World Championships Women\’s Marathoner Shigetomo: \“My Goal is Top Eight\“ – Brett Larner – Japan Running News

Since the end of May Shigetomo has done two training camps in Shobara, running on a cross country course as she focused on base mileage. With the trouble she experienced with her right heel last year having improved, the training went off without problems. "Before my marathons up to now I haven't been able to do the right mileage [due to injuries] but this time I've been getting in the tough training," she said.

Shigetomo will now begin to focus on speed training. At the open training session she did three 1000 m repeats. "I want to sharpen up," she said. "Right now I'm tired and not moving well, but I'm excited to see where things go from here."

The 29-year-old is running on the Japanese national time for the third time, having run at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2015 Beijing World Championships. This year's World Championships will bring her back to city where she finished near the bottom of the Olympic field. "I'm a lot more experienced now than I was then, " she said. "In terms of how I'm feeling, I'm calm. I'll be ready for whatever kind of race it ends up being."

Shigetomo said that she expects to run a time of 2:25~26. In preparation for London she will run the July 2nd Hakodate Half Marathon to sharpen her racing edge. After that she will head to the U.S.A. for a month of altitude training, going straight from there to the World Championships.

source article: https://www.sanyonews.jp/article/553911

translated by Brett Larner