Cycle 3 August 21-30

Weight: 80.4 on 8/21
Runs: 5
8/21 1:08/12.6k/5:26 First time I ran with the Garmin in a while. A good run home from work. Hot as hell, but managed to keep a decent pace for the whole ride home, and no problems with the shin splint. Some tightness in my right hamstring, but a welcome change of pain!
8/23 Run home from work, hot, but overall good condition. Used HRM and averaged 142, a little over one hour total.
8/25 About one hour running in Chiba. Legs a bit tired from the big bike ride the day before, but overall felt good. Did a little upper body stuff in the park as well.
8/26 run home from work, a bit over an hour.
8/28 Run home from work, 1:10?
8/29 Run around Yoyogi with the boys 1:10ish
Long runs: 2
Power: 2
8/25 Only about 15 min of upper body stuff in park.
Cross Training: 3
8/24 138 km ride from Tokyo to mountains!
8/27 ride to and from work. Legs feeling pretty tired, and upper body still a bit sore from big ride last week.
Stairs: 2
Double Days: 2
Rest: 2
8/22 Unplanned day off, Sky was sick and Miho was out with Taiyo for his b-day.
8/30

Did more runs than expected, but nothing long. Guess I consider a long run at least 1:30. No stairs again, and still not getting in enough upper body and power stuff. But no complaints from the leg, despite doing some consecutive runs, which is great news!

Cycle 2: August 11-20

Weight: 79.6 on 8/12

Runs: 5
8/11
8/14 40 min home from work, leg felt pretty good, but started to feel a little tight around Asakusa, so grabbed the train home
8/16 about 45 min including the stairs
8/19
Long runs: 2
8/11 about 1:45 along sumida and Arakawa. Was meant to hook up with Don but we missed each other. Legs felt pretty good until about 1:00, when left leg started acting up, and could tell I was favoring it by the difference in sound tried to relax a bit, and it got a little better, but I was really wiped at 1:30 and even walked a little. Shin splint bothering me still two days later.
8/19 Aboout 1:30 with Don. Felt good overall, but did start to feel the shin splint after about an hour, that plus the toll of the heat and the 50k bike ride I had done in the morning, and I was really dead at the end. Iced the leg a bit after the run, and no pain at all the next day!
Power: 2
8/16 pull ups, dips, crawling, push ups, jumping, all 3 sets
Cross Training: 2
8/12, 8/15
8/17 bike 50k and basketball!
8/19 Bike 50k and 1:30 run
Stairs: 2
8/16 only about 15 min. Really felt the shin splint going down the stairs.
Double Days: 2

8/17 bike 50k and basketball!
8/19 Bike 50k and 1:30 run

Rest: 2
8/13
8/20

Overall pretty close to what I had been planning. Short on the runs, but more than planned on the cross training. Only one power workout, and that plus the basketball left me with a pretty sore spot on my collarbone, so need to be careful with stressing my shoulders, but also be more consistent with the power work.

Cycle 1: August 1-10

81kg on 8/2 Yikes!
Really not any progress with cutting back on sugar/carbs

Cross Training: 3
8/2, 7 bike to work, 8/10 morning ride with guys from Roppongi, about 50k total
Runs: 4
8/1, 3, 5, 8 home from work, 50-75 min
Power/core: 2
8/5 body weight stuff in shioiri
Rest: 3
8/4, 6, 9

Pretty much on target for this cycle. Left leg has gotten a lot better, should be ready for some longer and back to back runs next cycle.

Recovery and a New Plan

I've been away from this log for a long time, basically a loss of interest in tracking all the details of my running. But Don and I are cooking up some 100 mile madness for our birthdays in November, and that plus the fact that I have put on too much weight, and I figure it's worth seeing again if making plans and tracking data will be effective in getting me back in shape. The shin splint on the inside of my left leg has really slowed me down for the past couple of months; I can only assume it is the result of the transition into doing a lot of trail and mountain stuff after having done basically none before. It has been feeling better though, and I figure if I can get up to previous training levels by mid September, I should be able to really work hard for a month after that to get ready for the big event.
I've been thinking about getting into a 10 day training cycle for a while, and this seems like the right timing. As usual with running, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'll just give it a whirl and see what happens.
I'll plan a cycle at a time depending on how that week's training is going, and these are the elements I plan to include:
Stairs (at my apartment building¥
Trail runs (twice a month if I'm lucky)
Power workouts (plyos, sprints, jump rope, and upper body work outside¥
Back to back long runs (I think a 30/50 combo will be the max, but Don thinks it should be more - he's probably right)
Two a days (combining early morning and evening workouts, not necessarily running only)
Rest (the ever elusive balance of knowing when I need it with trying to train as much as possible)
Nutrition (I haven't tracked how I eat with training before, but I've got to shed 4-5 kgs, so I need to do whatever I can)
More on the first cycle soon.