Week 1

This week I logged 51k. I did two 5k with Aya, monday and thursday; two 10 and 12 by myself on wed and friday; and 21k on Sunday by myself. I also managed to get in gym time for my upper and lower on wed and tuesday.My hip and knee on my left leg had been bothering me, feeling like joint pain, not muscle. my hip was just sore, but my knee felt more like pressure, like that feeling you get in your fingers just before they pop when you are cracking them.
I just started running with my new shoes, the New Balance 993 with support for over-pronation. I was running in a pair of New Balance 490 which I liked, but they were just getting old. I was looking into getting new shoes and read about pronation and looked at my old shoes noticing wear marks on the inner part of the shoe. So I decided to buy my new 993s with that in mind. That was about a month ago that I got them and started running with them, its also about that time that my k's started to get above 10 so when I started to feel the pains in my knee and hip I wasn't sure if it was form, my shoes, or just the extra miles.
On the advice of my friend Dan I switched out my 993s for a pair of 'normal' shoes, my Saucony Shadows, which I had just been using as gym shoes. I ran the 21k in them and felt fine after. I also had changed my form a week before to one with a shorter gait and more steps per minute. I think the form cut the hip pain and the shoes cut the knee pain because I felt pretty darn good after my long run.
after the 21k I came home to some little girls at my door, so I did not eat after, I just went and played kickball with them which was stupid because I was stupid tired. When I finally did get home I had some beef curry with spaghetti and then almost immediatly fell asleep.
A couple of notes for this run. At 10 and 15k I stopped to walk and drink. That was sorely needed. Putting some more drinks/food into the run would be super. At 19kish I was running out of steam. Also, popped in the mp3 player for the first time ever after 10k, it was good as long as I could keep good music going, so I have to make a playlist or something. Eat after the run, eat after the run.

This is me

I have always been a runner. When I was in 7th grade my friend at the time, Tim, introduced me to running by way of his father. His dad was a runner. He would run a 5k a few times a week, if I remember correctly. He also would smoke cigars on occasion and drink beer with dinner. Generally I liked the guy and Tim and I would run with him sometimes, but more importantly it started me running an I loved it. That lead to my first pair of running shoes and my first races, all 5ks.
When I was in high school I joined the cross country team, but that didn't last too long. That also happened to be the time when I was discovering all the dirty pleasures of life and running took a back seat. I didn't run much again until college when I got a job at a valet company. Basically I would spend 3 nights a week, for 5 or so hours at a time, driving cars from restaurants to parking lots and then briskly running back. It got me running again and I felt great. Soon after I started lifting weights and running at the university gym. I continue that to this day.
However, in the last 4 months or so my running has taken off. I went from doing a couple 5ks a week to logging 20, then 30, then 40, now 50k a week running. I ran my first 10k in 51 minutes on October 4th and ran my first half marathon this past week while training in about 2:15. I am pretty happy with these times.
I also was excepted to the Tokyo Marathon, which is on reason for me starting this blog. Out of roughly 275,000 people who applied to run, 30,000 were excepted. I was excepted. It might have to do with my location. I doubt a whole lot of runner applied from my area of Japan, its a bit remote. It could just be a completely random lottery. No idea, but I'm in and that is awesome.
I plan to keep a weekly track of my progress up until the race, about 16 weeks away. It's mainly just for me to keep track of how long or how comfortably I ran. I hope this will give me some insights into what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong, good gear and good nutrition along the way. So here we go.