Hiroshima here we are!
We start our second month here in Japan, we ran and cycled for more than 1300km for more than 35 days, it’s incredible how fast the time passes.
Like you probably noticed through our FB page, this week was a really solid week. On our way to Hiroshima we had to pass through different mountains and highways (we struggled to pass with our stroller). In Japan, the roads are generally tiny with a lot of traffic, for us it is a problem because we struggle to pass with our stroller.
By chance the Japanese drivers are really conscientious and act with a lot of courtesy towards runners and cyclists. Like we said in our previous blog, the mountains here are no joke, they are steep and long, it took us ages just to run a 8km.
In the Japanese routes, sometimes there is cycling routes that will just stop without any reasons, it is really frustrating for us and difficult because we have to adjust our routes constantly. It is a lot of waste of time and for us.
Running routine
It is really difficult to have a real running routine. To be honest, we really want to achieve a “routine” and have some super running plans but we just cannot, we have to adapt our days according to our environment.
Moreover, we have to take in consideration that we are getting more and more tired nowadays, it takes us more time to reach 50km in comparison to the 2 first weeks of running.
Including breaks, we do around 10- 12 h of running and cycling, it is just impossible for us to take a nap and rest for a while because we won’t be able to reach a reasonable distance.
Self supported; More than just running!
Like you may have noticed, we are doing this running adventure as self-supported. We don’t have any crew to take care of our lodging, food, laundry, etc. We have to manage our time the best we can to be able to run 50km a day, look for food (we store our day to day food in a little lunch box).
When we don’t have any safe cycling routes, we have to stop when the sun goes down immediately otherwise it would be too dangerous with the cars and unsafe roads.
Rapidly, we realized that it was not possible to go in national camping sites every day, so we camp nearly anywhere. Our favorite camping spots are in parks because they have toilets and water, making it possible for us to shower and have a safe environment to camp.
Last but not least, we have to organize our time during the week to wash our clothes; usually using laundry self-services. On the top of that we also have to find time to charge the batteries for the phone, ebike, sport watch, etc.
We have the firm impression that it’s all a waste of time, the time that we take to wash our clothes or charge the batteries, we do not progress on the road.
Food, nutrition
We have never had such an unhealthy and unbalanced diet. We look at food as calorie intake more than healthy food.
We eat too many crisps, ice creams, donuts… The only thing we are really careful with is our intake of proteins. Generally in the mornings we eat sausages and omelets followed with orange jus and/or tea, for lunch we eat cooked chicken breasts.
For dinner we often eat instant noodles (when we are too tired) but if we are lucky enough to find a grocery store during the day, we can eat sashimis, sushis, fried chicken, crab, etc, we simply have to make sure they are kept cool during the day by putting ice in the lunch box.
A real buffet!!! Otherwise we always have spare spaghettis and tomato sauce so we can always have a semi-decent meal in case we do not have any convenience store close by or if we are stuck in the mountains or small villages.
Body reaction
It’s amazing to realize that our bodies are way stronger that what we imagine. The both of us do not have any major injuries, maybe small blisters or cut here and there but nothing to worry about. We definitely both lost weight. We are getting more tired with time. The fatigue kicks in mostly in the middle of the afternoon, sometimes it’s really difficult for us to just keep going without taking breaks.
In the meantime, we are more energized in the morning when we start running. We are starting our days an hour earlier than usual to wake up with the sun (around 5am), that helps our time management because we can also stop running when the sun goes down, by starting earlier we have more chances to achieve our daily targets.
This week we decided to answer questions people that follow our Facebook page asked, the rest of the questions that we did not answer this week will be answered in next week’s blog. Please make sure to comment and ask us more questions, we are very happy to see soo many are interested in the project, such positive feedbacks!!
Thank you again and stay tune for more from us.
-Vero and Coco