A double

Biked to work and the beach today: 33km
Swam: 1600m

Makes sense

that if you sign up for a relay marathon, you should probably go running once in a while.

So I did.

45 minutes -walked to the first bridge, ran down to the second bridge, over and back to the first, then walked home.

approx 4km -not much but it felt pretty good for having been away so long.

Bike to sports day

Only 6km.
It's usually 5, but I forgot my camera and had to go back for it.

not a very exciting, or productive, day.

Paddle paddle

Went for a short Friday night dip -my life is so exciting...

800RIM
400 kick
10x50 scull/pull by25
100 breast w/ 2 uwp


1800m

Where are my freakin' goggles? Soap inna eye, soap inna eye! Get out of my lane buddy or I'll run you over! -ack! leg cramp!

That's how my swim went today. I forgot to put my regular goggles back in my bag, so I pulled an old pair out from the depths of some inner pocket of forementioned bag - strap discolored, lenses scratched...and slimey with soap or some other beauty product that had oozed out into the pocket at some point. I thought I had rinsed them well enough. But apparently not. 25m in and my eye was stinging and watering and miserable. I kept swimming thinking it would get better eventually, but it didn't. That didn't stop me though. What stopped me (besides the guy who insisted on pushing off the wall EVERY FREAKIN TIME I was coming in for a turn) were the leg cramps during the last rep of my main set. Not just one leg -both. Calf seizing, toe curling agony is what it was. I managed to finish the set and then kick it out a bit for cool down.

A big swim nonetheless:

800RIM
4oo Kick
5x 200 Free pull/100 IM on 1:00 Free was build, IM was long and strong.
300 cool down

3000m

6km straight up

One would think that living in the mountains would mean that coming out of the mountains, one would go DOWN. This, however is not the case if you head southwest from my apartment. It's all up hill baby. Well, at least for 6km. Then once you're at the top, it's straight down to my school -4km worth. It took 25min for the first 6km and 8min for the last 4. I will not be taking that route again. Or at least not until I'm more fit.

On the way home I skirted around the mountain, still managed a hill or two, but it was a much more even pace.

20km to Taie Elementary School and back.
yahoo.

Sea Swim

Went for a swim in the sea. Nothing strenuous -except for the jellyfish stings.

30minutes of paddling around.
I wasn't going to go in, but how can you resist this!

Evening walk

I walked to my Jr. High school and back tonight, just to see how long it would take.
Exactly 30 minutes at a good hard pace.
That meant 30 minutes back.

1hour ~5km

30min yoga

stretching out

got in and did 1500m today, long and strong, just to stretch.
fly felt great, so did breast for that matter. hm. that's odd.

1500m

Yoga and Pool

Yoga

I finally plugged in one of K's yoga videos that she left for me.
I got through some basic standing poses -enough to feel a good stretch.
40 minutes worth today. Will hopefully get to it again tomorrow.


Pool

800RIM
400 kick
2x400 free pull -focus on finishing, since my tris are killing me from surfing yesterday.
400 kick
200 cool down

2600m

Surfing

spent the day in the Japan sea learing how to surf. how surreal.

kayaking and surfing both in one week -crazy.

Swim

800RIM warm up
400kick
2x400 free pull
300 cool down

2300m

Kayaking and Frisbee

Went to Gokayama this weekend, did a little frisbee and a lota kayaking!!!


Fun Schtuff!

To work and back

I had to play at the children's center today. I say 'had to' because it wasn't by choice, but rather a demand by our BOE. I resent it, even though we are here not only in the capacity of 'teacher' but also under the guise of internationalization. There are other ways I would rather 'internationalize' for 2 hours, than playing dodgeball in an over heated gym with children who would be playing dodgeball regardless of my presence. I guess what gets me is the way it has been advertised. It's hard to translate the nuance of the title but it's something like 'come play with big brother and big sister'. I find it hard to take on the role 'big sister' for these children because most of them are my students during the rest of the year. I'm sure this is the only reason it bothers me so much. I don't want to be their 'friend' - yet of course I want to be friendly. The bottom line is that I see it as the BOE's view of my status here. It demotes me from the status of 'teacher', and puts me on a level where I'm just here to entertain.

Whew.

Bike: 16km

Bike to Ikuji Festival

it's a straight line from my apartment to Ikuji, an fishing area of Kurobe City.

Bike: 21km (in the dark -my headlight is out!!)

pedal pedal

did the loop again this morning and added an extra km.
baby steps, baby steps.

Bike: 13.5km

Bike loop

I went for another quick spin on my bike today. Not a great distance, but lots of climbing. I'm thinking if I get used to doing this loop a couple of times in a row -with a bit of speed, I'd consider doing another sprint tri next year.


Bike: 12km from my apt to funami and back

Bike

I headed to the beach on my bike in the middle of the day. The temp was above 35 degrees, but biking parallel to the river is a bit cooler as the air blows off the water. The bike down to the beach -not technically a beach I'm sure, but a small area where the river flows out into the Japan sea - is a beautiful one. I follow the river from Unazuki and the road meanders, dips, switches back, and floats me down to the sea. Along the way there are all kinds of parks and recreation areas built into the somewhat narrow floodplains. There is REAL grass where the park golf (a hybrid of golf and mini-golf) course is. There is a place designated for remote control helicopters to be flown. A stretch of pavement for skateboarding, a baseball diamond, soccer pitches and picnic areas.

Because of the intensity of the heat today, I made it half way to the beach and decided to stop at a small park area, lay down my towel and sit in the sun with my book instead. I enjoyed a good half hour read then strolled to the river to cool off before heading home.

A great way to spend an hour outside.

Bike:12km

Thwarted by a holiday

Tried to go to the pool tonight but it was closed -I think because of the holiday week. Blah. So I went home and walked to the grocery story for some fresh air. It was pitch black already and I nearly walked into a gaijin trap! Next time I'll bring a headlamp or something -this tiny rice field roads are dangerous!

Swim

2200m

800RIM
400kick
8x100 alt IM and Free
200 scull

to the beach and back

25km exacally

A bike to the beach.

It's twelve km from my new apartment.
The ride there is great (from mountains to sea), the ride back is another story...

With a couple of detours: 25km

Back at it, finally.

I made it to the pool today, the first time in over a month. It felt great and I wasn't as out of it as I thought I'd be. I hope I can begin to get back into it on a regular basis this month...we'll see.

1600m

Toyama Driving Range

Went to Toyama and hit another 200 balls tonight. It's not cheap, but it's FUN FUN FUN!!!

A week until tee time

Went to the driving range with Tomo yesterday and hit about 300 balls. I'm feeling it today. I'll go again on Wed with Omi and then Saturday in Gunma with Tomo...then we'll tee of on Sunday.

Today I went to the pool for the first time in a long time.
Swam 1300m.

swim

800RIM
400 kick


supposedly there's a long course meet at the end of next month - what to do, what to do...

Dontcha hate it when you forget your towel?

Luckily I had a chamois in my bag -although it's only 20cmx30cm...

Warm up 800 RIM 400kick
20x50 of free tech.

Busy night, not much room for much else. Felt good to get in.

Ultimate Frisbee

It's about bloody time we had a game of Ultimate.

I'm not sure how long we played, at least an hour with no breaks.
It was a bit spontaneous so I ended up playing in a skirt and bare feet- oh yeah!
I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow.

Good luck Sista K

K's competing tomorrow in the Toyama swim meet. Go go go!!!

Swam on Friday - 1hour, lots of tech work, flip turns and sculling. Glad it's not me in the water tomorrow!

good luck K!
xox

quick dip

1000m just to stretch out

i like to ride my bicycle

22km -to work and back

Kurobe Road Race

What not to do before a 10k run:

-stop training two weeks before the race

-spend a long weekend in Canada the week before the race (returning 3 days before...)

-bike 10k the morning of the race.


What to do during the race:

-have fun!!!


thanks for the pic K!
xox

perfect riding weather

A summery day today. I hopped on my bike this morning despite being a little stiff from yesterday. I road to Ishida Elemetary School, then back to Nyuzen, did a few errands and cruised home.

32km on the bike today. Not bad.

Kanazawa Relay Marathon

Another one to add to the list...

This year there were 11 of us so we only had to run 2 laps (1.9km each). We lucked out on the weather and we had a great time watching all the other teams in their wacky costumes.

Fun -as always.

Swim -barely

A rainy windy day - I hopped in the pool - did my 1200m warm up, gabbed with Sista K and went home!

Commute

Rode to work and back today - 30km, not bad.

Sunday swim

800RIM warm up
800kick - alt free/breast and free/fly
3x 200pull/100IM
100 cool down

3000m - yay

dejavu

Biked, swam and biked again today -with a hangover! Go me!

Thanks for the nudge K xox.

bike swim bike

K and I rode to the pool, swam for 30 min the biked home.

Felt grrrrrrrreat!

random activities

spent the day at the beach, so i walked to the grocery store for goodies (30min).

played frisbee

Swimming in the sun

I love it when I get a chance to swim in the sun. The pool in Kurobe is like the pool in Grand Cache; big windows with a view of the mountains. OK the view isn't quite as good as GC, but it's still fun to swim with sun beams in the water.

3000m today.

800RIM
400KICK

4x 200pull/100IM/100kick

200 cool down

Saturday swim

K and I went for a Sat swim this morning.

another 2000m

felt good - especially the fly.

we tried the walking lane for a bit, it's good resistance training, but unless there's some good music playing it's pretty boring, I'd rather my head was under water....

A real swim

got 2000m in today -yahoo, I'm excited to get this show back on the road!!

I hope this gets easier...

I biked to work today. 16km one way. the morning bike wasn't so bad, but the return trip was tough. Took me about 35 minutes to get there, 45 to get home.

Yesterday I ran for 30 minutes.


Gettin' in a groove (I hope).

Wii ---------

Went bowling, entered a homerun derby and played 9 holes of golf - all on a Sunday afternoon!

I went to a friend's house and her family has
Wii. I am not a video game player, but I could def have fun with one of these...

home home on the range

I think I'm going to try to make the driving range a weekly thing - I said that about climbing too but I'm still giving that and my rib another month.

Jake and I hit around 100 balls on Thursday.

I got up Friday and ran for about 25 minutes before school -should have biked to work, it was the first nice day in ages (actually felt like spring) but I had a meeting in the afternoon and couldn't be bothered to change my clothes 3 times.

It's Sunday afternoon, no goals yet for the week, but the Kanazawa relay marathon is only 3 weeks away and I should really get down to work.

short swim short run

it's better than nothing

swam for 30 min last night, didn't even think about the rib.

ran this morning - feel like a smoker....

Kanazawa relay race is the 13 of May

Kurobe road race is on the 27th...

Slowly but surely healing

The rib is about 90% healed and it's time to get serious again. The weather is slowly warming up and I've got to get back on my bike and back in the pool.

I've swum a couple of times in the past week, nothing hard, only 30 minutes. It's about all I can do before the discomfort sets in.

I went to the driving range on Sunday and hit about 200 balls. The first 100 without a tee and it sucked. I was hitting maybe 20%. One the tee I got into a groove and was hitting them hard and straight. I need to go more often.

Still wary about the climbing wall. I think I will give that another full month.

The bike will hopefully be a regular mode of transport to school after this first week of self introductions is finished and I don't have to lug books and stuff around with me all the time.

I still do daily bungy cord work for arms shoulders and legs, i'm not building, just toning for now.

Will try to make regular posts again soon.

A Weeks Worth

Sunday Feb 25: Snowboarding

Monday Feb 26: Bike ride to school = 20km

Wednesday Feb 28: Walk to the grocery store = 30min

Thursday March 1: Drinking and eating.

Saturday March 3: Snowboarding

Sunday March 4: Walk to the grocery store = 30 min
Bike ride = 30km

another walk to the vid store

the nights here have been clear and warm lately, i plugged in my iPod and walked to Geo to return my dvds last night.

total walking time: 30min

Let's Enjoying H2O

Swam on Sat - 1400m

Boarded on Sunday - played in the board park all day. It was so foggy you couldn't see the jumps until you were right in front of them. Crazy. When we tried to actually ride the hill it was surreal. The visibility was so poor that we couldn't see each other if we were more that a few meters apart. Sometimes you couldn't tell if you were moving up or down the mountain.

Oh yeah, and my bouldering book came in the mail today!

Dang

It's been a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything.

I've snowboarded every weekend but last. Last weekend was a sorry attempt at snowshoeing -hard to do when there's no snow!

I've decided that if I want to rent videos I have to WALK to the video store which is 15 minutes one way on foot. I've done it twice so far.

I've also gone to the climbing gym once this month and have finally been able to wear my new climbing shoes. I've decided to take this new sport slowly and really gain technique before going crazy. So tonight I only worked on 'counterbalance'. I'm going to need a lot more leg strength for this sport!

swimmy swim swim

I went to the pool again last night. I was expecting crowded lanes since I went during swim club hours, but it was pleasantly empty!

1200 warm up and other swimmy things.

Snowboarding is Exercise -right??

IT'S THE MOST FUN YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE

Went boarding again on Saturday, the snow was great, the people I boarded with were fabulous.

I'm a happy happy girl.

Thursday, January 25

Another short trip to the pool.

1200m. But at least I went!

I have some resolutions for the year - I hope to post them soon.

Dusting off the cobwebs

Went for a swim last night. First time in 2 months.

swam 1600m

I felt like a smoker, wheezing and gasping.