Rain and wind

Drenching rain pours down all day long today in Tokyo. Still seven of the truly hardcore Nambanners run 6 x 1000 at the track tonight - Bob, Steve, Paddy, Chiba-san, Anthony, Brett and myself. Also Satohi and Mami show up at the track, but inexplicably head to the bar after doing only a warmup.

Brett is tapering for Beppu marathon this coming Sunday. I run 4 x1000 with him at 3:30 pace with a brisk 200 meter recovery jog between. I am able to run in the second lane and carry on a conversation with Brett at this pace, but I start to labor a bit on the final interval as we pick it up to 3:26. It is astonishing to think that Brett plans to maintain this same pace kilometer after kilometer for a full marathon on Sunday.

I do three more intervals with the rest of the group - Steve and Anthony are tapering for Kanagawa half-marathon this Sunday, and I contemplate how it would be fun to join the crew for a flat, fast race. Well, next year. I am in triathlon mode now.

Steve tells me that I look like someone preparing for a triathlon -- I appear to have lost weight. Despite my efforts in recent weeks to eat more, I appear increasingly gaunt and emaciated. I weigh myself and realize the guys are right, I am down to only 61 kilograms (135 pounds) less than what I weighed in high school.

The rain was irritating tonight, but much less troubling than fighting the wind on the Arakawa. Keren and I were almost blown off our bicycles by a harsh cross wind last Saturday during our 100-kilometer ride. I am hoping for benign conditions during my early morning ride tomorrow. I need to cycle 50 kilometers, then go the office, and then catch an overnight flight to the US.