What in the hell am I doing?

I officially kicked off my latest 1/2 Marathon training schedule last night.  I had unofficially kicked it off the prior week, but last night was the first evening that I jogged in about 2 months.  The reason for the delay (besides my love-hate relationship with running)?  Well, my knees were a tad pissed off at me after my first 1/2 marathon, back in May.  They were so pissed actually, that they forced me to visit a sports medicine doctor, in order to have them checked out.  The Dr. diagnosed me with runner's knee, probably caused by the fact that my knees hyperextend, which makes my knee caps move a bit more than they should.

The solution for this issue was a break from running, which was fine by my knees, and by me.  Instead of jogging, I used the elliptical machine, walked the mutt and continued cross training with weights.  Since running and I weren't officially broken up, just on a break, this lovely arrangement inevitably had to come to an end.

Running and I went on our first date in months, last night.  Dr.'s orders were that I had to walk for 10 minutes, jog for 10 minutes and then walk for 10 minutes.  Nick had to force me I had to force myself into getting my butt off of the couch and into my running attire, after delaying the inevitable for as long as possible. 

Since this was a definite "wogging" situation, I took Chino along with me for support.  Chino runs on his own terms, and is typically more of a baby about it than I am, so we headed across the street, where I could let him run leash-less during the jogging portion.  In un-Chinolike fashion, he stayed within eyesight of me, even trotting along beside me for a few minutes.  Such behavior is usually beneath him.

As for the run, I was shocked that I wasn't huffing and puffing. I actually found myself getting into a bit of a rhythm and working up a good sweat at the same time.  Just as my knees began to protest, my 10 minutes were up and it was time to collect the mutt and do our 10 minute walk back home.  When I looked at my time and distance, I was pleasntly surprised to see that I had done a little more than 2 miles!  This is in line with a very beginners training program.

The dips in the end are where I had to stop and hook Chino back up to the leash and also where Chino decided that he had to mark a few trees on our way home.  As you can tell from the beginning, I had him going at a pretty decent pace.  All in all, a great first day back.  Running and I will be going out on our second date tomorrow morning, bright and early.  If all goes well, we'll head out for coffee afterward.