I got a rare day off on Friday with the kids at day care and Miho at work, so I decided to get up into the mountains. I had some hiking maps put out by the Seibu Ikebukuro line that I got at Tokyu Hands a few years ago, so I flipped through those and chose one that seemed good in terms of train time, distance, and overall difficulty. Turns out, it was the same place I had been hiking with a friend a few years ago, before I was into running; the station name is Ashigakubo, it was about two hours away.
The first 1-2 km were on road, which was not so interesting, but was a good chance to get in a warm up. Once I hit the turn off for the trail, I was at a slow jog, but had to immediately get back to walking because it got steep fast. I had intentionally chosen the steep way up the circuit because I wanted the longer sloping downhill. This was the same way that Scott and I had hiked it, so I had some recollection of how tough it was. The first half wasn't bad, with a few flat spots and descents where I could get in some jogging, and the trail quickly got away from the road so it was pretty peaceful. The second half of the climb was really steep, which allowed me to walk and enjoy the scenery, although I was still over my aerobic HR for most of it, and I was feeling it a bit in my calves.
I got to the top in just about 45 minutes, which was pretty good; unfortunately, it was totally socked in with fog, so there was no view whatsoever. It didn't matter, though, because that was where the fun really began. I started to get going downhill, and had insane fun. All my recollections of hiking downhill was that it was slow and tedious and hurt my knees. But now I was in light shoes (I was quite happy with my Nike XC Zooms for this, but did have to tighten the laces to avoid jamming my toes), and literally flying down the mountain. There were some really steep sections with loose rocks or slippery dirt, and I had to slow it down, but otherwise, I was running as fast as I could with a nice short and fast stride. Hitting banking turns, jumping for some air a few times, and having more fun than I have ever had running. Hell, more fun than I remember having in general in a long time. It reminded me both of surfing and of the mountain biking I used to do in college. I felt fast and wild and free!
It ended fast, and I was out on some road, but with plenty of time, so I decided to hit another small mountain nearby on the advice of a local guy. He said it would take about 30 minutes to climb, but I'm sure it took less than that to go up and come back down again. I also went to this cool little park that had a super long roller slide, took a video going down it to show Taiyo. Will definitely have to bring the family back there, as the river near the station would be great for swimming in the summer, and there are some places to pick fruit, and onsens as well.
Overall I did about 13k total, according to Runkeeper on my iPhone. My legs were a little sore, but overall I felt great. Unfortunately, I couldn't run again for five full days afterwards because of serious pain in my quads that made it really difficult to even walk up and down stairs, never mind run. I did do my normal 15 min warm up and cool down, but probably should have done more, and probably should have taken it a little easier going up and down.
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