the fabby trail running with muscle ache

Because of Shoji-san's kindness, I could go for trail run with Shoji-san, Taeko-san and Ma-san. I knew Shoji-san was supposed to run in Mt. fuji climb race on Friday, and checked his blog to know how was the race. And he posted to announce to us it was DNF.







According to Taeko-san, time restriction is severe, on the road race, runners don't need to make a long line to ahead for the finish, but in that race, the course is pretty narrow, so it can make a long line to climb and pass the gate of time.





Anyway, I asked Shoji-san to go for trail run together, and he said OK! We made a plan to gather at 6AM at Shinjuku, and headed for Minami-Alpus in Yamanashi-prefecture. It took about 3 hours to get to starting point by a car. Today, we started from 1,500m sea level to 2,700m, it was a tough trail climbing for 11km, and time was about 3hours 10minutes.














Because of overcast, there was no nice scenery as we expected, but not humidity, not high temperature, not rain, so it was almost perfect condition. It took about 4hours 27minutes for all course. We mostly climbed outward journey since up-hills are so steep for run, so just walked as well as fast and quickly, it was a discipline. Gradually, it became to hard to take a breath because of high elevation, I didn't have any high-altitude headache, however this time was the most highest experience in my life, maybe. We had some onigiris, mangoes, plums and candy with natural cold water, lunch was so yummy in the mountain. After lunch, we headed to the destination, the top of Mt. Yakushi-dake, the elevation is 2,780m.



After taking some picture and viewing the beautiful scenery, we went to back to the starting point, mostly ran for 11km it took about 2hours 17minutes. Tonight, I had an easy recovery run for 8k for 46minutes. During running, legs were getting better than begin, but still heavy to walk.

nippon team samurai beat australia in a penalty shootout

Tonight, I went back to home early to watch the football game which held in Hanoi, Vietnam.(Sometimes I'd like to travel there...).


We lost the game Aussie team in World Cup 2006 in German, so needed to beat them this time.


There are many differences between Australia and Nippon. Face, tall, legs and hands length. (Look at the left picture, looks like not difference!)





According to the commentator, Nippon passed the ball low, if kick it high, then aussie guys can get it easily... it was our team's strategy.


They look like eating Aussie beef, meanwhile, a team of Samurais looks like a group of slightly-built boys. I was hoping to get win the game, on the other hand, I thought it would be difficult because normally couldn't kick the ball as shoot.






Only once Takahara did make the kick and goal, he was so cool!
Samurai team was holding the ball almost, but nobody didn't shoot determinant goal.






Today I was going to run for trail, but I had a fever, so canceled it. As an alternative, I went to Gosho again for hill run for 8km as lower aerobic. This week I need to run everyday, If I keep running until tomorrow, my mileage would be around 70Km! Go Go Me!

a tofu lover

I love tofu very much, recently eat it with yuzu-kosho. Last night I found a new one it called "Yakko yarou", I couldn't stop buying it plus beer. By the way, Yakko means a cold tofu, yarou means a guy, tofu guy makes sense, yes it's a funny and unique name. The label says "I'm happy if you(tofu) and beer are here".

What is yuzu-kosho? It's a kind of condiment, tastes salty and hot a bit. Put some on the foods, and eat it. It's yummy with grilled fish, chicken steaks etc. It made by peel of fruits, salt and green chilli.
I was so happy with you and beer.


today's efforts:
I was going to take a break from running today since storming.
But a cheeky guy says, "We could run in yoyogi.", but I didn't go today either run, so just went out for running for 20K. I felt sore back, sore knee because of a long run, just went slow at 145 to 150%.

summer discipline and race watching

I started training for a fall marathon from July 1st. However I'm not full of motivation for it. Happily, I found the official web site of Tokyo Inter'l Women's Marathon has updated for 2007, I'm so happy to be able to run in this marathon.
They say this year lots of stars will sign up for it included Namban Ladies. Perhaps, we might be 8 people or more.

I went to Ome for a trail run with Taeko-san, we ran very slow and slow for 17Km, we were sweating after a couple of kilometers. I expected more from tiredness because I just started, but I didn't so much tired because of steep Hakone trail running on June 24th, I can't compare then how much different.

After run, we had a lunch at a coffee shop and we were back quickly to watch Sapporo half marathon. Actually, I was hoping to run too, but I'm not qualified for it, so just postponed it for next time. Race was so exciting, Noguchi won, Mara came in 2nd, and lots of stars ran in Sapporo. I hope to run there next year.

By the way, ran for only 4.4km tonight. I feel my sholders are so hard because of yesterday's trail run.