Ow! That hurts !?

I'm afraid that I must have spoken too soon and jinxed myself. At least I've been given a good scare to make me realize how tenuous our hold on good health and fitness can be.

It all started with Sunday's long run with Andrew on our regular Boyden Lake loop. We met at the usual 6:30 time but this week started at the Farmer's Market in Perry which is normally our 1/2 way point. It was a nice sunny morning with the sun just starting to come up and the temperature was reasonable at -1C and little wind. We had a really nice run at what seemed to be a moderate to easy pace and after the main 17 mile loop had a quick pitstop at the van for drinks before adding 4 miles on the Sipayik trail to completely finish us off. It was very quiet the last few miles and I arrived at the cars in a heap. All I could say from my HOK position at the end was "It doesn't get any easier Andrew!" (21 miles in 2:51, 8:04 pace). Andrew's reply as he wolfed down the offered homemade chocolate brownies was typical: "Yeah, but we're running them faster now too". I spent the rest of the day at home, totally spent, mostly in the horizontal position, watching NCAA basketball and trying to recover. But no obvious aches and pains beside the usual general exhaustion.

Monday - just the usual rest day. The log says 'tired but otherwise ok'. Yeah, right!

Tues - I've been fiddling with my taper plan which is right out of Pfitzinger and trying to whittle away a few miles here and there so my weekly total will come down to something in the 60's. Today's run started on the plan at 8 but then got chopped to 6 with a few strides to remind the legs of future action. However, it didn't even get to that. The run was just an easy warmup and then I met up with a local beginner running group for a jog around Indian Point. It was nice to run with a group but the pace was more than a little too slow with a feeling of more running in place than striding out at all. Towards the end of the group run I began to get little niggly complaint from my hip area. I then headed off back home to finish my 6+ miles but barely managed more than a fast jog to finish. That evening I was limping around for no apparent reason. What the?

Weds - woke up with a very sore left hip area which felt like I'd fallen and bruised the muscle on the outside of my hip/butt area. Popped a few ibuprofen (which I never do) and limped off to work. The day's run of 9 miles with 5 at 1/2 marathon pace was looking to be a bit of a problem with this very sudden change in my health. Just to make things more interesting the wind decided it might be good idea to blow any remaining debris out of the woods. I figured the only way to counteract the effects of the 50-60k winds was to head into them and then attempt to run the faster part of the run on the return leg (or at least on one leg). The run started slowly with the hope that the leg and hip would warm up and not be an issue. It was a false hope and my dull ache was with me for the entire run. Not bad enough to stop me from running but enough to bother me and slightly change my stride. After the turn around the attempt at tempo was on the miserable side with barely 7:15's as a result. Cut the run short at 8 miles with only 4 tempo and immediately went to a limping walk. Arrggg! That night the hip was very sore and could not even sleep on that side. I have no idea where this came from. All I can point to is a lack of any stretching or core work regimen but it's a little late for that.

Thurs- bit of a sleepless night because I prefer to sleep on that (sore) side. Popped some more ibuprofen and seemed to improve slightly during the day. The weather with gale force winds continued so I went with an easy treadmill run tonite. Just 5 easy miles at 8:30 or so pace wearing the Boston race day shoes. This time the running seemed to improve the leg/hip and felt better as the run went on.

Now a few hours later it's almost completely gone, just a slight background noise that I can barely notice. Very strange and a bit scary at this point so close to the goal. Perhaps a bit of regular stretching each night as we watch the news is on the menu instead of extra ice cream?

Good running and take care!