Friday Night Barefoot Run: 8.5 K

I am at hamburger steak restaurant "Bikkuri Donkey" (Surprised Donkey) in Inage, Chiba, waiting for my order to arrive. It's a little past 2:00 a.m. I have a very, very early start tomorrow, and I am usually already in bed, sound asleep, recouping for a busy day to come at this time of day. Why am I still up? That's because I am more refreshed than tired, and more hungry than sleepy. I will sleep in no time once I finish my late-night reward meal for an 8.5 K barefoot run that I did two hours ago.

My training on Friday night is irregular. I sometimes run on Friday nights. I sometimes do not. Most of the time I don't, mainly because I am afraid of tiring myself too much to wake up early the following morning. If I wake up any later than 7, I will miss the train that I must catch, and if I miss the train, I'm certain to be late for the first lecture of the day. I cannot let that happen.

Tonight, somehow, I should have been very tired, because it was such a hectic week with so many important jobs that I had to get done. It was a crazy multi-tasking week! But I finished most of them, and the only thing that is yet to be done is not that hard, and is sure to be completed easily by tomorrow. So I was mentally fairly relaxed, and that probably allowed me to go for a practice run.

I ran very slowly, mainly paying attention to my running form and cadence instead of keeping some target pace. I didn't even decide how far I would go. I just went with the flow. I was originally planning to go around a 2.5 K loop a few times, but after the first lap I was in a mood for a bit of a variety, so I changed the course and went into a 6 K shuttle course rich in undulation. I enjoyed kicking when climbing hills because keeping the same slow pace became boring at some point.

Overall it was a pleasant run that didn't leave me overly exhausted.

Now with my stomach reasonably filled with a 150 g hamburger steak, Chinese radish salad, and steamed rice, I think I can crash for the night after a short bike ride home and sleep like a log for three hours.