Woot! Maybe my training clock does not roll all the way back to the “never ran more than 3 miles” days. This morning, I got a very comfortable 6 miler in. That is farther than I have gone since likely back in October 2006. It’s a bonus as I have not run since last week, having planned to do some yesterday when I was in Austin for a short business trip. But the weather there yesterday morning was hard rain, and my location at a cheap hotel near the airport left few options beyond a busy highway and the local muddy roads through the neighboring trailer park.

So I set out this morning on a route that could have provided me a shorter out an back, or my longer favorite loop- heading east to Pima road, north taking advantage of the shade provided by the wall separating Pima from the neighborhood, west along the canal, and looping back home through Chaparral Park.

Not only was it a decent run, the time for this one was pretty much in range for previous runs of this route. it can only get better, eh?

Did you know... Johnny Cash, legendary country singer, known as "the man in black" was diabetic (from Diabetes Health Magazine)
See more diabetic facts...

I ought to have gotten up early today.. Phoenix in June is the dry toasty time of year. But I lounged in bed to the late hour of 7 (weekdays the alarm is 5:10am), read the paper, took care of some home chores.

So I decided at 11am to hear out and again softtly test the running legs. Just some laps around Chaparral Lake, maybe with some fast intervals.

So yeah, at 11am it was definitely above 100 degrees, and the trail was pretty quiet. The smart folks were either inside or in the shade. The left leg felt good, and I managed about 2 or 3 short 100 yard or so speed bursts. But I was pretty worm after th ene lap (1.5 miles) so called it a day. People are saying take it slow, so this was a matter of testing the leg, testing the mental state, testing the heat (repeat after me. “ITS A DRY HEAT” - so is your oven, ok?)

Going slow, going slow, going slowly.

With one painless slow run in this week, I’m not about to haul off and pound the pavements too hard yet, so this morning I took the bike out for an hour’s ride, taking care of a bank deposit as well. Again, no pain at all, on a lovely morning cruise up the Indian Bend bike trail to just north of Shea Avenue and back.

Ready to run again tomorrow.

After a long, long, LONG, long, long hiatus from almost all activity, propelled by a heavy work travel schedule, something big happened today.

I ran.

And there was zero pain in my shin anywhere. Even later.

Cured? Not a chance. But a bit optimistic? Heck yeah.

So I am again at a starting point, hoping maybe, just maybe to get a few summer 5ks in. And then we’ll see what happens.

I even got cross training today as our truck is in the body shop (a long story about me, a metal pole, and several thousand in body work), I had to ride my back up to the hardware store to get a new kitchen faucet.

What a day!