So last night my hip was still bugging a little, but not nearly as bad as it was the night previous. I think taking a day with lower mileage really helped. Also I had Paul give me a massage per the good advice of Josse. Having your spouse try to give you a sports massage can be either a lesson in long suffering and patience or it can be a riot, and it was the latter. I eventually grabbed him in the hip with my fingertips to show him what he was doing. It was good fun. Although I ran less yesterday, I didn't cut out our boogie boarding, which was SOO SOOO fun. I think it was funner than the snorkling. We went to Hapuna Beach, the most violent beach on the big island, with an average of just over 1 spinal injury a year, so our odds were still good. I rode about 9 waves all the way in. Some were pretty scary, but it was good fun. I did have a calf freeze up on me while a wave crashed on me, a regular charlie horse type cramp. Then it happened again less severely, so I took a rest and went out again after I felt stronger. I did a corkscrew type flip under water during one wipe out, but that was the most dangerous body contortion that happened. I know that this ocean stuff isn't the best thing to be doing when I am half injured, but I really did have a great time and I don't think my hip suffered much from it.
So I didn't to my tempo yesterday because of my pain the night before. I wanted to do it this morning, but knew I had to get my hip's permission. So I warmed up slowly as I have been doing. Mile 1 was 9:36, some pain, not worse than prior days while warming up. Mile 2 8:46, not feeling like I can go faster because I am still warming my hip up, still some pain through 1.5 miles, but slowly feeling normal. Mile 3 8:03, feeling ok, then take a potty break in the lava rock surrounding the highway. The lava rock is extremely uneven and will cut you up really easily. The highway I am running on is a 55 mph road, so people are going even faster when they can. There are lots of cars on it and there is plenty of wind this morning. I Start the tempo at almost 3.5, plan to turn around after 2 then keep going. I am hoping to hit 6:25's, which is goal 1/2 marathon pace, but I am not quite feeling strong at the start.
Mile 1 - 6:47, this first mile is so hard, hard to get in a rhythm, feeling unnaturally difficult for the pace, I am wondering if I should be doing this workout at all, I am adjusting my expectations for the workout, thinking I will just have to make it a marathon pace tempo and just try to negative split
Mile 2 - 6:36, this mile is slightly downhill, feeling stronger but it is still taking all my effort to slip below 6:40 pace, I am thinking to just try to keep in the 6:30's at this point
3 - 6:34, turnaround and slight uphill, was maintaining a faster pace for a while but had to crest a hill and thus didn't negative split too well
4 - 6:12 baby! I start toying with a faster pace in this mile and it takes a while to realize I can actually maintain it. It didn't feel that much harder than the first three miles, in fact I would say the effort was pretty similar
5 - 6:13 baby!
6 - 6:08
7 - 6:03, this last mile was tough, I was tired and had to negative split the last half mile to get under 6:10
7 mile tempo - ave pace 6:22 BABY!, I can't believe I hit my goal with such a slow start. I guess this means I am a true marathoner if it takes me 6 miles or so to warm up. Part of that is my injury, I think, but it is still interesting. If I take off the first 3/4 mile and calculate my 10K in this work out it comes out to a 39:30 according to my calculation, so that is a PR effort for sure.
I finished up with one last jog by the ocean through the resort. The waves are crashing bigger today and it is so beautiful and the oceanic sounds are musical.
I went to a buffet breakfast and ate good and bad, including and exotic donut with macadamia nuts and chocolate sauce. Sorry Sasha.
Asics. | 
