いしょけんめに走った

Fear not, other than making ready for me departure to Koriyama, I was reading lots and writing lots (plus I may have snuck in two great dinners) hence the shabby posting. A note on the weather, driving into Obihiro yesterday one could notice droves of people on the streets, washing cars, hanging laundry, walking, sitting. Everyone taking advanced of the four days of spring sunshine. You really couldn't ask for nicer weather for a long weekend. Until this weekend my memories of spring seemed buried. However, this weather helped me forget winter. One really doesn't need an excuse to be outside when it's so nice but I did; running. Friday, (before I met some teachers for dinner) I retreated into the Sports Center to run because the evenings are still dark. Friday and Saturday I ran about 1h 15mins (well, I think anyway, I'm measuring by iPod playlist method) at a polite relaxed pace. On Sunday, I knew I would be doing an uber-hard run the next day so I pulled back to about 40min, actually 43min I think. I couldn't have been happier with my run today putting everything into an 1h 40m run. Lately I have surprised myself by running over 1h inside but the next day feeling just fine, not sore or anything. I surmise this is because I am not running hard enough. Today, my goal was to run long and hard but progressing toward what I don't know. My feeling is that at the end of a good challenging run one should be dead tired and sore. Starting off I was a little worried I might have to turn back because I got crams in my abdomen twice while normally this is never a problem. I'm glad I didn't turn back because after about 30min I got into my groove and just ran and ran and ran. It felt really good. But, needless to say, it always feels better to stop. I developed nasty blister on the inside of my left foot, new socks I guess. No one ever died from a blister so I just run through it. The biggest problem with blisters actually is that it can cause one to change their footfalls slightly and put strange pressures on the joints and muscles. I barely felt it while running. I think I'll be alright. I will probably feel sore all over tomorrow but only the good soreness that I feel is normal after a challenging run. If it was ever a sharp pain in the joint I would worry. Of course, it goes without saying I have given myself several days to recover because I doubt I will be able to run before until after I get back from Koriyama on Sunday night. Another great thing about living at the foot of mountains is that I never fear taking in great lung fulls of air. It's always pure and fresh. I can't say the same for many places in Canada. A simple thing that makes me very happy about living in Shikaoi is that in the morning when I go to my car to go to school I can take great glups of air and it always wakes me up. I'm so very very tired. Time for bed I think.