うたぴょんスポーツ
July was a busy month for Uta, between the heat, the end of the school term, and three races packed into one week. She kept running through all of it.
Here's what the numbers from her training log say about how the month actually went.
| Distance | 123.1 km |
|---|---|
| Days run | 23 days |
| Rest days | 8 days |
| Easy : hard | 51 : 49 |
| vs 2026-06 | +11.4 km / +2 days |
| Races | 3 |
What the training looked like: the mix of sessions and how the weeks went
Uta trained 23 days in July and rested 8, covering 123.1km in total, which works out to about 5.4km on a typical training day. The month didn't run at one steady pace. The first week was lighter at 21.8km over 4 days, then jumped to 32.1km over 5 days the second week - that's also when she ran her longest single session of the month, a 9km jog on July 11. After that the weekly totals settled back down: 26.1km over 5 days, then 26.9km over 6 days. The final week was short and light, just 16.1km over 3 days, likely because it only covered part of the month and came right after a string of races.
Looking at session types, jogs were the most common at 10 sessions, followed closely by 9 interval sessions. She also did 2 pace runs and raced 3 times. That's a lot of interval work sitting alongside steady jogging, which lines up with a month that had real race goals in it.
Easy vs hard: what the split says about the month
The easy/hard split for July came out to 51% easy and 49% hard - close to even. That's notable given how much interval and race work she did. It suggests the easy jogging, including that long 9km jog on July 11, was doing real work to balance out the harder sessions rather than just filling in the gaps.
For a month with 9 interval sessions and 3 races, a near 50/50 split means the hard days weren't piling up on top of each other without recovery in between. It's the kind of balance a parent likes to see on paper, even without knowing exactly how each day felt to run.
Races and marks, including any personal bests
Uta raced three times in July, all in the back half of the month. On July 20 she ran 800m at OTT in 2:41.09, a personal best, improving from her previous mark of 2:45.93. Then on July 25 she ran a 1500m road race at the Hakuba Snow Harp ekiden (a road relay where team-mates pass a sash) in 6:04.00. The next day, July 26, she ran a 1km road race in the Hakuba Snow Harp parent-child event, finishing in 3:45.00.
Three races in six days is a lot to ask of any young runner, and the fact that the 800m PB came right before the other two races says something about how she was holding up through that stretch.
Looking at next month - only what the numbers support
Compared to June, Uta trained 2 more days in July (23 vs 21) and covered 11.4km more distance (123.1km vs 111.6km). Both numbers moved in the same direction, which is a reasonable sign for a month that also included three races.
The final week of July was her lightest of the month, just 16.1km over 3 days. Whether that was a planned step-down after the race stretch or simply the calendar running out isn't something the numbers can say. Either way, it's a fair place to watch from going into August.
A new 800m best and three races in one month is plenty for any 11-year-old to carry. I'm glad the easy days were there too.