When fear is unfounded

After three days of training pretty hard, I programmed a fairly easy day today.

Had to get up and drive a friend to the airport very early, so came home and went back to bed until I woke up (I am embarrased by what time that was). Anyway, back to training.

Today was my first run day in over two months. The February surgery put a real damper in my plans. I had managed to get back into the water and out on the bike about two weeks earlier than I thought I could. But I was afraid to run too soon. I figured all the up-down motions would really cause some hurt and/or trauma to my healing intestines.

I figured an easy 5 kilometers was a good place to start; I also figured an easy pace would be around 5 minutes per kilometer. I plugged myself into my ipod and went with no expectations.

Right out my front door is the beginning of a 5K loop around the campus of the University of Victoria. I started my watch to time me, just out of curiosity; there was no plan to maintain a particular pace.

The run felt ok for having been away for so long. I jogged the cobwebs out of my legs and then settled into a fairly comfortable zone. The next think I knew I was back at my starting point. I checked my watch: 20:40. I checked my watch again.

I am surprised because that pace is almost a minute per kilometer faster than I thought would be comfortable for me. I guess my fears about running were unfounded: no pain, no cramps, no discomfort, no lack of speed, and I felt like I could have carried on for another 5K at least.

I will follow this run up with a few more between now and this time next week, hopefully getting back into cruising my local 12K route as I was back in January.

There is a big 10K race here next weekend - over 10,000 participants; that gives me 10 days to 'ease' into it. I guess I'll sign up with no expectations other than the pleasure of being back at it again!