千九百四十五： Run Club

Dandelion in full bloom (Tampopo in Japanese)

Been focusing on some other stuff this month so haven't been blogging much.

Work for one. Had to take over teammate's projects because he got pulled to something else, which I am glad it's him and not me because it means having to work EOC hours. But it also means stretching myself quite thin when I had wanted to spend more time on less work and more me time this month after working until the wee hours so much last month.

I managed to go for hanami (or just a walk through the parks taking pics of sakura) over the weekends but haven't had the chance to sort out the pics much. Maybe it's just laziness, but just haven't found any pictures that I particularly liked out of all the shots I took.

I accidentally discovered an old schoolmate was a friend of a Japanese friend in Tokyo, how small the world is! Everyone looks just the same as they did, maybe we are just really lucky to be the batch of kids who never ever age at all? :D

The Nike Run club people had a celebration party last weekend and despite having only joined 3 sessions before their 1 year anniversary, I was invited and had quite a good time talking to people and making new friends. I think things are finally picking up, suddenly I have this bunch of friends I look forward to seeing every 2 weeks, even if the running is actually just chatting along the jogs, we get to have lunch and chat after lunch and everyone is sooo passionate about running that I feel secretly inadequate. They run almost daily, they wake up before work at 5am to run, they join so many runs.. Of cos I try my best, have finally clocked 100km of running distance this month! Finally been able to run past 10km for my training runs, I've to get to at least 15-20km by next week! At least I get motivation from seeing the others train so hard, & of cos with the Osaka Marathon that I actually managed to win a spot for. hohohoho!! out os 171000+ people who applied! it's almost like winning the lottery - since I don't usually get lucky for any sort of lucky draw at all.

Feeling pretty happy with life nowadays, work is busy but I don't feel as lonely as the last 2 years. I miss Singapore, I miss people at work, I miss my friends, I miss having the photo outings they take and the runs they are joining but I don't feel the urge to go back so strongly now maybe because I finally have sort of a friend group here with the run club.

Went to Tokyo for a day on Monday to say goodbye to Akane who is going to go to Canada for good. (or she might not find a job and come back to Japan) I hate good byes! & good times are always so short! i haven't seen the people in tokyo for so long, it was great to just say hi and it really sucked that I had to go back home because I have french lessons the next day and can't stay overnight. i'll just look forward to the next trip in May and take lots of photos then!

Golden week upcoming next week, as usual it's a work week for Ryo due to deadlines and me to meet the project signoff date on May 11. I better start thinking about what I'm going to do this weekend.

千九百四十四： 桜

Sakura at Shukugawa Park

Signed up for French lessons today (kinda fast even though I was still deciding last night). And got myself a new pair of running shoes from Adidas to replace my current adizero Breeze, which has its soles coming apart - to a pair of adizero Mana 5. I tried running with it today - feels pretty good! It was a good price too; I had around 2500yen off from a discount card, so got the shoes at around S$100. It's quite scary buying running shoes because I always dunno what's the right size. I thought my adidas size is 24.5 and Nike is 24, because I bought a pair sized 24 from adidas and it turned out to be too tight for running.. (or my toes grew longer?! can't believe how come I could wear it at the store) and today's 24.5 turned out to be too big (almost slipping off my feet when I ran) and I tried on size 24 and it fit.. but was quite traumatized by my pair of mana at home that i couldn't wear... so bought it half reluctantly.. Luckily this one turned out to be ok (Lesson learned : always leave a half toe space in the running shoes you buy!).

Am running a little more daily to try to cure/rehabilitate the ITB problem, seems to be working, it hurts in the morning when I wake up but the distance I can run daily until the point where it hurts is increasing too. Hopefully by next week it will be 10km?? looking forward to the Nike Run Club session this weekend! & i signed up for the Gold Coast Marathon (half marathon) - no confidence for full yet, but since I can upgrade the run category at the race expo, will evaluate what I can do again after sundown.

Not much work mood these few days.. feeling quite sluggish. Maybe partly due to the pain and the running - i realise pain takes up alot of energy... hopefully this negative energy sapping pain will be gone soon!!

千九百四十三： 6 years

last place in the Yodogawa half marathon

Yesterday marked the start of the 7th year with Ryo. doesn't feel quite like 7 years (maybe cos half the time we are actually in different countries).

it's been a crazy few weeks in March -
1. been super busy with work, working until 3-4am for the past 2 weeks helping out on a project that finally launched on April 1st (kept thinking maybe its a April Fools' joke)
2. completed my first half marathon (came in last place cos the back of my knees started to hurt after 10km and then i walked 10km but at least i didn't give up!!) & 10km is super super super damn far to walk when your legs are in pain and u are dragging both feet.
3. made new friends at the Nike Run Club, everyone is so into running it's really quite motivating.

April is here, a quarter of the year is gone so quickly. in April - thinking whether to continue french classes since there's so much activity these 2 months including travelling here and there. trying to train up for the sundown marathon as well.. thinking now if I was mad to join...