First day back in training, and it seemed the whole world (my running world, anyway) was welcoming me back. All the symbols and meaningful icons that hold memories and motivation for me were there: 3 hot air balloons over the snowcapped Indian Peaks, paw-prints by coyotes on the dirt trail, a bald eagle overhead, a couple of hawks training their little one to fly and dive, a snake by the lake, and even the "invisible plane" (a crop-dusting farmer who is sometimes out flying low in the mornings...but I can never see him because he's down in the valley below the ridge). Although it took me a good 25 minutes of plodding before I felt like I had any rhythm or coordination, I eventually got my legs under me and my lungs felt good too. I ran 8 minutes, walked 60 seconds, and repeated that interval throughout the run. There was a period of about 5 minutes after about the first 30 minutes where I felt some pain in the ligament on the inside of my left ankle, but it went away just as quickly as it came. I went out with the goal of running 60 minutes, and had a rough idea of how far I'd go. However, I found myself just a bit short of one of my old turnaround points at the 30-minute mark. So, I went an extra 5 minutes to my old turnaround, and just figured I'd make up the time on the way back because I was feeling better. Soon, I realized that I wouldn't be as close to home at 60-minutes as I hoped I would...if I continued on my out-and-back course. So, I made a bit of a detour to take a more direct route home...trying to finish somewhere near the house at 60 minutes. A half-mile away would be a good cool-down walk, but I didn't want to be walking a mile or more to get home after finishing my 60-minute run. It turns out my detour was just about perfect. I hit the 60-minute mark about a quarter-mile from home, and had a nice cool-down walk to the house. The detour also made my run almost exactly 10K (it was 9.96K), which means my avg. pace was a 10-minute mile. Not bad for my first "long run", especially since that includes my 60-second walk-breaks about once a mile. So, I'm back, and building back up to my 4th marathon in Seattle, November 25th! | 
