Nike+ Number Twenty-Nine

Nike+ Number Twenty-Eight

Nike+ Number Twenty-Seven

Easy ten ... right Pre?

Nike+ Number Twenty-Six

Just a short one today, I have aerobics later ^^

Nike+ Number Twenty-Five

Still chuggin along ...

R.I.P. M.

You were a good Ma dog. I hope you are happy now resting in the sun and playing again with your friend Princess across the rainbow bridge. Even toward the end I hear you continued your black stealth dog duties in the mornings. May you find peace and lots of good bones to chew.

Nike+ Number Twenty-Four

16.5k and counting

Nike+ Number Twenty-Three

100 Miles!

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/v1/html/milestones/print_certif.html?id=1017777835®ion=us&language=en&locale=en_us&dateFormat=MM/DD/YY

Century club baby! All in about a month. Grab the link above.

Nike+ Number Twenty-Two

Nike+ Number Twenty-One

Nike+ Number Twenty

Still plugging along. Nearly to the 100 mile bench mark.

Nike+ Number Nineteen

Yep still nutz ...

Nike+ Number Eighteen

Truely sad ... :(

Nike+ Number Seventeen

Ok ... I agree ... I'm crazy @.@

School blog

So today I have my computer at work so I am going to attempt to write a blog. Nothing particularly interesting is happening, but here it is anyway. I have been running each day since the beginning of last week (even though last Tuesday I only ran at aerobics). Since I started I can detect a noticeable difference and believe I am getting stronger, which is keeping with my goals. Work continues so be a bit tedious at times, but I’m still enjoying being back at Shikama Higashi. I will miss it next year when I’m back in the states.
Not much to report on the dating front. I have been out of contact with Miya, Yoriko and Saori because they are busy. Yuriko will be in town for “Thanksgiving weekend next week so we will hang out on the 23rd. Eri will be at Tina’s birthday party this weekend and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I guess we will see how things work out. She pretty much told me to leave her alone (without actually saying it) by her replies to my e-mails a few weeks ago (very abrupt and not really inviting replies). I haven’t talked to her since so I doubt I’ll make an attempt to talk to her during the party unless she seeks me out.
Life in Japan continues to surprise. I think it is finally sinking in that in only about eight months I’ll be back in the US so I have been noticing the little differences in daily life more. The fact that mass transportation is so much more efficient here, the weather patterns, the style and speed of building of houses here (there is a house that was started maybe a week after I started back at Shikama Higashi and they are holding open houses for it this week) are all so foreign. Even the plants and animals are a little different and more exotic. I am finding that I am really enjoying my second year here a lot more than I did last year.
On the home front … my plan continues to be to go back to school when I go home. My application to the UW’s MIT program is on track for a very early submittal (due in March and will probably be sent in by the end of December). I am excited to start my work as a “real teacher” when I return home. However, I am also very nervous. I think I have grown use to the way students act in Japan and I’m worried that after growing comfortable with the way they act I will be unable to accept the way American students act. I guess we’ll see when I return. That’s all for now. Peace, Love and Little Bonsai Trees to you all :P.

Nike+ Number Sixteen

Nike+ Number Fifteen

Quick jog before aerobics. :P

Nike+ Number Fourteen

Faster still ... I need to go longer and slower I think.

Yep ...

I have gone off my rocker with the exercising, but it's been good ^^. I feel very good these days (well minus being sore all the time). In case you are wondering if this is leading up to something the short answer is yes and no :P. If you want the long answer here it is. I would like to become more fit and toned, but the real reason for the running around is I plan to do a half marathon again probably sometime in the next few months if i can find a good one.
Ofcourse my long term goal is still to do a marathon. In that respect I fully intend at some point over the winter holidays to attempt a marathon distance run. We'll see if this happens ... at the moment I intend to increase my run distance each week by 1k at least once a week. This week was 11k so sometime in the next week I'll try a 12k and so on. Again we'll see how that works out.
On to my love life. Nothing new to report this week really. I went and had a few drinks with Miya this last week. Got turned down for coffee by my co-worker. Had dinner with Tomomi last night and that's about it. Sorry I can't bring you any torrid details. Still just testing the waters after my last two failed attempts at dating.

Nike+ Number Thirteen

It isn't nearly as impressive as it looks because I paused the workout anytime I had to stop at a traffic light.

Long Live Pre!

So I had a Prefontaine moment today. I was doing an "easy ten" and when I got home my foot was bloody. It had even made it through to the outside of the shoe. Unfortunately for me it wasn't nearly as cool as "Pre" it was just my toe nail cutting into the bottom of the toe next to it. It happens occasionally, but it just made me think of the running legend when I looked down after my run and saw a bloody patch on my shoe.

Nike+ Number Twelve

The first part of this run I messed up so it should be 1.41 miles longer and 10 minutes longer.

Nike+ Number Eleven

Nike+ Number Ten

Getting there ...

Nike+ Number Nine

Shut Down!

Complete shut down by my co-worker, lol. She said "No Thanks. I want to focus on my work." to my question of if she'd like to get some coffee. Cross her off the list ... Lol.

Nike+ Number Eight

Skype

Just signed up for Skype. My screen name is TevenCLH. In case you don't know what it is, its a chat program similar to AIM. But, if you want to pay for it you can also make calls to phone numbers too. Anyway, incase you don't have AIM and do have Skype add me to your list and we can chat sometime.

Long time ...

So it's been a while since I wrote a proper blog so here ya go. Yesterday was my birthday. It was lots of fun. We had a "pot luck" dinner on the patio of the second floor for me and Taube (Her B-day is Monday). The rule was no store bought foods and for the most part that was followed. We had lots of good home made foods including a cake baked by one of the friends of Julian.
After it started to get to cold to bear we moved the party to the fourth floor. I met lots of new people, which I found rather interesting since I've been here for a year I would have thought I'd have met all the friends of other ALTs. The most interesting of the new people were the three M's; Miya, Masumi, and Masaya. Julian worked with Masaya and met the other two women through her I believe. Miya studied in Boston and graduated from a University affiliated with Tufts. After that she moved to Seattle for a year and lived in Fremont (maybe ... she couldn't remember if that was the place she lived or not). All she could remember was it was about 15 min by skate board from downtown, not on Capitol Hill, near a mountain/hill and across a bridge of some sort.
I have received many requests for continued updates on my love life. Not a whole lot interesting going on there other than adding several more women to the list of interest. Miya, Mika (a new teacher at Shikama Higashi) and Saori.
Not really getting any action as most everyone is too busy to meet. Here is the low down... I saw Yoriko for the first time since June this last week. She is doing well and will graduate in January. She just stopped by for 45 min to chat and hang out and then had to head home. Yuriko (the teacher from Ohtsu) had culture day this weekend and has been studying for the English Language Proficiency Test and so I haven't seen her for awhile now. Tomomi is around and I have seen her at the bars the last two times I've gone. She is friendly and nice so there is a possibility there. Eri is non-existant. Saori I met last weekend, but she is busy this month so who knows if I'll get a chance to know her. Mika I see everyday at work, but she is really shy and I only just started getting to know her at the Enkai a week ago so who know what will happen there. Miya I just met and so nothing much there except I'd like to get to know her more.
Off of the topic of my love life, my exercising is going well as you can see from my graph posts. Along with road running I have been making regular trips to the gym (although I've missed the last two Fridays because of Enkais) I am enjoying the classes there a lot, although I am a very poor student in BodyCombat (I need to work on that flexibility >.<).
That's all for now. I'll try and write more later.

Nike+ Number Seven

Bit longer. Thanks Tinz for the run.

Nike+ Number Six

I Challenge YOU!!!

That's right 1,000 miles before Valentines Day! Better start inviting people to join in!

Nike+ Number Five

Sprint type run today ... I hate the stop light at the end of my run >.<