Slowly working back to fitness

It's been almost one week since I've resumed running "properly" again- since the Singapore Marathon, my runs have been limited mostly to indoor treadmill workouts of 30-45 minutes. Aerobically, I may have been in reasonable shape, but having run at the Lake Garden in the last week so, I know that I have some catching up to do. It takes such a long time to build up one's fitness, but it takes very little time to lose it. That was certainly evident when I resumed.

Met pm20 at Bukit Aman yesterday. Headed for a quick toilet break and bumped into 2 characters- Adam and Yaziz. Adam looked especially gaunt. He seems to have lost weight, at least 3kgs. He looked gaunt. I asked him if he has increased his mileage of late, but he claimed that his weight loss was due to depression and he was out of action for one month. Anyway we decided to to take my usual route (which Adam and Yaziz termed the "one and a half" route). The plan was to run 2 loops, which would have totalled close to 12k. Mind you it isn't an easy route. Plenty of killer slopes, but excellent for strength building. After the first loop, I was starting to labour. They were running at a pace which I found difficult to cope with. Sigh, have I lost so much fitness in 5 months? By the time we approached the Lake Club, Yaziz, Adam and pm20 were well ahead of me. I knew I couldn't keep up and decided to slow down. Instead of completing the full route, I turned off towards the Bird Park and back into the Bukit Aman carpark.

Chatted a little with Yaziz, Adam and pm20 before heading back to the apartment. Met up with an old friend for dinner, who's a part-time gym instructor at a well known gym.

Went to bed at 1230am and woke up feeling (strangely) fresh at 720am. This was despite not having a good sleep. Tossed and turned alot, and I never got the feeling that I fell into a deep sleep.

Legs are a tad sore, but will run today again at Lake Gardens.