It’s been nearly three months since my knee surgery, and two months since my last visit with the doctor. At that appointment, he encouraged to take it easy while I regained muscle strength and endurance. He also said that it would likely be a couple of months until I was able to return to running the same quality and quantity as I was pre-injury.

Heading the doctor’s advice, I’ve gradually built my mileage back up, mostly running every other day, and just easy or moderate runs. I’m now approaching 20 miles per week, on 4 days of running, and was able to run 7 miles yesterday. It certainly feels like things are finally getting back to normal!

As I start increasing my running above 20 miles per week, and I move beyond the 2-month window the doctor warned about, I’m beginning to thing about racing again. I know that I really need to continue rebuilding my base before adding speed work, and that my muscle strength and endurance still isn’t quite what it was before, but I’m getting the itch to race. And it’s starting to get warm out. I sure would love to get a 5K in before the heat really cranks up.