Spring Fever

The arrival of the glorious "+" in front of the temperature along with the melting of the snow has given me some spring fever. Specifically...spring fever to get back out and rejoin my running group friends for some runs!
Although I've been keeping fit over winter with indoor strength training, I know this "running fit" is different than "other fit". As such, my first run back I wanted to keep it really, really easy. My plan was to join in with either the 5k or 10k group, and do no more than 5k total.
I met up with the 10k leader who was doing 3-4k of intervals. That sounded easy! A warm-up, a cool down, and 6 sets of 1 min run, 1 min walk. Nobody said I had to do a FAST interval, right?
It ended up being just the two of us, and let me say that the leader and I were in two very different levels of running fitness.
Me: first run back since October. Which is a whole 5 months ago!
Him: currently in training to complete over 30 races this year, which will culminate in the 300-mile winter Yukon Arctic Ultra along the former dog-sledding tracks.

In the first km warm-up I wondered if I hadn't made a terrible mistake by joining in with him. Maybe the 5k group would have been more my pace...?
But fortunately for me, he was pretty easy going about everything. The intensity of his training regime meant he'd already been on his own trail run before he met up with the group. So when the time came to decide on whether we wanted to turn around for a 3.5k completion or push further for a 5k loop, he didn't argue when I insisted on making it 3.5k! Despite the easy pace and interval running, I was pretty tired by that point.

I'm getting older, I know! I remember a time when I planned for a 12k and wound up doing 19.5k instead. But maybe I'm also getting wiser, and learning to ease back into running after a break rather than taking a giant, flying leap into the unknown with a loud "boo-yeaaaaaaaahhhh!"

Either way, I'm back at it!
For now.