Mid-Summer Barefoot Challenge

It's sizzling hot today. I usually avoid running while the sun is still high, because you cannot gain mileage in extreme heat. But today I chose to run in the heat for a reason: acclimation.

I am expecting a full marathon this coming October. It'a Aqua Line Marathon 2018. It takes place in Kisarazu City, Chiba Prefecture. The course mainly runs through the city area, with a large part of the first half being the eastern half of the Aqua Line Toll Road. There is little shade throughout the course to avoid the sun. Plus, October in the area is still quite warm, with daytime highs expected to reach 25 degrees Celsius. This presents a big challenge to me, because as I look back on my past races, I never ran well full marathons on warm days. In fact, that's the reason I had avoided running a full marathon except in winter. But seeing my runner friends bravely run full marathons in early fall, I was finally inspired to set foot on the terrain yet to be explored, that is running a full marathon in a warm month.

In addition to the challenge of running a full marathon in a warm month, there is another challenge that awaits me--running the entire 42.195 in bare feet. I have done two pseudo-barefoot marathons where I ran the races almost entirely in ultimate minimalist aqua shoes with zero cushioning, took them off within 2 kilometers of the finish, and cross the line in bare feet. Many runner friends admire me for running in such ill-equipped footwear, and for taking off protective gear that is a must for them. But I'm not satisfied. In my mind late Abebe Bikila of Ethiopea, who won the gold medal in men's marathon at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, shines on as an ultimate athletic hero. Not only did he beat all the other shoe-clad competitors without wearing shoes, but he also beat those from Communist countries who were most unquestionably on all kinds of performance-enhancing drugs that were available at that time. I want to do what my hear did, no matter how much slower I may be.

Anyhow, how did my practice run go? Well, not very good. In fact, the heat didn't bother me cardio-wise. I was full of energy thanks to a good 80-hour sleep. But the heat of the asphalt killed my sole. Both of my soles got burned after running 11 K. I retreated once, taking a short break at home, and then put on a pair of running socks by Oleno, and hit the road again, but the soles were still too sore to run even a foot. I gave up.

I am hoping that by tonight the soles will have recovered enough to do a shoe-clad run. Then I will run another 20 K or so, bringing today's total mileage beyond 30 K.

Thursday Night Intervals: 6 Sets by 1 K

Thursday night is an interval night. I jogged for 20 minutes in split-toe minimalist shoes MUTEKI to warm up, and after that went to a nearby park to do intervals around a 880 M loop around the park and an adjacent block. The target lap is 4:30/K. The interval is 1 minute. The results are shown below:

Jog: 20:00.00

1st: 4:15.56

Jog: 1:00.26

2nd: 4:15.42

Jog: 1:00.10

3rd: 4:18.79

Jog: 1:00.18

4th: 4:22.99

Jog: 1:00.01

5th: 4:18.22

Jog: 59.99

6th: 4:11.95

Walk: 3:47.84

Jog: 20:00.00

Total 13.4 K: 1:14:30

Tomorrow I hope to jog for an hour or so if I'm in a mood. If I don't feel recovered, I will take a rest and recoup for a long run on the weekend.  

Home Workout

I worked out at home after coming home from work though I was originally planning to jog for an hour because a typhoon was coming and it was brutally windy, and even raining a bit. Today I mainly hit back and chest. I did five different back exercises and five different chest ones. I did a back workout and a chest workout alternately for a minute with a 15-second rest between exercises. I hadn't hit my chest for a quite a while, so it got rather wobbly toward the end. I'm afraid it will be sore in a couple of days.

5 K Jog in Running Socks by Oleno

I jogged 5 K last night wearing the pair of socks above. They are running socks manufactured by a socks company in Western Japan. They say the material used for a life jacket is used to make these socks. Therefore their durability is quite high. I test-ran in them for the first time last night. They looked unaffected by the friction. But I only ran 5 K last night. I'm hoping they will withstand incessant contact with the road and long-term use. 

Mid-Summer 1-Hour Morning Workout Including Hill Sprints (5 Sets by 200 M)

I worked out for about an hour this morning to make up for yesterday's absence of physical training. I was too exhausted yesterday due to overdoing tire throw on Sunday. I felt reasonably recovered thanks to a good 8-hour sleep (I didn't watch Japan's soccer game with Belgium). I jogged very slowly for about 4 K. Then I came to the bottom of this hellish uphill. I did 5 fast repeats up that hill with a two-minute active rest between sets. I finished the first set between 46 and 47 second. I made it a benchmark, and aimed at it in the following sets. All the laps are shown below:
1st: 46.25
Active rest: 2:00.23
2nd: 48.42
Active rest: 2:00.40
3rd: 47.27
Active rest: 2:00.37
4th: 48.93
Active rest: 2:00.19
5th: 46.98

After doing the hill repeats, I jogged to a park about 700 M down the road. There are steel rings hanging from a thick wooden structure. I did arm hang there: 10 reps by 3 sets. I was drenched with sweat when I was done.

I jogged back home from there to finish the whole exercise in 56:50.96. It was a good combination of slow cardio, high intensity cardio, and high resistance muscle training. Also both lower body and upper body, and their connecting component, core were involved in a well-balanced manner. I was satisfied.

I took a quick shower, and after that enjoyed having for breakfast grilled beef with assorted boiled veggies in Korean style and brown rice.

Recommending to be a Rider

 If you are someone who loves freedom, I highly recommend you to be a owner/rider of a large bike. There are three reasons.

<Reason One: Immediate Gratification>
Once you have become a owner/rider of a large bike, it becomes easy to immediately gratify your need of freedom. All you need is start the bike and hit the road. It's as easy as 1-2-3. There is something about moving from point A to point B on a moving vehicle that is inherently pleasurable. And being a rider gives you immediate access to that sensation.

<Reason Two: Ability to be One with Nature>
If all you need is move from point A to point B, you can achieve the same goal by driving a car as well as simply by walking. But there is something about riding a motorcycle that is fundamentally superior to these other means. That is its ability to allow you to be one with one of the greatest elements of nature--wind. What I mean is this. When driving a car, you and the outer world are separated by a windshield. Therefore you cannot directly feel winds on your face. If driving a convertible, you can feel winds on your arm if you put it over the top of the door, of course, but not directly on your face. Of course, when you ride a motorcycle on public roads in Japan, you are required to wear a helmet, so the actual area of your face on which you can feel the wind varies depending on the structure of your helmet. With a full face helmet, the air hits your face only through a small window. With an open face type, the feeling is more direct. Either way, the sensation of directly feeling the wind while riding is something only motorcycle riders can enjoy. Of course, if you are a jogger, like myself, you can feel winds on your face as you run. But human speed is quite limited compared with the speed the motor vehicle can achieve, so the sensation is no match.

<Reason Three: Comfortable Sounds>
The first two reasons are enough to recommend you to be an owner/rider of a motorcycle. But there is yet another reason that is specific to a motorcycle that is large in size. That is the comfort that the engine sounds provide you with. When riding a bike with a small displacement (250cc-400cc), the engine constantly works at very high speeds. The sounds created by an engine working at high speeds are high-pitched and not very pleasant (unless you are a hooligan!) On the other hand, when a motorcycle with a large displacement (401cc~) travels at the legal top speed of 60 km/h on public road, the engine does not work as fast as that of a smaller bike, and therefore the sounds created are low-pitched and comfortable, like the heart-beat a baby hears in his/her mother's womb. Nothing can beat the level of comfort created by that! And the engine sound of a large motorcycle traveling at a normal speed is very similar to it.

<Conclusion>
You should become an owner/rider of a large motorcycle, because it is fun, bringing to you tremendous joy and comfort. But questions remain regarding how and how much. I would like to write another post sometime on this topic.

 

Tire Throw & 17 K Barefoot Run

I did tire throw before dinner, and ran 17 K in bare feet after it.

In the tire throw today, I did forward throw 20 times, and backward throw 30 times. I had a knack for the latter as I had done it before, but the former turned out to be a lot harder. When you throw the tire over your head into your back, you bring it from the ground, and your bring it up as you use your thighs and back as well as your shoulders. Because thighs and back are such strong muscles, you can throw it fairly far.  On the other hand, when you throw it forward, first you raise it over your head, hold it there, bend your upper body backward just a little bit, tilt your arms backward also but only a little. You store your energy right there in that position, and as you snap back your upper body and arms, you release all that energy stored to create a forward movement of the tire. But since both shoulders and abs are far less strong than the major muscle groups involved in the backward throw, you cannot throw it that far in forward throw.  Anyhow, each throw, whether it's forward or backward, involves a tremendous amount of concentration of power, it's a good change for me because much of my fitness effort centers around developing endurance these day. Variety is the spice of life, you see.

I was originally hoping to run minimum 25 K, and ideally 30. But after running 17 K, I felt out of gas, and my right sole got a bit sore, so I called it a day.

1st 8.5 K: 45:37.96
2nd 8.5 K: 49:11.17
Total 17 K: 1:34:39