It's all goood!

Run type: Mid aerobic (aerobic maintenance)
Distance: 16.25 km (to and from Komazawa Park, three laps + 2 km around home)
Average pace: 4:30/km
Average heart rate: 140
Weather: Fine (14 C)
Sleep: seven hours

This was a really encouraging run in two ways: One, my leg/hip was not at all sore for the first few km and then only ever got mildly uncomfortable -- I knew it was there, but it never interfered with my running effort. Two, I just felt really fresh, and my legs in general felt fresh and ready to run. There was none of the initial labored effort to get going that I have felt at this stage of the week for so long now. I guess it just shows that I have been constantly running without being fully recovered. But as I have only run once in the last three days and been taking Ibuprofen morning and night, things are starting to come good. No doubt I'll be climbing the walls after a couple of weeks of tapering.

So I got into a good rhythm quite early and ran to the park at an average of 4:53/k, which was probably post 5:00/k early and 4:30/k by the time I got there. Then once I hit the circuit I didn't really have to make any special effort to up the pace or anything and then gradually went from a heart rate in the mid 130s to low 140s (78% HRmax) and then for a while even touching on 150 (81%) during a couple of the uphills. Pace varied between 4:07/k on a couple of the downhills and up to 4:20/k for the first uphill and for the leg from the park back to home. Otherwise 4:10/k to 4:15/k was typical. All of this felt like a firm and decent effort, but comfortable. When I got home I realized I'd run one lap less at the park than I'd intended so then ran two one-km loops around the block at just under 5:00/km pace (70% HRmax) for 16 km.