Getting back to fitness

I've heard it said that it's easier to stay fit than it is to become fit.  I completely agree with this statement as I am fighting my way back to fitness following what's best described as a mixed season.  When I started this blog all those years ago, I really intended it to be a journal for me to look back on.  The good, the bad and the ugly and over the period there has been a mix of all of those elements.  When I am struggling or out on long training days I can keep my mind occupied but thinking about what I am going to write.  It also motivates me to get through the pain barrier and "man up" when I'm struggling, due to too much "chimp" in my head, because I don't want to write about failure.  If I do have to write about failure (DNF Aberfeldy 70.3 2012) then I want to remember why it happened and learn from it.  Aberfeldy resulted in me taking up yoga which is what got me through the Marathon des Sables the following year.
On Tuesday I started the day with a fantastic yoga class.  Due to my foot injury the instructor decided to work on feet so I am sure I'll feel the benefit if I keep up the exercises.  On Tuesday night I went to our weekly torture swimming.  Each week it gets tougher and our coach put us through our paces.  It's tough but I know it's essential to help get my aerobic fitness back.
I was going to take it easy with the running but couldn't resist the offer of one lap at Chatelherault.  The first problem I had was I turned up with a trail shoe on my left foot and a running shoe on my right foot!  Unbelievable so after some severe piss taking and photos we headed off.  The second problem was that due to the company I was running with, I set the pace too fast.  So on the second half of the lap I died.  I struggled to the end of the lap and the chimp was working overtime in my head.  I came in a couple of minutes behind my running partners and felt dreadful.  I sulked off home and took a roller to the instep of my feet to ease the tension (not caused by the shoes - this is now part of my warm down routine).
This morning I decided to repeat the run to see how I felt - couldn't get any worse!  We'd agreed to go slow but as it was only a lap but there was a bit competition between my pals and we did a 48 minute lap in 45:30.  The last mile was tough and I had to dig in as the 425 ft of climbing takes it out of you.  But I pushed on and although I felt sick within minutes of finishing I was fine. This has convinced me that I need a couple of short runs in during the week to be capable of running bigger distances at the weekend and build it from there.  It has also convinced me to withdraw from the Strathaven 10k on Sunday next week as it doesn't fit in with my training plan or goals for next year.  My fitness isn't up to a flat out 10k and I don't want to risk injuring myself.  I know what I need to do to get back to a decent level of fitness and it's now just down to hard work.  Bring it on.