Round 4: No Retreat, No Surrender - Week 3

I've incorporated a little bit of running into my workout, on Saturdays. This is my Crossfit WOD day, but without the equipment there's not much to choose from, so I chose a running WOD. 6 x 400 m, with 2 minute rests in between. The first Saturday I went to the city athletics track. It opens at 9, and costs 100 yen to use. I wanted to get my run done early, so I thought I'd get there early and jump the small gate and just hop on. So I rode my bike there at about 7:30 am, but someone was already in the office. Damn. I got my 100 yen out, totally certain of what was about to happen. I walked into the office.
"Excuse me, it costs 100 yen to use the running track, right?" I held the 100 yen out for the lady to take.
"Yes, but it doesn't open until 9 o'clock."
"I just want to use it for half an hour. 100 yen, right?" Take the money.
"I'm sorry, it's closed. It will be open at 9 o'clock, you can use it then."
"There is no way I can use it now?"
"I'm sorry, it's closed."
"You fucking people and your rules." I said that last part in English. I'm sorry, was that racist? Oh my.
So I got back on my bike, and rode to the river beside the freeway, where there's a bike track. Not a bad place to run, really. I found some measurements the other day, so at least I now how far I'm running. I guessed the first week.
The first week I pulled up really sore. I was surprised, because I've been do lots of cardio and squats and plyo and all that, but my thighs were really sore the next couple of days. On Saturday I tried POSE running. I'm sure there's lots of technique and practice involved to get it down perfect, but basically I ran pretending I was running barefoot, concentrating on bringing my heels up off the ground using my hamstring. I felt like a prancing horse, but it was definitely easier on the body than smashing the heels into the ground and rolling onto the toes.
Until yesterday, when my calves hurt real bad. It's hard to walk downstairs. Just my body getting used to it. But I will continue to run, if only because it hurts so much later on, which means I'm doing something new involving new muscle groups. I'll have to buy a decent watch with a stopwatch though.
Busy weekend. On Saturday I ran, then we took the great grandmother out for sushi (some nice expensive stuff), then Will and I went to the pool (he can go underwater now!) and then we went to the fireworks festival after dinner. Then on Sunday we went to English play group, then out to lunch, then I did Back & Biceps (half of it anyway) and then dinner, and then sat down to watch the footy.
I'm glad we beat Hawthorn, because I don't like them, but then I watched Collingwood and Geelong, and the game was totally different. Geelong do what the do well, but it's getting old. Play-on, kick over the top. Kind of a waste of a good forward like Mooney, who really has nothing to do at Geelong. First time I've really watched Collingwood this year, and they look pretty good. Didak is a gun. Leon Davis - how does he get games? Anyway, if those two make it to the grand final, it'll be a beauty.