Long run?

As of now my schedule entails a long run on Saturdays. Tomorrow I'm looking at about a 5 miler, which at this point last year was the minimum length I would run for any run I went out on. Funny, now that I am coming back from injury I am approaching this with a little trepidation. On Wednesday I ran 3 miles straight for the first time in nearly 3 months. It was a scary but thrilling experience and all the while I kept thinking to myself, "when is the hip going to give out on me?" Thankfully it didn't and I managed sub-9 minute miles, which did wonderful things for my confidence.

Tomorrow I will approach it with caution. I will probably run 2 miles, walk a few minutes, run 2, walk and finish the last mile. It seems like a good conservative plan that should serve me well. I sure hope it's snowing again like it was earlier this week. Running on the cushiony snow doesn't seem to aggravate things as much.

This is all of course hoping that I am feeling well tomorrow. I was struck by my first cold of the season today. A little bit of a runny nose and just a real thick feeling in the head that was just punishing me all day during work. So I skipped my swim in favor of a nap. I figure there's no real need to punish myself this early in the season. I also wonder if its a coincidence that this hit as I worked a 50 hour week and put in my highest training volume since August or so.

I'd like to think that I'll have this thing beat into submission tomorrow. If not, a good ride and run always seem to do the trick ;)