1km = No pain - and so the long road back begins...

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond after another GREAT DAY in the Mother Country. First off, I simply must give a shout out to Christine "World Wide" Weber for her dedication to making my blog a bit more "Six Sigma." Christine has now applied metrics to my blog, montioring my "critical to quality" items that readers most care about. 9 months on, I present the findings she shared with me today:

1. Daily Update Frequency (henceforth called the "Tom Price" metric)

Target = 100%

Actual = 67.4%

2. Misspelled words

Target = 0

Actual = 167

C-Web - I'm wondering when we start tracking beer and calorie intake. JT and I should be far enough off the charts to warrant consideration for a reality show.

Moving to the day, it started in GREAT fashion. After 60 minutes on the bike, I stepped off, turned around, and walked toward an old friend - the treadmill. Separated by 5 months of pain and agony (I know, I know - SOOOOO dramatic - just go with it here, I'm sensitive damn it), I had no way of knowing how this long awaited reunion would end - in togetherness and relief, or in pain and the realization that things might never return to what they had been. Realizing that a long time had passed since we'd last spoken, I thought it best to take things slow. And so I stepped onto the apparatus and pushed "Quick Start."

For 5 minutes, it was just a steadily increasing walk - nothing more. But when I hit the .5km mark, I knew it was now or never. Ratcheting up to just over 10km per hour, I took a final deep breath before the big step. And then, as time stood still my left foot left the tread.

BOOM - the first landing was good. No, better than good - natural. And so was the second. And the third. And suddenly, almost in an instant, I was back to form, back to running, all right with the world. Was I worried a bit the entire time? Absolutely. Did the foot hurt at all? Absolutely not.

I only logged 1.5km on the treadmill today, and just a single click of that running. That being said, I feel like I just finished the Ironman. Honestly, running is SUCH a release for me - from work stress, from concerns about my ticker, from my ever present spare tire - you name it. I know that I've got a long way to go and that I can't come back too quick. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel again...and it feels good.

The work day was great - lots of progress on a lot of big items. We're getting close, and you can feel the pressure starting to build. Call me sick, but I LOVE it.

Not a lot else went down - Muffin Puffin just got back from a blistering display in the pool, and now we're preparing for some more salad. I think I'll throw in a marmite sandwich as well for good measure, and there might even be some pasta in there (after all, I'm a runner now :-)).

Okay, that's all the news that's fit to print. Chat tomorrow!

Love,

Sam and Jenny