Noix de Beurre: Mille-feuille

Went to Isetan, thinking I was going to Morozoff, but remembered why this shouldn't be a priority: they don't have fresh cake (I like baked cheesecake, but, like pound cake, it not the same as "fresh/raw" cake, in the Japanese sense). Also, I need to buy a full 1000 yen pie-sized cake, so I'd rather wait until I'm buying for more than just myself, although it is something that having leftovers would be okay, so it's always available as a backup plan when I can't get anywhere else.

Instead, I followed up on getting a different cake from Noix de Beurre, so I made the safe choice and got their Mille-feuille (540 yen), which they don't assemble until you order it. This was excellent as expected as well as being reasonably priced and convenient to obtain, so more evidence that this shop/counter is quite good.

The run was going to the Akasaka Palace course to see whether I could manage 12 km/h. So I lasted all of 8 days before breaking my promise not to run hard when it's 5 deg out. What can I say, running is addictive and makes me do crazy things. But this time I took a day of rest since my long weekend runs, so I'm expecting to be okay. I only know the 1 km and 2 km marks for the course, so it's hard to pace myself. Plus, the slopes are not evenly distributed, so the goal isn't to keep a steady pace, but get head on the first half and not lose too much on the uphill parts in the second half (although there is also some downhill again). Since I wasn't really confident that I could make it, I just tried to run as fast as I thought I could keep up the full 3.3 km, based on how hard I was breathing compared to when I was doing 13 km/h last week. This meant about 4'30'' for the first kilometer, and maybe 4'45'' for the second. In the end, I finished before the target 16'30'', at 15'29'', which is actually above 12.5 km/h, so it's not impossible that I could do 13 km/h some day, but it's not seeming very likely and trying is not a priority.

Just as full disclose, on the "rest day", actually I had to do a couple hours overtime and I got a half of a Baguette Meule (I think) from Le Petit Mec, which was definitely good break, but not my favorite of theirs.

Le Petite Mec: Baguette

No cake today, but I did stand in line at Le Petit Mec and managed to get half a baguette (140 yen) before they sold out this time. It was excellent, nice and chewy.

The run was a 12 km/h training run at Meiji Jingu Gaien, this time 6 laps, which is 50 m short of 8 km. The first lap was hard, as always, and yet checking every 100 m, I kept a constant pace then, and was still on track on the last one, when I was checking every 600 m. More than one lap, I speed up near the end, just in case, because my time was just a couple seconds from exactly 12.0 km/h, and I didn't want to loose the lap to a mishap. Was still okay on the last one, so I assume that I could keep this up for a 10K. Eventually, I'll test that at the 5 km moat course, though that's less flat. Pretty crowded now all the all the usual courses. Guess we're about a week out from the Tokyo Marathon.

(Thursday) Rest with Le Petit Mec

After running four days in a row, and with the typhoon making heavy-rain warnings, I didn't run Thursday or Friday. Thursday I made curry, so I bought this "rustic" baguette, one of several types they have, from Le Petit Mec on the first floor of Marui department store at Shinjuku Sanchome (across from Isetan). I'll put it on the map. I have not searched around, but this is the best place I now for baguettes.