My tips for people who want to RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

have I got tips?!?! THis man has got tips!?!? Ask me anything and i will always give you four solid tips!!!! For running:

1. Set goals. I say you should try to do a 5k in 25 minutes.

2. If you set your goal w/a 5k run don't train more that 20 minutes. That's why I make the 5k my race. Longer race means more time.

3. Do 20 minute runs 2/3 times a week. Do short sprints 2/3 times a week. For the short sprints find a nice park/river side or a nice trail. Sprint for about 1 minutes and then trot for about 20 seconds time should again 10 times. Your sprint time should not exceed 10 minutes (for a 5k). You can mix this up (5 sprints at 2 minutes) but your total times should not exceed 10 minutes. So in summary: 2/3 week long slow run and 2/3 week sprints.

4. Have fun. Sometimes when it'S raining it hard to get started. But I am not talking about this kind of non-fun. If you feel sick/hurt take a break. Enjoy it!

THe jump!!!!!!!!!!!!

THe land....

The background story....

SHIMANAMI

The scene of the crime: SHIMANAMI...



SHimanami is a string of islands in southern Japan that are connected by elevated bike paths.  Along the way you can take in the sea breeze or marvel at the suspension bridges or even stop at some of the museums like the Towel Museum.

My friend Anthony and I went out on the road and headed across the islands.  It is 150k round trip and as we set out, I was already getting tired.  usually you don't loose energy until the very end.  Bicyclists call this "bonking" or running out of energy.  This happens because as it turns out cycling is a very fuel intensive activity and it requires lots of energy.  More so that you would initially suspect.  It isn't uncommon to be eating 5 meals a day.   On the first leg of the journey I was already bonking.  We came to the last bridge and crossed it and coasted down to this beautiful hotel that was located along the sea side.  I took a chair and went to sleep.  There was a 30 minute wait for the meal, which turned out to be perfect.  I slept.  Then I ate a large meal (vegetables, pizza and tomato cheese) and I was ready to jam again.

On the way back we went off the path which proved to be a top idea (tip of the hat to Anthony).  The side roads allowed us to explore the island.  As it turns out, the bike trail follows the mail highway and it is more geared towards getting to point B as fast as possible.  But the side-roads took us through the countryside and the alleyways of island life.

We were out on a limb and we had a gander at the map again.  We were far out as it turns out with many a mile till our finish line.  We came back and it was getting darker.  Anthony got a terrible headache.  We stopped at a pharmacy.  We found some Bufferin and this Japanese power drink.  Anthony immediately got better and we immediately set off in the dark with a new spring n our step.

At 8 o'clock (12 hours after we originally started) we came gliding up to the last ferry.  We paid the 100 yen for the ferry crossing and soon we were on the other side back at the finish line.  Anthony wanted a ONSEN (Japanese hot bath) so we took a taxi driven by the Japanese version of mad Max down these alley ways and finally at the site.  The bath proved to be a brilliant idea (another 2 points Anthony!).  By the time we crawled back to the hotel it was 30 minutes to 12.  We eeked past the midnight deadline.  Tired and exhausted (but clean) we made it to our beds and disappeared into a deep sleep.

Oh and did I say crawl...?!?!?!

Another story.  We were looking for a hotel.  And there was NOTHING left (because it was a Holiday).  But then Anthony found a 1 and a half star hotel.  "Don't expect too much" said Anthony.  As it turns out, the hotel was a top of a hill...



...and the only way to get to the hill was to carry your bike and all your luggage to the top of this hill.



But the hotel was great (another 2 points for Anthony???).  The dorm room had thick futon beds.  The price was cheap.   And the food was delicious.  It was Thai themed restaurant and there was nothing wrong and everything right about what was available.  The atmosphere and the view and the price were all so cool that it would be difficult for me to find something I didn't like.  The climb was a doozer though.   IT was a boot camp every time you wanted to go home.

MY PPES!

Here is the group I ply with on SATURDAY morning.  We had a great time playing last SATURDAY.  Lots of elbows to the face (etc.).  I am in the middle and the guy on my left is JOY who is my Italian friend who you might recognize from previous posts as the fellow FUJI mountain climber.

MONDAY NIGHT SOCCER.....

Rough group.  Don't let the smiles fool you....

Cycling around BIWAKO

Lake Biwako is JAPAN's largest lake.  And just North of Kyoto.  Beautiful and expansive, when one looks out across the waters of Biwako one sees something more akin to a sea.  Last week I bicycled around the lake.

1.  At my UNI there is a retired professor named TERRY who invited me out on a bicycle trip.  We had originally planned to go on MONDAY but because of the various typhoons that have been landing in Japan as of late we postponed the trip to Wednesday/Thursday.

2  Wednesday I biked out in the rain and found my way to the meeting point.  Terry showed in the van and soon we were on our way.  An hour later we were standing in front of the hotel.  It was large and majestic like a Church of Scientology celebrity center.  We found our way to the room and kicked back until dinner.

3.  Terry got this hotel because his neighbor had a time share.  It cost $100 and included was a steak dinner.  And what a dinner it was.  Course after course and all topped off with the bottle of wine Terry was generous enough to buy.  At nine I returned to the room and slept like a baby,.

4.  Early the next day, with a buffet under our belt, we headed out.  The first part of the trip is nice enough.  But soon we topped the north side of the lake and haded hoe.  The roads were small and wooded with only an occasional car.  I stopped on the way back to take a picture.

5.  Time was the essence.  And we found ourselves still biking long after dark.  The road would never end.  We were in the city and there seemed to be no end to the pachinko parlors and fast food restaurants.  Finally we found the hotel.  We had traveled 184 kilometers but my butt had surrendered many miles back.  After the long trip Terry took me home and we happily departed.  What a wonderful trip.  Hope to do it again sometime soon!

Journey into the heart of Canada....

Preamble:  I had a great idea.  And a great friend.  First, the great friend.  His name is HONZA and he lives in Canada.  We met while he was working as an engineer in Osaka and we have kept in touch.  This time on my trip to America I passed through Vancouver and we thought about what we could do.

And now the great idea.  How about we do a camping trip into the wilderness?  I asked the HONZ.  And so it was decided: we would take a trip into the backwoods.  We decided to the trip 3 months in advance and the night before Honza was calling up the rental company for sleeping bags. They were all rented so we settled on doing TWO one day hiking trips.



Eventually we reached the trail head.  The first event was that I got STUNG IN THE BUTT BY A WASP!!!!!!  Even now I can feel a small lump where the wasp stung me.  Why did the wasp sting me?!?!  No one knows.



Next I stepped into a mud pit which caused HONZA to laugh uncontrollably for 5 minutes.  I must admit, it was pretty funny.



As we hiked higher the scenery broadened...



We eventually made it to the alpine and up above we saw the mountain towering above...



The last way up to the mountain was a steep cliff.  To climb up you had to make your way up a cliff face.



We crossed the a glacier and made our way to the top...



King of the mountain....



The way down the mountain was long and precarious.  We climbed down the mountain and we were headed for the trail.  But where was the trail?!?!?  We bushwhacked through the forest.  No trail.  We crossed the stream and bushwhacked some more.  We climbed down a long hill and made our way through some thick bushes.  The sun was almost set.  We all had an "o-oh" moment.  Then the sun, very quickly, like a man clocking out of his factory job and beating it, set.  What to do now?!?!  We were just in our hiking clothes with jackets and some nuts left over from the hike.  We called 911.  "Hmmmm..." they said contemplatively.  "Build a fire."  So we found some wood in the wet dark forest and built a smoky little campfire.  What a blessing that little fire proved to be.  At this point, all of us clicked into survival mode.  We were back 100,000 years where man can was living like naked apes.  Every day they were on the brink of extinction.  Niceties held no value.  Every single item was evaluated purely on a utilitarian basis.  The fire brought about a massive evolutionary shift.  Suddenly we were no longer the naked monkeys huddling in the darkness.  We had fire.  And the fire gave us warmth.  We nursed our fire til dawn crept into the sky.  Cold, hungry and tired we headed up the mountain again.  We had survived.  And so mankind marched on for another day.  We spent a grueling 5 hours climbing up the mountain.  Long avalanche slopes. Precarious cliffs with crab crass growing tentatively in the cracks.  And then the top.  We came down the side of the mountain.  We were free!!!!  We had found the trail and we were no longer apes lost in the woods.  Just an hour trip down the mountain and a quick jump into our car and we would be safely back in the 21st century.  No longer at the dawn of civilization scrubbing each day just to survive.  We were in the land of Elvis Costello.  Dukes of Hazard too.  Latte.  And cold drops.  And jello.  And jets.  And bitching about your weight.  And a whole rambling beat poet list of modernity.  Just as we came to the trail-head we looked up.  The rescue helicopter had come.  The red helicopter circled in the sky and landed 20 feet away.  Even though we no longer needed a rescue it was nice to know that we were home sweet home.