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Kawauchi Satisfied With "Heavy Training" at Mt. Zhao

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20130714/ath13071416510002-n1.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Moscow World Championships men's marathon team member Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't.) talked to the media July 14 at his training camp at Mt. Zhao, Yamagata, his face showing satisfaction as he told reporters, "I've gotten good training done here where it's cool.  [The heat in] Saitama is unbelievable right now."

At 900 m altitude the mid-afternoon temperatures scarcely reach 25 degrees, making for good conditions for running.  On the 14th, just a week after running 2:10:01 to win Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon, Kawauchi completed 30 km on an undulating 2.5 km cross-country course.  "You could say my body was a bit heavy, so I wanted to see how much it could take," he said.

Kawauchi has been doing summer training at Mt. Zhao since his days at Kasukabe Higashi H.S. and Gakushuin University, always heading straight to a hot spring post-workout to soak away his fatigue.  "I love it here," he said.  "It makes me strong."  Other members of the Moscow team are doing extended training camps overseas and in remote locations within Japan, but in order not to impact his full-time job Kawauchi has made use of the long weekend to do three straight days of concentrated training.  "Every day here I'm doing high-density heavy training," he said of the camp's effectiveness.

In order to peak properly for the World Championships marathon on August 17, Kawauchi said, "There's only one path to follow from now to the final stages.  I have to prioritize making adjustments as I go."  He plans to run two more races to help sharpen his racing sense ahead of his second-straight World Championships, the July 21 Shibetsu Half Marathon and the July 28 Kushiro Shitsugen 30 km Road Race.

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