Mike Lowell is on a quest for normalcy.

After the Red Sox’ season came to an abrupt end with a three-game playoff sweep at the hands of the Angels, Lowell took 10 days of doing nothing remotely baseball related. The 35-year-old started the practice of going on Wednesday fishing trips, while spending time with his two young children, Alexis and Anthony.

That was Step One.

Now he is immersed in the second part of the process, which includes strengthening his surgically-repaired right hip, while focusing on baseball (not trade rumors) and what it will take to enter spring training with the kind of peace of mind that escaped Lowell for much of 2009.

But, as the third baseman points out, he is also a realist.

“I don’t know how normal anything is in our illustrious Red Sox Nation,” Lowell said from his South Florida home late Wednesday night.

“I’m motivated to have a good year. I want to prove to myself that I’m healthy enough to play a full season. I think last year was shy of 120 games, but I think there were 15 or 20 of them I should have been in there. That number might have been a little skewed. I don’t think I played any of the games 100 percent. I’m looking to at least play a few next year, and I’m pretty confident that I will.

“I just think going into spring training from the hip standpoint, I think my back was against the wall last year. I have a lot more leeway this year.”

With another offseason of rumors and projection swirling about, Lowell is bracing himself for yet another challenge, this one different from the one presented last December.

At this time a year ago, Lowell was in the early stages of his rehabilitation from surgery on a torn labrum in his right hip. He was also in the midst of trying to ignore the Red Sox’ courting of first baseman Mark Teixeira. (See WEEI.com Dec. 9 story: ‘Mike Lowell Focuses On Hip, Not Rumors’.)

Now, one year later, Lowell is making it a point once again to zero in on life outside the rumor mill, while trying to bring the health of his hip to another level, a state it hadn’t been since well before his operation.

“I feel like I’m getting a lot stronger and I think that it bodes well that I’ll be as healthy as possible for 2010 for an entire season,” Lowell said. “Last year I felt like I was under the gun a little bit trying to get ready for spring training to show I could be ready for Opening Day. It was something uncharted for me.

“I think one good thing is that the first time I had an explosive first step was in the postseason. I felt like I was moving around really well. I don’t know if it was because you have a game, and you rest, and you have a game and you have some more days off. But I don’t think I ever had the opportunity to work on strengthening. “

Just like last offseason, Lowell has put his workouts in the hands of his childhood friend, Ronnie Yacoub, who had sat in on the surgery in Oct., 2008 and has developed routine communication with Red Sox head trainer Mike Reinold.

The plan to get strength back into the hip that provided Lowell discomfort throughout ’09 started two weeks ago, when Yaboub would focus on the problem four days a week – two days using heavier weight, while the other pair reserved for more flexibility and lighter lifts.

The plan is for Lowell to head to Fort Myers with something he didn’t have for the entirety of ’09 – confidence in his right hip.

“Last year it was just a daily grind and the time I went on the DL (in late June) it got so inflamed that I had to go back to square one,” Lowell said. “Eighteen days isn’t really long enough to get any sort of strengthening going and see significant gains in that short of time. We’re not talking about days or weeks, we’re talking months where I can get the whole joint strong and get ready for the season.

“A few weeks ago I really started getting into exercises that strengthen the whole leg and not just seeing if it can resist some bands for a set of 10. I think it’s a totally different scenario than it was.”

As he previously noted, no amount of preparation will guarantee Lowell’s baseball life will go back to what it was. A sign of his acceptance that change might be on the way is a willingness to play a position, first base, he has manned just four times (in the minors during the 1999 season) in his professional baseball career.

It might, or might not, be an option, with the Red Sox infield defense alignment having yet to be defined.

“I wouldn’t rule it out, absolutely not,” he said. “I’m a realist. If they think that makes us a better defensive team, that’s fine. I don’t have a major problem with that. I would have to work on it. I think Triple A was probably the last time I played first. I played for about three or four games. But that doesn’t mean I think I can’t do it. But I haven’t been asked.”

And then there is the prospects of heading into the second contract year (not including arbitration) of Lowell’s big league baseball career.

“I haven’t really given it much thought,” said Lowell, who is headed into the final year of a three-year, $38.5 million deal. “I think I’m just really focused on this year coming up. Really the only year I have been in a contract year was ’07, but I always had a problem buying into the fact that people think you’re in a contract year so you’re going to do good. Why would you say that? Why wouldn’t you try to do good in a non-contract year. I question the competitiveness of people who say that. Is it good fortune that I had a really good year in a contract year? Sure. It was something I was able to take advantage of. But it’s not going to change the way I prepare or play. From a baseball standpoint a contract year means nothing to me.”

It is a focus consistent with Lowell’s game-plan. Do the work, tune out the noise, and gather as much optimism on the way to Fort Myers. It has worked for him the past, and he sees no reason to change things up now.

“I feel better, but I’m also not having to play in a baseball game every day or get ready for one,” he said. “I feel confident that I can go through this coming season at a much better clip than I did last year.”