Vardy has not played a game since the Cats' elimination loss to Fremantle at the MCG last September.
The 21-year-old, who is in his fourth season at the club, trained strongly during much of the pre-season but was struck down by groin soreness on the eve of the NAB Cup.
"Really exciting to get 'Vards' back," Geelong coach Chris Scott said on Tuesday.
Vardy trained strongly when the Cats hit the track on Tuesday morning, but a return to the club's AFL side remains some weeks away.
"He needs to get some football under his belt," Scott explained.
"We're not going to rush him back at all.
"He could have played the last couple of weeks, but we decided to be ultra-conservative with him and we'll continue that through the next few weeks with his VFL program.
"I expect it's going to be difficult, because he'll play well at VFL level, but we will resist the temptation to get him back into the AFL system (too quickly) because we'd rather be safe than sorry.
"Some of the feedback we're getting is it's just too conservative, but if that's the mistake we're making, then I can live with that."
James Kelly, who has missed Geelong's past two games with achilles soreness, was also part of the training run on Tuesday.
Kelly wasn't involved with the main group for the entire session, instead taking periods out to complete run-throughs with the fitness staff.
However, he is a strong chance to return for Saturday night's clash with the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.
"He should be right," Scott said.
"It was quite an innocuous issue with his ankle and achilles area.
"We didn't think he'd miss at all, and now he's missed two.
"That's more a reflection of our conservatism than the seriousness of that injury.
"So we'd be staggered if he didn't play this week."
Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol
