5k Time Trial - 17:14

My teammate Yoshida-san announces that he hopes to break 17 minutes at last night's monthly running time trial, and I reluctantly stick with him despite this overly ambitious pace (for me).  I need someone to establish a pace or else I will indulge in an easy jog, and I seek to stay ahead of the rapidly improving Paddy, the Irish Wonder. 

Thanks to Yoshida-san I run 3:22, 3:25, 3:29, 3:32, 3:26 (kicking past Yoshida-san with 700 meters to go) for a 17:14, my fastest 5k in about 5 years.  

Laser focused on open water swim race

Only 7 weeks until I compete in the 5,000 meter open swim race in the tumultuous seas off Kamakura.  So I am focusing my energy on preparing for this epic event. 

This past weekend I joined Anthony, Keren, Mary and David at Hakkejima and swam some 3 kilometers, my longest swim since ironman two years ago.  I swallowed a lot of saltwater, my goggles leaked irritating my left eye, and my wetsuit scratched up my neck.  But covering 3k made me feel better about my chances of surviving the 5k swim in July.  

Sagamiko to Yamanakako

I have long heard glowing accounts of the cycling route from Lake Sagami to Lake Yamanaka through the mountains west of Tokyo.  Last Saturday I finally did the 115 kilometer up-and-back ride along with Chris, Fabien, Adam, Mika and Keren.

The route was even more scenic than I expected, with lush green hillsides soaring around us.  Even on a day when Mount Fuji was largely shrouded in clouds the course was stunning.  From Sagamiko the course climbs gradually for about 45k then rises sharply for about 5k before dropping down to Yamanakako.   We did one loop around the lake before returning.  The ride took about 6 hours including several long stops.   

I highly recommend the route.  By catching the Chuo special express, Chris and I made it from Roppongi to Sagamiko in less than 90 minutes.  According to Chris there is significantly less traffic on Sunday and weekday mornings.

Fuji Susono Half-Marathon

On Sunday I ran a 1:20:18 half-marathon near Mount Fuji. It was wonderfully cool weather (11 degrees) after the wretched death slog in the 35 degree heat at China Ironman.

I stayed behind my ultra-marathon teammate Yoshida-san for the first 5k and when I heard our split of 21:45 I was not optimistic about my ultimate finishing time. Thanks to Yoshida-san's comfortable pace, the long uphill climb on the first 5k did not actually seem so difficult to me. So when we got to top of the hill I accelerated, running 18:54 for my second 5k. I pulled within about 20 seconds of younger, faster teammate Gerard and was pulled along by my effort to keep him in sight.
At 14k I started to weaken a bit. This is usually when a half-marathon starts to get painful for me. But here is the wonderful thing about the Fuji-Susono course: since the last 4.5k is downhill, I merely needed to survive until about 16.5k and then I could cruise. And cruise I did -covering the last 5k in approximately 16:30. I have always assumed that you cannot make up time on the downhill that you had lost because of running slower on the uphill, but somehow at Fuji-Susono I did make up lost time (even though I do not consider myself a strong runner on downhills). I finished 4th in 40-49 division.

Needless to say, I would have liked to break 1:20, but given training and conditions I was delighted with my race. My time was very similar to my Tokyo (half) Marathon time in February - in both cases I started out at a slow pace and enjoyed a relatively comfortable run. The shift to more bicycle and swim training over the past few months did not seem to slow me down.