Nothing rings in a new training cycle like my alarm blaring at 4:30 a.m. on a Monday morning.

Lucky for me I only had four miles on the training schedule and it wasn't too freezing cold outside. After about a mile I had warmed up rather comfortably.

Unfortunately my right leg never got the memo that it was supposed to warm up too and from about mile 1.5 on I had nagging knee pain similar to what I experienced in the marathon.

Not the best way to kick off a new training cycle.

After almost a month off running and instead focusing on cross training to give my legs I break, I wasn't expecting to have any problems coming back to running. Needless to say I was quite frustrated when I got home this morning.

My plan of attack is to spend some quality time each day with my foam roller to loosen up my IT band. I'm hoping the combo of foam rolling and an additional focus on stretching I'll be able to keep training.

More details on my training plan coming tomorrow.