June 2, 2013

The 145km Giant Salamander Ride

I’ve said before that I have a tendency to overdo things, and despite being so restrained over the last few weeks I got carried away and made a sudden decision to cycle farther than I ever have before. With little planning, I left home just before 5am and headed north into the mountains on my Giant Defy road bike.

The idea was to head towards Gujo, cross the Otoge pass over the mountains and cycle through “Giant Salamander Land”, an area where the huge, 1.5m long giant Japanese salamander is protected.

I’ll skip the details since you can just watch the video, but I finished the ride in eight and a half hours, covering 145km and climbing anywhere between 2,500 and 3,500m, depending on which app you go by.

Later this year I hope to tackle a solo, full Ironman-distance triathlon which will see me swim 3.8km, cycle 180km and then run a full 42.2km marathon. The most daunting part of that trio was the bike stage. Until today, my longest ride was 113km and I remember suffering from a very sore bum and back for the second half of that ride.

Today’s ride was quite a confidence booster. I did have a sore bum, back, neck, knees and my ever-present Achilles tendonitis and 2nd metatarsal injuries hurt a fair bit, but not until very late in the ride. I was also very pleased with how long it took me. I didn’t go too hard, and took quite a few rest breaks including breakfast and lunch at convenience stores, but still completed the distance in a reasonable time – probably because my new road bike is a lot quicker than my mountain bike!

In September, I will need to do 180km over even bigger mountains. After today, I’m pretty confident I can do it… but running a full marathon afterwards is another matter altogether. Today, running even 5km was totally out of the question.

May 19, 2013

Training Update – May 19th, 2013

It’s been five weeks since I wrecked my body at the Kakegawa Marathon. The first couple of weeks after that were quite painful and I wasn’t able to do very much at all in terms of exercise. Since the beginning of May, I’ve managed to start running again and am making steady progress towards my next big event, the Mount Norikura Heavenly Marathon on the weekend of June 22/23.

Running Smarter

I do have a tendency to overdo things and I’m sure that’s why I’ve been struggling with injuries for the better part of a year. Right now, I’m still dealing with Achilles tendonitis and 2nd metatarsal syndrome. Neither injury is keeping me from working out, but they are taking an awful long time to go away. That’s why I’ve started to train more sensibly:

I’m running three times a week and not on consecutive days;
I’m warming up with Radio Taiso and a 5 minute walk before I start running;
I’m running by time, not distance, increasing by 10% each week;
I’m wearing a heart rate monitor and running at around 140 beats per minute;
That means I’m running really slowly, around 6:30/km pace;
I’m only running hills once a week;
I’ve been doing 10 minutes of daily workouts, targeting legs, glutes and abs;

But that’s not all!

On the four days a week that I’m not running, I’m cycling and swimming. With an Olympic-distance triathlon in July, I need to train for those as well. I’m swimming at least 1,000m twice a week and cycling around 50km a week. If I follow my homemade schedule, I’ll be doing more than what the triathlon requires by the time it comes around.

Looking ahead

To be honest, neither Mt. Norikura nor the Imizu Triathlon phase me very much. I don’t need to take either of them very seriously and can just enjoy each occasion. I am, however, a little anxious about two other events in August and September.

On August 30th, I’ve registered to run the 70K Utsukushigahara Trail Run in Nagano prefecture. I’m not altogether sure I’ll be ready for that, even if I approach it with a “go slow, have fun” attitude.

And then, just two weeks later, I’m heading back to the Izu peninsula to attempt a solo, do-it-yourself, full Ironman-distance triathlon. It will mark exactly one year since I last saw my best friend, Keith, before he passed away, and since he organized the half-Ironman I did there last year, I want to do this to honor his name. I’ll have the support of Shun, who I did last year’s half with, and maybe some other people down there will come out to cheer me on.

It will be a huge challenge to complete both those events, two weeks apart, without injuring myself. Still, that which does not kill us only makes us stronger.

May 11, 2013

21K Kakamigahara Alps Hike

The forecast was cloud with light rain, ideal for taking on the Kakamigahara Alps full hiking course.

Last year I did it twice, but both times tried to run it. The first time, also in the rain, I bailed out with two mountains to go. I got lost, was freezing cold in t-shirt and shorts, and didn’t have the will to continue.

Two months later, on a hot day in June, I tried again, and again I got lost. In fact, I wasted so much time running on roads around mountains to get back on course that it became a mammoth 37km effort, and I was exhausted and dehydrated when I finished.

This time, I decided not to run, and started a little closer to my house. I also started at 5am, an hour earlier than last year, so made quick progress over the first two mountains – the two Gongens – and was on my way east across the alps long before breakfast.

I learned well from last year’s mistakes: I knew the course much better, I was dressed in rain wear, I had more than enough water for the whole trip, gloves to prevent blisters from holding my hiking stick and grabbing tree branches, and a better sense of where to conserve energy.

My biggest mistake this time around, not that I had a choice, was wearing shoes that weren’t waterproof. I got soaked in the rain and the water flowed into my shoes.

Nevertheless, I surprised myself at just how quickly I was moving across the mountain range. I was at Sarubamijou, the most eastern point, by 9:10am, about three hours ahead of last year! And whereas last June I collapsed on a bench and rested for half-an-hour, this year I devoured a Danish pastry and headed off again quickly.

The rain was light, but relentless, and cloud covered all the surrounding mountains leaving very little to look at. It was hardly surprisingly that over 21km and seven hours I didn’t see another person!

The long climb up Mt. Yagi was hard, especially as my waterlogged socks were causing blisters on my toes and heels. Still, with only Mt. Atago left to go, I pushed on.

Incredibly I was out of the mountains before midday and made my way to Ogase Ike car park in the hope my wife would come and pick me up.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of her and after changing my socks and putting some band aids on my feet, I plodded another wet 5K home on the roads.

In the end I covered 27.4km in 7 hours and 30 minutes, climbing around 1,500 meters in the process.

I felt a lot more confident today and feel I can extend the course by doubling back part-way, but not until I get some waterproof shoes!