, your self-esteen plummets. When your self-esteen goes down, your ability to have a relation with others also diminishes. Wow! That's scary. The writer goes on to say that one cannot stand for very long a continuous deterioration of one's self image. To sum up, the price of insencerity is just too high. 

On the other hand, the writer continues, that the reward of integrity can be comparatively far greater. Here is a situation that illustrate the point:

One day a man called a sales person who sold shipping insurance. He asked the price of a insurance policy that satisfied so-and-so conditions. The sales person asked the prospective to send him a copy of his present insurance policy. A few days later, the sales person called the prospective, and recommended that the prospect should simply keep the present policy because his was cheaper than the one the sales person sold at his company for the same conditions.

Ordinarily, this would have ended their exchange. But it didn't stop there. Hearing the sales person's explanation, the prospective went to ask, " How much more does it cost if I replace mine with yours?" The sales person says, "Well, Mr. Prospect, the price is so-and-so dollars more than what you are paying now."  To this the prospective said, "Deal. I want our insurance taken care of by someone like you. You are honest to me. I trust you to remain so with our future deals also."

The implication of the customer's statement above is that there are people who are willing to pay more to people who walk their talk.  

Midnight One-Hour Jog

Jan. 17, 2022

0.72 K: 4:56.04

10 K: 52:07.36

0.72 K: 6:10.45

Total 11.44 K: 1:03:13

After dinner I had a mental rehearsal for an important corporate sesminar scheduled for tomorrow. It went well. I made a few minor adjustments. But after that everything looks all set. After the rehearsal I drafted two meeting documents and emalied them to my boss. A meeting is scheduled after the corporate seminar. I'm excited to discuss our vision for the new year. 

Since I was pretty much done for what's on my to-do-list for today, I decided to reward myself with some good endurance training. Two nights before I ran 10 K, and it didn't cause me any post-training discomfort. So, I put myself to another test to see if my body was ready for a similar training intensity after a two-day interval.

The result? Awesome. The entire run was pain-free. I even ran a little faster (though I should be more careful for that matter).

Breathing was still not so easy. And there was lingering soreness resulting from the run two nights ago. But nonetheless I am hopeful for the prospect of doing it more often. 

While running tonight, by the way, I listened to Brian Tracy's lecture on leadership. The lecture is imprtant for me because I can get some useful tips that I can share with my clients who take my seminar tomorrow. I always listen to Brian's lectures the night before an important seminar, usually as I run. Most of the time it gives me such relevant last-minute input that I can use in the seminar. Hat tipped to Brain! The lecture tonight got me thinking that I want to remind those who volunteer to be the leader in group work that the most important two questions they can ask themselves once they volunteer to be the leader of their group are as follows:

1) What do my team members know that helps accomplish the given task?

2) What do I want each member to do to accomplish the task?

I hope prospective leaders in tomorrow's seminar will find them useful.

Midnight 10 K Run

Jan. 14, 2022

After finishing chatting for a while with some of my students after the last lesson for the day, I changed into my walking outfit and pounded the pavement under the moonlight. Though it was chilly, the sky was clear and starry, and the moon beautifully lit the road ahead. There was little wind tonight. It was just perfect for a pleasant post-work night stroll.

After walking for about 5 minute, I felt so good. I felt so light that I wanted to run. So, instead of walking the entire route, I decided to "run" except for the initial and last 800 M. 

Though the recovering left knee was basically painless, I ran carefully so as not to damage it. I narrowed my strides and took small and quick steps to minimize landing impact. I was especially cautious when going down hills. 

The first 5 K was a breeze. But as the distance increased, an effect of a long absence of strenuous endurance training started to show. Breathing became harder. And my legs became less responsive. But instead of feeling bad about how weak I had become over this course of time, I regarded this difficulty as a fun challenge of how far I could go on without significantly slowing down. Quitting because it was hard was simply not in my dictionary. So on and on I went, and when I finally reached the 10 K mark, I was with in 55 minutes (54:53.88). Not bad for an aging man with a knee issue. 

I hope my left knee feels OK when I wake up tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

Midnight 2-Hour Walk

Jan. 3, 2022

I went out for a walk. I listened to the audio of  "How to make anyone fall in love with you" by Leil Lowndes. I listened to it not so much for the purpose of learning how to make someone fall in love with me; but rather for the purpose of learning instuctional English. But nonetheless it was interesting. I find it trustworthy, because most of her points are research-based. I also find it practical for those who want to make someone fall in love with them, because she tells you what to do and why.

A 10 K+ walk is becoming my regular training. I run from time to time just to see how my knees respond to the impact that I make them withstand as I go up or down inclines as well as flats. There is little pain as long as I run at an easy pace. I will continue to put my knees to various tests, so that within a year I can run a race again.  

New Year’s Day 2.5-Hour Walk

Jan. 1, 2021

Happy New Year! How did you spend the special day? Mine was great. It started with watching the New Year Ekiden Race that took place in Gunma Prefecture. Honda won for the first time. They are a very young team with all of them in their early to mid twenties. They will continue to do well for the coming few years. 

Two Olympic marathoners ran the race: Shogo Nakamura of Fujitsu and Yuma Hattori of Toyota. But neither of them did well. Are they injured? Are they burned out? Are they undertrained? I don't know. But they are good athletes. And I like them both. I hope they will come back stronger again.

Anyway, I had three healthy meals today, and felt completely recuperated that I went for a long walk late at night. 

I bundled up because it was freezing cold. The sky was clear. I enjoyed gazing up at the stars while walking. 

I also listened to Brian Tracy's You Tube lectures. They are about communication and self-management. Five As in developing your "charm" were useful. I also enjoyed listening about "creativity". According to him, creativity is simply "improvment". I look foward to using these concepts for corporate seminars that I will teach down the road.