Back on the road again... again

I was running along my usual route on Bignonia Street Sunday when a friend pulled out of his driveway.

"Five miles an hour, not bad," he said as he rode along in his pickup truck.

"Considering I just had gall bladder surgery 10 days ago, I'll take it," I replied before wishing him a nice day.

Getting back on the road after major invasive surgery is an uphill battle. You start way below the level you were at just a week or two earlier, not realizing what a toll the procedure and laying in bed for a week recuperating had on your muscles, your lung capacity, your endurance. It sucks.

I was running at a sub-9 minute training pace right up to the day I went in for outpatient surgery. Sunday I was at a 12-minute pace.

The good news: it doesn't take long to bring the time down again. After one week of running I'm back to a 10:30 pace and hope to bring it down even further when I go out on Saturday for a long run.

On the plus side, I'm about 10-12 pounds thinner thanks to the post-surgery low-fat diet.

As T. Singh of Cornershop sang, "It's good to be on the road back home again, again."

And now, to cheese things up with some good ol' REO Speedwagon: