The sidewalk around the Imperial Palace grounds in the heart of Tokyo provides a 5-kilometer loop of uninterrupted runnning. This is my core route - the Palace is an easy 2k run from my apartment - and I run this course at least once a week when I am in Tokyo.
Having run in a lot of different cities, I would say this is one of the great urban courses in the world, the downside being its proximity to vehicular traffic. But the scenary is stunning, and on a clear winter day like today with the trees and side of the moat covered with snow, it is particularly stunning.
Today I join Rie, Juergen, Renald, Takako, Mami, Gary, Zach, Stuart, Subash, and Yuka as they prepare for the Kanagawa half-marathon. I run with the group at Rie's race pace - approximately 4:20 per kilometer for one lap. It feels OK, but I remind myself that this is much faster than my own triathlon race pace. Rie, Yuka, and I run the next lap at 5-minute pace and plan our 2006 half-marathon trips. Then Yuka and I run a lap at a bit over 5.
I manage to cover approximately 28-kilometers in 2 hours 35 minutes including the time for a little snowball fight and a stop to buy gel.
Strangely, the one component of my ironman training that I have fallen most short on is long runs. This would seemingly be the most accessible and pleasant part of the training, but so far only twice have I run for over 2-hours.
January 15-21 (Week Seven) Weekly Totals:
Total Training Time - 13:30 hours (Plan - 12:30 hours)
Swimming (2) - 1:30 (5.5 kilometers)
Cycling (3) - 9:30 (215 kilometers)
Running (2) - 2:30 (25 kilometers)
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