Well folks. I did it. No one was home this afternoon and I got all my work finished so what better thing to do on a perfect-weather day than to go for a run. I actually laced up my Nikes, put on my Polar (I'll post that info on a previous thread about heart monitors) and hit the road. Not a bad run for having 9 month off of just regular walking. This is the second time I've taken time off from running to discover that regular, work-out style walking really does keep you fit. So much so that a return to running is very smooth. I think for the time being, I am going to suppliment my 10-15 mile walking weeks with 3 or 4 good 3 mile runs each week; at least for this season. Last season, running controlled me more than I controlled it. In an earlier post I stated my reasons for taking time off from the sport. But the real truth of the matter was I had fallen into incredible discouragement following the death of a life-long friend who was a diabetic. Stranger than fiction, after 50 years of careful control of his diabetes, in spite severe neuropathy, moderate eye problems, a recent heart attack and quad bypass, inproper settings on a brand new, replacement pump killed him. (Because of digestive problems, it was difficult to regulate properly.) This put me in a what's-the-use spiral. Those other reasons for me not running are very much true as I had stopped running 2 months before this tragedy, intending to rest only til this past spring. But this just made it almost impossible to return this season. I'm glad I made the effort to start posting again and to lace up today. Sorry for the gloom, guys, but sometimes it feels good to admit things that eat at us. Moral of this story is to take serious care of yourselves. Don't blow off doctor appointments, eye exams, quarterly bloodwork and seeing the dentist, and be careful with those pumps. john

Ouch. I am a touch sore today. I'm just going to walk today, not run. Did my usual 30 minute walk yesterday after my run as well and walked the Corning Glass Museum today with the family. The legs are sending me a little message that it's been a while. The CGM is quite a cool place. These are the same folks who invented Corningware for the kitchen, Owen-Corning fiberglass insulation and developed the use of fiberoptics so that we can enjoy gobs of bandwidth.