Re-thinking the Plan

I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog yet, though most reading it will already be aware: I spent much of 2009 battling a pretty serious injury. My left hip basically seized right up, from the top of the quads all the way up into my abdomen. For months I was limping around the neighbourhood, and was off of running for awhile. I went to physio, which helped a little, but didn't find my real solution until January 2010 when I had a couple of IMS treatments (intra-muscular stimulation). That cleared it up enough that I was finally able to run without pain and start building my mileage again. Over the past 5 months it has been great, but periodically it will tighten up a bit, become sore for a few days, and then relax again. It hasn't been enough to concern me or make me back off the mileage, and goes away on its own.

But this week it has been a little more tight, and a little more sore, and it's making me nervous. It's not bad--I have been running and walking fine--but it twinges and isn't relaxing. Most likely it is reacting to my increased mileage, and the 50k I did a couple of weeks ago.

At this point in my training, the last thing I want to do is get re-injured. My risk tolerance is really low, and I really don't want to screw this up.

So I think I need to take another look at my plan for the next 2.5 weeks until taper. I had planned two more 50k runs, but I might drop this week's, and level out a bit for this week and next, just to be on the safe side. A part of me feels like that's wussing out... but I'll just remind myself that I've enough miles under my belt to finish the race; missing it because I pushed too hard would be much worse than easing off a bit right now.

Thoughts?