How I miss the warm sunlit am runs

Last night we were driving home from dinner down the road that takes us to our neighborhood and I had a flashback to running down that road during sunrise on a warm summer morning. It made me long for the warm weather even more. I imagined myself there in that time just running just me and the road and the sun rising. Those am's are lovely and peaceful and warm. This summer with the myriad of health problems I had, I was still able to get some of those runs in, but not nearly as many as I wish I had. I am hoping this summer is different. When the winter depresses me from this moment until it ends, I am going to imagine myself back there on that road just running. The occasional car goes by. Sometimes I will see someone in their yard grabbing the paper or making sure that the sprinkler system is working right. I miss those days so much. So, so much.
I rowed further today than I have in over a year probably. I feel strong; maybe that is why I was able to. For months I have been dealing with my right gluteal muscle tensing up as I row. Sometimes it hurts so much that I can only eek out 3000 meters on days when I row 4000 meters. Jason, my wonderful physical therapist, gave me some strength exercises for the left side since he thinks it is an issue with left side core weakness. I do the hip exercises, stretches, now planks, and everything else he recommends without fail every day but Friday which is my day off from those. Finally today, that muscle tensed about 3000 meters in and then slowly released. It was like magic. I like to do 5000 meters on Saturdays and with that pain on the right side, I usually just deal with it as best I can, but it released and at about 4000 meters it was completely gone. If I saw Jason in the grocery store today, I would seriously just walk up to him and hug him. I wanted to row more than I did, but I have a chaffing issue that I need to address first and I am pretty sure that is something Jason cannot fix. It felt amazing to go as far as I did. Just amazing. A good physical therapist makes all of the difference in the world!