With no heart pain for over two weeks now, tonight I took my first mild form of exercise in
nine long weeks, taking my trusty dog Bella for a brisk(ish) walk around one of my 5km circuits. This gave me a chance to re-evaluate my running goals, and given that I must return to it slowly and gradually, I will aim to just enjoy my running and build a solid base of shorter distances (5, 10 km) for a few months before even thinking about training for any longer races. This will also give me the chance to reverse my tendancy over the last year to run slower, which is probably just a consequence of pushing onto further distances.
This, of course, is all based on the asusmption that the pericarditis that has knocked me out of running for the last two and a bit months has finally vanished. I won't really know until my first couple of runs. We're in the middle of our first summer heat wave at the moment ( three days of 37 degrees C... 98 F so far ) but relief is forecast for Tuesday, so another walk tomorrow (Monday) and then a tentative, short run on Tuesday seems to be the go.
In the meantime, I've seen all those races I had worked into my training schedule come and go, and with the athletics season officially over now (to avoid the heat of summer) there's little to aim for race-wise, at least locally, until February. But I can aim at least to get back to some respectable training distances, and to shed the 6kg of belly I've accumulated since falling sick.
So that's the plan. Hardly exciting, but I aim to at least enjoy it.
Some sad news from here - my beloved Anstey Hill near my home was burnt out in a bad bushfire two days ago. It is now a sad, black ruin. It is likely to stay that way now until autumnal rains in a few months time. Ah well,
c'est la vie 
Recovery Street
