Yokohama Seaside Triathlon

I'm fulfilled that I've achieved my target to take part in triathlon, however, since I started something, there's a new wish that grew in me to continue this. It's not easy to continue due to my age. However I really appreciate that I managed to spend such a quality holiday time with Famaey family.

They asked me to come over again next year, but looking back this whole year, I'm not so confident I can continue to challenge myself.

On the other hand, when I was thinking about doing a triathlon in my country since I've managed to debut overseas, I found out that there's one: Yokohama Seaside Triathlon. Looking at the last year's records, I felt like I can perhaps take part and finish the race. Also, it'll be interesting to compare domestic and international events so I've suggested to my son, and he easily accepted it.

I haven't practiced much this time, apart from swimming once a week. I've borrowed a wet suit in Belgium, but this time I decided to purchase one. The cheapest one was on the triathlon website, so I'm going for that. My son's bicycle is small and old, so he decided to buy a new kit. Which includes bicycle, helmet and wet suit so I thought it was a bargain. In Belgium, I borrowed a bicycle (mountain bike) so to get used to that I cycled 20km two days before the race which resulted in exhaustion. So this time, I am not going to exercise too hard within a week time from the race.

The name list has been published here.
There are 173 people who are over 50s, which is many (in Belgium there were only 3 people). I'm already excited to see what kind of race this will turn out to be!

Aug 13: Triathlon outcome (completed!)

Finally, it's the day of the triathlon. It's raining and the temperature is 18 degrees (C) so I can't say it's great. 5 people in total are taking part in this triathlon: me, my son, and 3 members from Famaey family which is where I'm staying. For this course, due to the transit area being split in 2 areas, we took shoes and hat for the marathon near the goal area, and then bicycle and helmet near the start area by the lake. This triathlon has a long history, and it's well organised.

Photo before the start! From left;Tom, Atsusi, Erik, Nele, Krist'l

Swimming is taking place in a lake, and 270 people start at the same time so it's pretty packed. This is my first experience so I am not used to bumping into others whilst swimming, so I started at the end of the line on the outside area.

Water is cold but thanks to the wet suit it's manageable. I also put temperature keeping oil so I don't feel cold. Even at the back of the line, I ended up bumping (or they?) to other people.

Slowly I started to swim outwards, swimming whilst counting slowly. Considering if one stroke proceeds 1.2m, 84 strokes makes 100m. But you end up bumping into people and then you'll have to adjust the direction, so roughly 100 strokes will make 100m.

The water is brown and I can see my hands but nothing else, and it feels like you are swimming in a solitude, but when you put your face up you see people around you.

I've focused on my swimming form and swam 375m, then walked over the land, heading to the start point and jump into the water again.

Second lap was easier and more smooth. There are many people cheering on the way to transit area, so the last 25m I swam very slowly to improve my body strength (usually people hurry here).

Although when I got out of the water, I couldn't balance myself and I staggered along. Trying to take off the wet suit whilst running, but it took time to hold the string which is connected to the zipper. Finally managed to take the top part of the wet suit off when I got to the transit area. By the way, it's against the rule to take off the bottom part of the wet suit before getting to the transit area.

My photo was taken when I was running and struggling to get the string.

In the transit area, I tried to take the bottom part of wet suit off but it didn't come off my left leg. When I thought about it, I noticed that I put the measurement chip on my left ankle, that's why! I think I wasted at least a minute trying to get this chip off my leg. I remembered and confirmed many times in my head to do this before starting, but I guess you forget things while you are in it! And started to run with the bicycle with helmet, gloves, glasses, number cloth and leaving behind the clothes I took off in a box.

After leaving the transit area and passing the line where one can ride the bicycle, my body is still woozy and I couldn't find a good timing to get on the bicycle. This is something that I haven't experienced in my normal days so it's pretty interesting.

Also, it took time to put the shoe on after getting on the bicycle, so I guess it didn't really matter whether I put them on before or afterwards. The shoe is for normal bicycle ride type ones so it needs a bit of improvement. I'll take this note for the next time.

The path was wet due to the light rain and cobble stone corners are really slippery. After a while I've seen a person walking by the bicycle and holding a wheel, perhaps he/she fell and broke the bicycle. I want to maintain the 30km/h speed by carefully turning the corner, but it doesn't last due the upwind. Around 4km later perhaps I was getting used to it, I fell off the bicycle near the corner. After passing the right angle left corner which is on cobble stone, I saw some dirt at the edge. At the moment when I thought 'oh no!' the wheels were in the area and fell sideways, and my body ended up doing the work of brake.

The bicycle was fine so I put my painful body up and got on the bike again. One of the spectator came to help me but when you receive help you are disqualified so I started cycling. When I checked the injuries, it was slightly bleeding around my left elbow, left knee due to some skin were peeled. I poured some drinking water over it to wash the mud. The bleeding wasn't so bad so I kept cycling. I'd imagine I lost 2 minutes do to this fall. I looked for other cyclists but there's one which was 500m ahead, and none behind me. I felt like I was the last one. I'm putting full energy into cycling so my head is not working so well. I can hear my breathing sound, bicycle's sound, and random people's cheering sound. When I hear the cheering, I try my best to put a smile on and raise my hand.

When it was the second lap, I can only see the same bicycle ahead and none behind me. I don't think I can get to the one ahead. A little later, someone took over me and I tried to stay right behind, I was able to cycle using drafting and it was much easier. After 3km being right behind, there was a sing to switch so I was leading but after 1km I felt tired. Then we swap again. I can see the goal (for the cycling) so I took my shoes off whilst cycling and pedaled whilst putting my foot on my shoes so I can get off pretty easily when I arrive.

The transition from bicycle to marathon is to take off the helmet, put the hat on, and put socks and shoes on. I already checked where my bicycle should be parked, so it was easy to spot the location. I started running but my legs are too tired from cycling, they don't work. Then I can feel my breathing is getting harder. I feel slow and my length of stride is getting shorter. Thinking of doing this for 5km drives me crazy. Someone passed me so I noticed that I wasn't the last one.

Finally I ran one lap and they give me a band on my arm. I felt like I already ran 5km but I guess I only ran half of that. I guess it will be fight with my patience. Keeping the same pace, tried to increase the length of stride a little bit, and adjust my running form and kept going. Near the goal, my son passed me and I tried to pass him but gave up around 100m. When I saw the goal right ahead of my son, I dropped a small pecial drink which I got from Erik. I could've kept running, but it's not good to leave litter as a Japanese person so I tried to pick it up by bending down, then I fell since I didn't have the muscle power to keep my body straight. When I got up, the person behind me took over me so I dropped a position. I felt like I still had some body strength but I guess my body muscles are reaching the limit. I haven't been running so I guess the muscles and blood vessels must've decreased. I guess I'll need lots of running from now on.

At the goal point, I wanted to enjoy the completion of triathlon, but the staff came and took me to the First Aid immediately. I've grazed three parts; arm, bum, and a leg. First Aid place was a little crowded so I had to wait a little - I guess due to the rain people got injured more than usual. One of the first aider was not so used to it, it felt a little awkward. After released from First Aid, I celebrated the completion of triathlon and took a commemorative photo.

Here's the commemorative photo of completing the triathlon!










Result:

From the members who took part today, Nele was 3rd in her age range, and Krist'l was first, I was second (out of three).

In addition, Nele was 9th in women's section, and I was 169th in men's.
From the result, I think my agenda will be running and cutting time at transition area. Swimming was 154th so that's alright, running was 173rd even though I ran slowly, and cycling was 178th even though I tried so hard it's the worst number. I suppose European people are strong in cycling. I think I'll need further cycling training and spend more time on it. To do that, I'll need to learn a technique to turn quickly in many corners.
Also, the marathon runner Erik is 60 years old but he is 129th amongst men which is amazing result.

After this much of exercise I assumed that I'll have a hard time with exhaustion and muscle pain, but it was only a light muscle ache, probably because I used all the muscles in a good balance.

So overall, it was 1/8, but my dream to complete the triathlon came true!
(Erik and Krist'l invited me to take part next year but what shall I do??)

Aug 12th: The day before Triathlon

From yesterday I arrived at my friend's place in Brasschaat and started to adjust the bicycle.

I've changed the pedal, cleaned the chain, and gave a trial run to the pool in Antwerp. I've cycled around 20km, but since it's a mountain bike, it's not strong against the wind pressure, and I've only used the top 3 gears but it was pretty comfortable. However, afterwards I swam in the pool and my legs froze so I couldn't use them anymore. Therefore I only swam for 300m.

Today, I am going to put the wet suit on and going to swim in the lake. The course sets to swim 2 laps which is 375m each. It's like a triangular course going around 2 floats.

It's the first west suit I've ever wore and it was pretty thin and tight. Going into the cold water with the wet suit on is actually not bad. But the cold water comes from the back zipper. That's cold and makes me feel chilly. I've tried to exercise in the water so the body temperature won't go down. The cold water gets warmed up by my body, then it's not cold anymore.

I've swam until the float for about 100m, but I can't see anything in the water. I can just about to see my hand and can't see anyone else. You only have to put the face above surface to check, but it's hard not to get tired by doing this. I swam to the float and then I went back. It was so different from what I've imagined, therefore it was very good that I gave a trial swim.

These are the people who are taking part tomorrow. Nele who's the daughter of Famaey family will also join.

July 28: Swim - 50m pool, 5-5:50pm

Today I took a half day off due to the pilot health check, and headed to Haneda airport's clinic. Afterwards, I went to the pool thinking this probably will be the last training before I depart.

The pool was relatively empty because it's during weekday and earlier time. Therefore I hardly got stuck. I aimed for not stopping and managed to swim 1km. When I tried to swim fast, then the arms gets tired. When I get tired, I release the energy so it doesn't proceed as much. I'd like to be able to find a balanced speed and be able to swim for a long distance. In the beginning, I got stuck about 2 times, but I was able to swim for 1km so if I swim slowly I should be able to swim 750m. After 5 minute break, I swam 500m, and counted amount of strokes in 25m pool. I've managed to swim in 14 strokes. After swimming 200m, I've ended the training. I'll be leaving for Europe day after tomorrow.

Result: 1km, 500m, 25m x 8, total: 1.7km

July 26: Swim - 50m pool, 6:10-6:50pm

There's only 4 days left until I leave. I've booked rental car, hotel and started packing so I couldn't swim during the weekend. Weekdays are only my chances. Today was pretty empty so I was able to swim slightly longer. I felt the water was somehow cleaner. I think the water gets slightly dirtier if it's more crowded. Anyway I focused on swimming for long distance.

Result: 800m, 600m,, 200m, total 1.6km

July 20: Swim - 50m pool, 5:50-6:30pm

There's only a week left until I depart for Europe, and I'm thinking I should try to go to the pool as often as I can. I'm afraid of the stamina (especially muscles) decrease when I take time off. Today I decided I won't think of a programme and just swim long distance.

Tokyo Gym is so nice with clean water. Although recently it's gone less clear. When I ask the staff, it's because of they're saving electricity. I can see that it's also slightly darker, but I wondered initially. Usually they change the water once a year, and the rest they maintain the water quality with circulation filter. They normally have 6 machines with filter pumps but only uses 4. If they don't do it, they had to shut down the pool. I didn't expect that saving electricity is effecting even in these places.

Result: 500m, 500m, 200m, total 1.2km

July 17: Cycle - 6.3km hill course, 5:17-5:48

Today I've done 2 laps in the usual hill course nearby. During the day time it goes up to 36C degrees so I've decided to cycle early in the morning since it's much cooler.

The bicycle I'm riding for more than 10 years has not been taken care of at all so I've cleaned the whole thing by taking parts away. Especially the chains were really black but after cleaning it was shining! I have started to think that chains were meant to be black, but it has brought back the old shining light and I was super thrilled.



However, whilst I was cleaning there were a bit adjusting problem, and now during the front gear change, the chain comes off! This time was second trial run after adjusting the gear. Last time the chains only came off once so I didn't take it too seriously, but this time, once after the first lap, and another during the second lap, so I had to get off the bicycle and fix those chains. Fortunately, those chains were shining state so my hands didn't get dirty so much.

The chain comes off towards outside when I shift the gear to outside of front part(?), so I had to stop when I was about to go on fast speed. This gear fixing is going to cost me time but I guess I have no other option.

After running, and whilst switching from swimming to cycling, I've attached my shoes to the bicycle so that I can put them on while I'm cycling. I tried this system, which is used largely in triathlon since it reduces time. I was able to put them on whilst cycling even though the weight of the shoe unbalances the bicycle.

There are 2 belts to fix the shoe to the bicycle which substitutes the shoe laces. One belt would be an advantage, but I've decided to go with 2 belts. I'm taking the shoe and pedal with me since my plan is to attach them to the borrowed bicycle.

Result: 12.6km, 30'32'' (first lap: 15'19'', second lap: 15'09'')
Average speed: 24.8km/h, fastest speed: 60km/h, slowest speed: 0km/h (due to the chains coming off)
Pulse limit (120-147), Inside: 23'41'', Top: 4'59'', Bottom: 1'52''
1st lap: first half - 9'14'' Ave: 130, End: 155, second half: 6'05'', Ave: 140, End: 116
2nd lap: first half - 8'48'' Ave: 139, End: 157, second half: 6'21'', Ave: 144, End 130

• there's uphill during the first half so the end pulse has max data
• the downhill after the first lap has low end pulse since i'm taking rest for the coming lap
• the chains came off during the first half in the first lap, and second half during the second lap.

July 16: Swim - 25m pool, 7:45-8:45pm

From now on, I'd like to swim as much as possible to maintain the body strength. Therefore, even the actually swimming time is short, I'm going to make it frequent as I can. Today, I go to the pool, that's 5 min away by car.

This pool is very close to the house and it's cheap (400yen for 2 hours).

Since it's 3-day-weekend, the pool is crowded and can't swim very smoothly, but manage to swim 500m without stopping. Towards the end, it was getting less crowded so I was able to swim 500m pretty smoothly. Then I adjusted the form.

After swimming 750m, the body is so hot (and perhaps the water temperature is warm) I had to get back to the water to cool my body. In the end I walked in the water to strengthen my knees and cooled down.

Result: 500m, 750m, 50m x 4, Total 1.45km

June 30 - July 14: Swim - 50m pool

I have not written blogs for a while, but I have been exercising using the indoor roller cycling.

I swam on June 30th, July 5th, 7th and 14th at the 50m pool, but I was not feeling well so it wasn't frequent. It has been very hot here so didn't sleep well and might had a heat stroke during midnight. At the pool yesterday, I swam 500m then my arms got tired so I took a break and swam 500m again. I felt my swim form is rough and putting too much effort so moved to 25m pool and counted how many strokes I used. It was 17, which is high. I noticed that the timing of hand stroking weren't great so I'm going to improve in this area. I swam slowly and improved to 15 strokes.

I noticed my body strength is weakening. I'll need to recover from the summer heat exhaustion. First I'll need to sleep well. I'll be leaving for Europe in 2 weeks time so I'd like to have my health/body adjusted perfectly.

For the indoor roller, I train whilst watching the morning TV drama (15min), and conduct roughly 3 times a week. It takes 5 minutes to get the pulse up to 120. And the highest is around 130. I do use a/c and fan to keep my body cool, but even though the sweat falls on the floor, so I cover the floor with a sheet.

The roller I'm using is a small one so I'm not taking much space in the living room. But the noise from the tires are too loud and that's the weak point of this product.
 

June 27: Swim - 50m pool, 4:10-4:50pm

Since I couldn't swim during the weekend, so I swam today instead. Today is Monday so the pool is not so crowded. One of the lane were booked, which meant that I had one less slow lane, so I swam in the mid-speed lane today. The next one to the mid-speed lane is the fast lane and those people beat my speed so easily even though I'm swimming the fastest I could. I'm guessing that they are swimming in a double-speed compared to mine.

When I swim the best I could in the mid-speed lane, after 200m I lose strength in my arms and this goes the same with my legs, not getting enough oxygen from the blood vessels. I'm guessing I'll have to continue practicing in this area.

Afterwards, I moved to the slow lane and swam slowly, but the previous tiredness remained and it was difficult to breathe from 200-300m point. My lack of stamina is a big question!

For the actual race, I'll probably start slow and from the mid-point I can evaluate and adjust the speed.

Total 1.2km, 200m x 6

After arriving at home, I cycled 15 minutes using the roller. I used slightly heavier setting. After 15 minutes, the pulse was 132 and I am drenched with sweat. The room temperature is 28 C degrees and I have a fan in front of me whilst I'm cycling.

June 22: Swim - 50m pool, 6:10-6:50pm

It's been a while since I went to the pool in Tokyo Gym, so I decided to try hard today. Today is very hot summer day and even though I went there earlier time, the pool was packed! I got stuck every 100m so it's not good for long distance swim. When I ended up getting stuck again, I changed to breastroke and swam with break in between. I swam 1.2km in total (200m x 6)

I can feel my body strength is weakening, so it's hard to swim 100m within 2 minutes and swim for 200m. I would like to try to extend this to 400m, so I decided to do some muscle training at home.

Since I felt my stamina is decreasing when I cycled last time, so I am going to start bike training at home as well. I trained for 10 minutes with extra pressure. Even though it was only 10 minutes, I was catching my breath and sweated a lot. Next time, I'll monitor my heart beat.

June 19: Bike - 6.3km hill course, 4:40-4:53pm

I finally took my bike and cycled after having a month break. The course is same as usual, the hill course. However I didn't have much time so only cycled one lap.

As I thought, I felt my stamina is gone due to a long break, but the data is not so bad. I can tell that the number of heart beat is higher though. It's only two months to go now so I'm going to focus on maintaining the body strength.


Result: 6.3km, 13'55'' Max: 61.8km/h Ave: 27.2km/h
Heart beat: average 144
First half until after the uphill: 8'30'', max 159
Latter half: 5'25'' max 149

Not training for a while and going uphill is pretty tough!

June 19: Swim - 20m pool

I couldn't go to 50m pool last week during the weekdays since I had a 3-day-business trip.
I can feel the body weakening when I don't exercise. So during the weekend I went to the pool and focused on the form and the speed. I was able to swim 200m in less than 4 minutes, but the question is how long I can swim keeping this pace. Therefore my target for this month will be to swim 400m within 8 minutes.

200m x 3 and 500m x 1, which sums up to 1.1km.

June 7

I'm now registered to the Triathlon!

Today I've received a contact from my friend Erik via Skype and found out that I'm registered to Sterkepeer Triathlon. The website is http://www.sterkepeertriathlon.be and in deelnemers, you can find both myself and my son's name there.

It seems like it's only us who are taking part from Japan.

Now I'll need to focus on my knees. I'll have just less than 2 month to go through swimming and cycling, and for running, I'll use stairs to build muscles, squats to strengthen my knees, and see how it goes on the day.

Also, I've swam 1.5km in 50m pool on June 2nd, 1.2km in 20m pool on June 5th.

May 24: Swim - 50m pool, 6:20-7:10pm

It's been a while since I wrote my blog but I've been to 25m pool and 50m pool, twice each. I swam 1.2km each. In 25m pool, 750m was the longest swim in one go, and 500m for 50m pool.

Today, the pool was relatively empty so it was easy to swim. Usually I swim first 200m and take a break, checking my body and how busy it is. However today was pretty empty so I decided to see how long I can swim in one go.

In the next mid-speed lane (mine is a slow lane), a young lady was trying to beat me, so I put some power in to my arms and tried to increase the speed, but still slower than this lady. So I used my legs. I avoided getting cramps by putting some power into my thighs and not to my calfs. Then I was faster than her. In the last 25m, I was able to beat her. And this was so interesting, after the turn, I continued to use the similar technique to my legs. It doesn't get too hard in terms of breathing, but I can feel the water around my face is flowing faster. It felt like when I put fins to my feet in Belgium, and I can feel my body is floating. It was almost 500m point so I slowed down to 2 beat speed and swam the rest of it. Sometimes when the lane gets stuck, then I turn at 25m pool but managed to keep the speed and swam 1km. This meant that I've achieved my goal. As I thought, when I swim continuously, the body get adjusted to the water. Therefore, I think I can swim longer.

From now on, I'm going to focus on my legs and manage to keep 2minute for 100m speed. I'll have to search for the ways to make my legs effective.

For the last 200m, I managed to swim in 38 strokes for 50m. This is a great news. I'm going to aim for 2 beat legs and make an effective speed.

Since I managed to achieve 1km swim without a break, my focus will be to swim 100m in 2 minutes.

May 8: Swim - 25m pool, 7:30-8:30pm

The doctor visit on May 7th ended up finding out that with googles, I am permitted to swim, so it has been 2 months since my last swim on March 3rd. Initially they told me I won't be able to swim for 3 months, so I'm very happy :) I assumed that my muscles and stamina has reduced dramatically so I swam slowly and counted how many stokes I had for 25m, and it resulted as 16 strokes. Yes I have lost stamina (muscles). For a while I swam 50m each by confirming the form, and then swam for 500m. It took 11mintues which is not so bad as I thought. The target is to swim 1km non-stop in 50m pool, and by end of July, swim 750m in 15minutes or so. It might be a challenging target, but since I have no idea where I'll be for running due to my knee, I thought I'd have the swim target higher anyway.

Result: 50m x 6, 500m x 1, 200m x 1, total 1km

April 25: Many things happened

On March 5th, I injured my finger (cut my left thumb almost in half!) so I couldn't swim for a whole month.
On March 11th, due to Japan disaster, most of the pool has closed for a whole month due to electricity outage and saving electricity.
On April 19th, I had an operation for cataract and have been told not to swim for 3 months.

So from one to another, hardship came to me as if it was trying me to give up the triathlon. Although the harder it is, I usually increase the motivation. On April 3rd and 16th, the neighbourhood pool opened so went there to swim and confirmed that I can swim 800m continuously.

I already have plane ticket so I'll need to prepare bicycle, clothing, wet suits. Also it'll be difficult to train right beforehand (i.e. open water experience with wet suits), so I'll be doing it on the day, and I hope it will be a good experience. It still remains as my task to increase stamina and muscles.

My son now can swim over 1km so he is also taking part, hence there will be 2 people participating from Japan. The photo link for the Sterke Peer Triathlon is here:

http://www.wezelopdefoto.be/p486564210

It looks so much fun!

Mar 3: Swim - 50m pool, 6:15-6:45pm

It's freezing cold today and I should've brought my gloves. I ended up swimming very fast in the beginning but still it took 2 minutes to swim 100m. After slowing the pace, I was able to swim 1km without stopping. First 100m took 2'20'' so 1km would be in 23 minutes. Afterwards, I focused on paddling with my arms in a slower pace, and the time said 100m in 2 minutes. I noticed that my swimming form was getting rusty so going to start improving it. On the way home, the cold breeze felt really nice. The relieving atmosphere surrounded me with my tired body and release from the body movement.

Result: 1km, 100m, 100m, total 1.2km.

Feb 27: The knee pain

My nephew is taking part in the Tokyo Marathon on Feb 27th so I'm going to support him. I met him the day before for registration. I walked about 5 hours that day and felt something in my knees but it wasn't painful. Actually I wasn't really walking too much in terms of distance since I've been stopping and checking some exhibitions. Although the following day I can't bend my knees due to the pain. So I forced to bend it (by tolerating the pain) and stretched the muscles then I'm able to walk for a while but ending is the same. I cooled my knees and did some stretch and manage to finish the day, which ended up 7 hours of walking and standing. I suppose the total distance is about 10km.

Feb 25: Swim - 50m pool, 3:30-5pm

I took a day off today to get my eyes checked at the hospital. I wanted to get it checked because my eye sight has dropped down. Initially I thought it'll only take half day, but it was very crowded and every single check ups took time so in the end it took 6.5 hours. Apparently I have cataract and will need to have an operation. So I had to cancel Saturday's airline health check appointment. Therefore I probably won't be able to fly for a while, but want to be ready to fly by August.

It's my first time to go to the pool on the weekday daytime, and it's pretty empty therefore it feels good. There are only about 3 people in a lane. And this is in 50m pool, so it feels like only single person is there for 25m pool. I started swimming slowly and somehow managed to swim 750m without stopping. I wasn't expecting this so it felt weird. It's a shame I didn't measure my time! Then I swam 100m and it was 2 minutes so noticed that I have been swimming pretty slowly. I think it was like 2'20 pace. I should measure it next time. I feel so good that I was able to swim 750m.

Result: 750, 100, 200, 500, Total: 1.5km

Feb 20: Swim - 50m pool, 7:50-8:15pm

Today I swam in the pool in the 'hood. There wasn't much time and and it was freezing when I got into the water so I swam pretty fast. Around 200m point I slowed my pace and swam 500m. I feel it's easier than swimming in the 50m pool. It's probably the breathing and kicking during turn makes it easier.

Took the break for 10 minutes and swam another 500m. After that, I swam 25m each reviewing 14-stroke-front-style.

Result: 500m, 500m, 25m x6, 100m  Total: 1.25km

Feb 20: Run - 1km, 3-3:10pm

Normally I don't feel any pain around my knee area, but when I run, I feel it. Today I ran pretty slow pace but from the mid point both of my knees started to hurt (it has been only my right knee before). I tried to soften the shock and ran 1km. Afterwards, the pain was still there and I'm not sure if I should continue running. I shall put some support and will see how that goes.

Feb 11: Swim - 25m pool, 6:10-7:35pm

I went to the close by pool today. It's snowing but hasn't settled, therefore I thought the pool won't be busy as usual. I ended up going slightly earlier just in case but around 6pm was pretty busy having 3 people in a single lane. But from around 7pm there were less people so it was easier to swim.

In the next lane there's a 9-year-old-ish girl swimming, but she is SO fast. I'm jealous that she seem to be able to swim in many ways but even her breastroke is faster than my front crawl. Is it because she is fast? Or because I am slow? ...Persuaded myself thinking it's probably both.

Result: 500m, 300m, 300m, 500m, Total: 1.6km

Feb 6: Run - 1km, 7:50-7:57am

Today I ran 1km after doing a warm-up long walking for 80 minutes. I can feel something in the knee area so I started running very slowly, and around 500m point I tried to run normally but soften the landing of my feet. Time was 5'41'' which is pretty slow.

It's so cold outside so rather than cycling, I'm training with the inhouse roller machine everyday. I set time for 10-15minutes and 90 cadence and 10 minutes is all I can do. I will be drenched with sweat if I do more. I'm not sure whether I should practice every other day and practice for longer time. In the end, I'll need to cycle 30minutes for more than twice a week.

Feb 2: Swim - 50m pool, 6:15-6:50 (Change in target)

My initial target was to participate Brasschaat's Triathlon which is on May 29th, and I have been preparing for it but due to my work schedule I found out that I won't be able to take time off during that time. So I asked my Belgian friend who was going to participate with me, they introduced another Triathlon which is held in Sterkepeer in August so I'm going to attend to that one instead. We don't have the actual date yet but sounds like it'll be around 16th. I'll need to fix my calendar.

Today, one of the lane is booked up so it's a bit more crowded than usual. It's cold so I swam 300m pretty fast and then got stuck. I started counting the number of strokes and it was 42 strokes in 50m which I'll need to reduce the numbers. At the end, I was able to swim 500m slowly.

Result: 300m 200m 200m 500m  Total: 1.2km

Jan 28: Swim - 25m pool, 10:10-10:50pm

Today I don't have much time but going to reduce the break time and swim more than 1km. And this is going to be the target.

Since it's late today, I had a single lane all to myself.
First 300m was warm up swim, then adjusted the form (which is to swim in 14 strokes), but then after 300m I got out of breath. After a quick break, without thinking the number of strokes I swam 600m. It took 2'15'' for 100m. My target is 2 minutes but I'll need to strengthen my energy first.

Result: 300m, 300m, 600m, Total: 1.2km

Jan 23: Swim - 25m pool, 8-8:50pm

I ran yesterday so today I just observed how my knees are. As I thought, I can feel something around the front of my knees. It hasn't developed as pain just yet but feels like it's just before that. The doctor at the lecture yesterday recommended to do some stretch since the rectus muslce of thigh is so hard. I tried the stretch but it's so painful, I learnt that it's not stretched at all. So perhaps it gets painful before the muscles gets hard. I took the pain and continued with the stretch but the result is not there yet. (or the result is there, but perhaps haven't developed as a pain just yet).

Today, I focused on adjusting form and swam very slowly. When it's going well, I only need 14 strokes but when I relax it immediately raises to 17 or 19 strokes. To be able to swim long distance, you'll have to swim very slowly, but at first it's so cold (the water feels cold anyway) I ended up swimming fast and therefore after 300m, my breathing control gets tough. I'll need to improve my breath control as well.

Result: 300m, 100m, 100m, 100m, 100m, 400m,  Total: 1.1km

Jan 22: Run - 5:40-5:45pm

Today, I went to the lecture that focused on how to strengthen knee joint which was hosted by Health Improvement Centre in the neighbourhood. I learnt that shrinking muscles makes ankles wobble, and when the balance of left/right muscles fall apart it connects to the pains in the knees. Then we learnt how to strengthen the weak muscles. This is very good and I decided to do it at home everyday.






















The roller base for bicycle arrived so I've used it and ran 6km in 17 minutes (20km/h speed). I ended up sweating a lot by starting the top load to 3rd level. I've decided that when my knees have warmed up after the indoor cycling, then I go running.

Today, I ran 1km in 5 minute pace. After 800m, I felt something around my knees but I ran until the end. also, I purchased a core body running book by Tetsuhiko Kane and I'm going to combine my knee training as well as core body muscle training.

Jan 20: Swim - 50m pool, 6:15 - 6:45pm

Today is also a cold day, and when I arrived to Sendagaya, I didn't want to even think about getting into the pool, but from previous experiences I know it'll improve after swimming so I pushed myself to the swimming pool reception. Today, one of the lane is booked so the slow lane is busy. After 300m I got stuck. And I was a little tired at this point since I swam fast to get rid of the cold. For 200m afterwards, I adjusted the form and tried to swim for 500m but after 300m, my front left thigh muscle was about to have cramp so I stopped there. In the past, I ended up having a cramp in the same place but on the right side. This happened since it was after cycling so perhaps my muscles were tired. Come to think about it, it might be because I did some training at home with the cycling kit which arrived yesterday. Normal weekdays after work, I usually can't train cycling outside since it's too cold. So I bought this training roller kit and now I can practice indoors! It seems to take more time to recover muscle tiredness due to aging. That's probably why I almost had a cramp today.

As for cycling, I'm going to train 15minutes with uphill (indoors). This is the level which I'm just about to start sweating.

Result: 300m, 200m, 300m, Total: 800m (the least amount recorded)

Jan 16: Swim - 25m pool, 8-8:50pm

There are many new year parties and it's difficult to make time for exercising. I couldn't even get to my bike during the weekend. I can't stop swimming while my body strength is decreasing, so headed to the near pool. It's empty so the lane is all to myself :) First after 300m, the breath control was hard, so I adjusted my form, swam slowly and somehow managed to swim 500m. Outside is cold but my body is roasting and it feels great.

Result: 300m, 200m,100m,100m,500m, Total: 1.2km

Jan 13: Swim - 50m pool, 4:15-4:50pm

Today feels like the coldest in this winter, and I'd like to warm my cold fingers and toes before getting into the pool. The shower before getting into pool feels warm enough but it's cold afterward during warm up so dashed with that and swam desperately for 300m to warm my body. After 300m, I was already catching my breath so took a break.

There's a less slow lane today (usually there are 3 slow lanes) due to someone booking the other lane so it feels busier and after 200m, I ended up catching up with this breastroke person. Although today is cold so the pool itself is empty. When it's busy, there are about 15 people in a single lane, but today is about 7 people.

At one point, I ended up meeting with a westerner and after exchanging some greetings, I found out that he is an Italian who is heading back to Rome tomorrow. Then we swam separately but when I was changing clothes after shower, he came in so we chatted and it turns out that he is a pilot (first officer) with Alitalia airline who used to be in a military. After I mentioned that I fly every year in Europe we kind of hooked up so ended up chatting until Shinjuku where his hotel was located. It seems like Alitalia is having time with their business.

Result: 300m, 200m, 200m, 300m, 200m, Total: 1.2km

I should conduct further training to reach this month's goal which is to swim 500m without a break.

Jan 10: Cycle - 6.3km Hill course, 2:52-3:08pm, 4℃

I aimed for a warm temperature time, which is this afternoon, but it was 4 degrees with the north wind, so it felt like 0 degree. I use cycling gloves so the fingers are cold and after 16 minutes they lost their senses. At first the wind was facing me so it was tough and my feet is getting colder.

Starting point. The opposite wind is very strong. First part is flat and mild right curve.(map 1)

Since the wind is so strong, I couldn't speed up much. And I had to stop at the signal.
First up hill, around mid-point.(map 12-13)

When I checked the pulse, it was 202. I think the sensor is not working properly due to the dry weather.

After going through the long up hill, turning left as this part (map 14).

At this point my legs are dead and the pulse is at peak. However, when I turn left, there'll be a light curve and downhill, which is very nice.

The last steep downhill is the place I usually record the fastest speed (map 52).

The downhill is steep but also it's a big curve so it's hard to see long way ahead and I can't speed too much.

I've purchased GPS Recorder for cycling, with the attached software I'm able to find out distance and altitude by adding the course.

There's a slight difference in data from measuring with Pressure Altitude Measurement, but with this information, the altitude difference is around 90m.

The recording somehow got shut down in the middle so I won't be able to fix this, but will check it next time. It may well be due to the low temperature, it was impossible to measure this.

Result: It took 15'57'', the fastest speed was 59.2km/h. This is due to the strong wind and stopping at the signals.

The pulse had some margin of errors, so I'm not recording it this time. After a while I started sweating and it worked so next time, I'm going to wet the contact point and use it then.

Jan 9: Run - 1km, 4:30-4:36pm

I ran again to check my knees. Last time I jogged slowly and softly. This time, I'll jog slightly faster. During running, I can feel something right under the knee area, so tried to reduce the shock by running with short steps.

Before jogging, I did some stretch and step practice for about 5 minutes so that my knees would warm up. After jogging, I've done the stretch and massage as well.

After 500m, due to the lack of muscles the pace drops. I will need to exercise much harder to train my legs. Tomororw, if there's no pain, I'll run 3 times a week to gain stamina. The final target is to run 5km in 25minutes, but this will be after cycling for 20km so that will be a tough target.

Result: 1km in 5'22''

Jan 8: Swim - 18m pool, 7:15-8:35pm

Today I also went to the swimming pool in Kumagaya. It sounds far when I say Kumagaya, but not too bad from here in Higashimatsuyama. And thankfully the traffic is very smooth. The pool is relatively empty and the fact that they have both bath and sauna is probably why I end up going there.

Today the pool was again empty, almost monopolising it by myself. Sometimes there are 2 guards. At first I swam 10 laps which is about 360m, then adjusted the front crawl form. Water is warm and even I don't move much it doesn't feel like my body is getting cold. I swam another 10 laps, then 14 laps to finish (500m). When the pool is small,  you get to turn (and kick) so frequently so it feels much easier than 50m pool. I jumped in to the bath afterwards which what I was looking forward to do, and relaxed my muscles. Then moved to the sauna.

Result: 360m, 100m, 360m, 100m, 500m, Total:1.4km

Jan 6: Swim - 50m pool, 4:20-4:50

I''m very busy but to regain my body strength, I went to the pool on the way home. The wind is chilly, it's probably the coldest day in the winter, and the body feels like 0 degrees. The water in the pool feels farm. Although the body temperature is low so the first 200m I swam very fast, and took a break after 300m. Everyone seem to swim pretty fast in this pool, so I ended up thinking about the speed and puts pressure in my arms. Resulting that I'm needing a break every 300m. It was a short time, but managed to swim for 1.1km. On the way home the body is warm, and the cold wind feels very nice.

Result: 300m, 100m, 300m, 100m, 300m, total: 1.1km

Jan 4: Swim - 18m pool, 7:50-8:40pm

This is the only place where it's open. And there was nobody there. Just the guard and myself. After a while, a woman swam a little, and left before me.

I practiced the quick turn but the water keeps coming in to my nose. Anyway I swam for 360m twice, then adjusted underswitch form and swam 1km in total. This month, I'm going to make my target as 600m non-stop swimming, then next month is 800m, and March will be 1km.

Jan 4: Run - 1km, 7:30-7:38am

It has been a long while since I felt the pain in my knee. I feel it when I give a little pressue like on stairs but it's not a massive pain. For several times, I've ran 100m just to check how my knee is but the next day, usually it comes with pain. So I've stopped running for a while, but this month is a start of registration for the triathlon, so I better give my answer soon therefore decided to run today.

First I did the radio-exercise, then walked for 2km for a warm-up, followed by a light exercise, and then I started running. It was extremely slow pace, 40cm for each step, and ran for 1km. It took me about 7 mintues. There wa snot pain afterwards. If I don't feel the pain tomorrow, I'll run again this weekend.

Jan 3: Cycle - 6.3km Hill course

I've finished the end-of-the-year-cleaning, and starting the new year's training!

This time, I'm going to cycle with my son who is visiting us for the New Year. Due to his old bicycle's gear being old and the chain keeps falling apart, we took it slow.

It took us 16'54'' to do a lap. The temperature is so low the sweat only came in the end and didn't bother me at all.