Two weeks to go

Run type: RacePace
Distance: 18.5 km (to Yoyogi park from Yoyogi Uehara sento and return + a number of laps of warming up and race pace in the park)
Weather: Fine (14 C)
Sleep: seven hours

On Tuesday night I sat up and filled in my Excel running log in advance to try and find the right balance between rest and running over the next two weeks. It involves a couple of hard runs over the next week, but more rest and easier runs than in recent weeks, then cutting back distance dramatically in the final week.

Last night was the first of the planned runs. I had it marked in as 16 km with 10 km at target race pace (4:07/km). It ended up being more than that. About 18.5 km with a shade under 12 being at race pace. As with so many pace runs, I ran too fast (4:02/k) for the first couple of laps (a lap is 1.94 km). The third lap, as I tried to back off from going too fast, ended up a bit slow, but then I pretty much nailed the pace for the next three laps. The heart rate data were good and in fact it was easy to match pace and heart rate (as a percent of max) throughout. When I was right on pace my heart rate was about 82%. Towards the end of the run this became more like 84%, so there was some cardiac drift. Still, I am operating at target pace well below 90% of HRmax, so I have a fair chance of being able to sustain that pace long into the race. I guess this also means that this run served as an upper aerobic conditioning workout as well.

My leg and hip were totally comfortable for the first two laps, became noticeable in the third (hip only) and by the sixth the hamstring area was hurting too. Not too serious, but enough to know to keep plenty of emphasis on rest (so why did I run the extra lap?). Colin taught me an exercise called the clam, where you lie on your side and, while keeping your knees bent at 30 degrees, raise only the uper knee to 45 degrees while keeping the pelvis perfectly still -- so it is like a clam opening and closing. It apparently helps strengthen an important stabilising muscle, the gluteus medius. Problems from weak stabilzers are supposedly very common in runners who present with the sort of problems I have, so I'll get stuck into these and hope it helps. It is a bit late in the piece to expect too much, but it won't do any harm.

Complete rest today (except for clam exercises)!! I'm feeling the symptoms of a mild cold, so hope the vitamin C keeps it at bay.