I've been unintentionally growing my beard in since about the time of my injury. At some point I decided it was going to grow until I was running consistently again. I am not ready to claim the battle won over the injury, but I was ready to shave it off when I got home this evening. But before I could shave it all off, I decided to channel my inner Pre…

So do I keep it or shave it all off? Of course Julie says that it needs to be shaved off before I go to work—that I’ll never live it down, but that doesn’t really bother me.

It’s no better or worse than my attempt at growing in a full beard in the first place. And I once wore a goatee for a few years straight, so it’s not like they’ve not seen me with facial hair. I know, it is silly, but that just might be why I keep it for a couple of days.

Running Notes

As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve begun easing back into running. In addition to my first run on the 4th, I also ran 2 quick miles on the 5th, after an upper-body strength training session, and I went out for 3 miles last night.

Since I’m not putting in anything close to the volume that I was running prior to the injury, these sessions have been run at a little faster pace than my typical easy run pace. Saturday’s 2-mile run averaged 8:38/mile, and last night’s 3-mile run averaged 9:03/mile.

Overall, I felt  good during both runs, though I experienced some tightness around mid-thigh. I am continuing to do IT Band stretches after my runs, and I’m using a foam roller daily. I also added the glute machine, and the abductor/adductor machine to my lower-body strength training.