Below par

I didn't run yesterday, Monday, because well, it is really time to start tapering. And my hip was sore. Somehow I managed to accidentally run more than 90 km last week. I am not that worried about that except for these issues in my left leg/hip and the general bit of run-down feeling that I have. Gareth told me on Sunday that it was a mistake running 30 km, and Tesso registered some surprise. Really though, I don't think that distance in itself is a worry 11 days from the marathon because I am normally pretty much recovered by the Wednesday after a Sunday long run, and that includes with a reasonably hard run on Tuesday mornings. So I think my judgement was OK under normal circumstances, but given the bit of fatigue and back/hip niggles, maybe it would have been better to back off a bit. I checked my log from last year after hearing these comments and discovered that I ran 25 km 10 days out last year, so it is about on par I suppose.

I chose sleep over running this morning but took my gear to work. I took a few doses of Ibuprofen yesterday and the hip did feeI better today, even though other niggles are still hanging around. What I really need is a masseur on staff. Anyway, I managed to get out at lunch time and run just under 10 km. About 4 km of it varied from very slow (along the streets of Kojimachi, crowded as they were with lolling freshly-sated pedestrians) to easy. The other 5 km, a lap of the imperial Palace, I tried to maintain marathon pace. In general I think my heart rate was a little high for the pace. So whether it is running induced fatigue or lurgy-fighting induced fatigue I'm not certain. I still finished feeling fairly fresh though, so it is not all doom and gloom. All I know is that I have to try to get more rest and keep the length of my runs down. So tomorrow night I'll probably just aim for 12 km with maybe 8 km at tempo pace, provided I feel spritely and pain free.