The return

was rocky. I've been avoiding writing about it because I wanted to give it a couple days. I'm good now, so I can report!

The first run was ok. Nothing terrible, nothing wonderful. All at the same time it was fantastic to get out there and finally run, and it felt like I hadn't taken any time off. That was 4 whole miles. Easy pace.

The next day was 5 miles. It sucked. I got up and ran before work, and while I normally love that, I was wishy-washy about the 4:30am wake-up and that spilled into the run. My first 2 miles were loops around my development and I almost quit after the second loop. Not even a mile into the run, my left leg felt like dead weight. No shooting pains, but definite aches the length of my leg. It was really uncomfortable and I seriously had tears in my eyes at one point. I'm not sure if it was stupidity or stubbornness or what, but I fought through the discomfort and finished the 5.

Saturday was another easy 4, and then the same on Sunday. By the end of the weekend, I wasn't feeling any of that leg pain anymore, and I was running fine. Slow, but fine. Long run of 7 yesterday, and a short, recovery 3 today. I'm also fitting in some biking and swimming on the shorter run days. So far, so good.

Right now D has me running 6 days a week, with most of the runs at easy pace. I'll hit the track for some short speed stuff on Friday. He's doing the plan 2 weeks at a time, so I have a similar schedule for next week, and then I'll see what's in store after that...

I get nervous with all the easy running -- I don't like feeling like my body is too accustomed to the easy pace -- but I'm trusting D. I run better when someone (smarter, wiser, more experienced) is guiding my training. I'm ready to improve my running. I like having a "coach" of sorts. I'm not very good at keeping at the easy pace, but I'm doing it.

The return was a little rocky, but ultimately, I'm hoping the 10 days off will pay off in the long run.