Coming back after a long time off always sucks

I hate starting to come back after a long time off. I took 3 months off with my injury this fall. When I finally started running, I had an extremely short time before Phoenix, so I wasn't trying to get back to my ideal stride, I was just trying to cross the finish line without hurting myself again. I am pretty sure in the 4 weeks I trained for Phoenix, I didn't run a single mile below 10 minute pace, as my goal was distance, not speed.

Now that I have some time before my next major race, I want to start working on getting back to my regular race pace. It's been a bit of a challenge, as it always is, when trying to get back into the groove after taking a long time off.

I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel, though. This past weekend, I ran five miles, and today I ran six. Both runs came out to an average pace of around 9:30/mi.

So slowly, but steadily, I am starting to see some progress, which is helping to chase away the discouragement...