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It seems most of my major hobbies had a big event recently:
Saturday - spent about 10 hours volunteering at the Pet Expo
Saturday - conducted my Mach League player draft 8pm-10pm
Sunday - went running TWICE for an hour each run
Sunday - fetched the dogs at the river before the Pet Expo
Sunday - between runs, volunteered about 5 hours at the Pet Expo
Monday - went to the softball managers' meeting after work, got home around 9:30pm
So there you have significant events for my hobbies of dogs, running, dog rescue, baseball, and co-ed softball. To top it all off, I'm a tad under the weather. This probably explains why my second Sunday run was so painful - my body was diverting its resources to my immune system, not to my "running" system.
I debated whether I should run today or take the day off, but since Amanda was feeling tired and sore and still went for her workout today, I figured I should get my work in, too.
It was very warm - 78 degrees - when Haven and I set foot (and paw) on the road, heading for the trailhead. Just before the trailhead we passed a couple kids playing with an unleashed dog in their driveway. Upon spotting us the dog - a border collie mix - started to follow us. She was very shy and Haven kept trying to chase her away, but this dog wouldn't go away. She had very bright blue eyes so I called her Blue Eyes. I suppose I could've been more creative but sometimes my mind turns off when I run!
Anyway, Blue Eyes followed us into the woods for about a 1/4 mile on the trail, so I decided I better bring her back to the kids. I walk up the driveway and ask the kids if this is their dog. They tell me no, that this dog came from down the road somewhere. Great. I checked for tags. Blue Eyes had a collar, but no tags. At least she was pretty submissive to both me and Haven and kept trying to play with Haven, so she was a friendly dog.
My next plan was to get her tired. One time a german shepherd followed Haven and I on a run and we got him pretty tired before his owner drove up to get him. We ran back into the woods and Blue Eyes followed; of course, border collies were meant to run. I exited the trail further up the road and decided to head back towards where the kids said she came, hoping to find an owner. Once on the road Blue Eyes took off, obviously familiar with her location and hopefully heading home. When she wasn't looking I unleashed Haven, pointed at the trail and said quietly but urgently "Let's go let's go let's go!!!" and Haven bolted down the trail with me in hot pursuit. I figured if Blue Eyes tried to follow us, she'd be less inclined the more distance we put between her and us.
It worked! No sign of Blue Eyes. Haven and I finished our work on the trails and headed for the river where we planned to meet Amanda and Beacon playing fetch. I could hear Beacon's eager screams half a mile away! Partly because of the strong NW wind that was bringing a cold front our way. Just before we saw Amanda and Beacon the skies opened up with big fat drops of rain!
We continued fetching with the dogs even as the pouring rain turned the surface of the river into what looked like a giant lemon zester! Despite the decreasing temperature and increasing mud and thunder we kept throwing sticks and the dogs kept fetching them. What a blast! We were soaked when we finally headed back to the car; when we got 100 yards away the rain simply stopped and within seconds the sun was out. Perfect timing!
Wet dogs: Beacon and Haven after running with me in freezing rain.
Driving to work in the dark this morning was exciting - not because the road was covered in ice, but because the sky would frequently glow pink due to lightning! It was raining steadily and the temperature was about 30 degrees. Rain was freezing to my car's body panels as I drove. Sometimes little ice pellets would be mixed in with the raindrops. I cracked my window open so I could hear the rumbles of thunder. Icy roads, snow on the ground, and thunder in the air! Very cool.
When I left work it was still raining, but the temps had climbed to 34. By the time I got home and changed into my running gear, it had dropped back to 32 - right at the freezing point. Anything above 30 is warm enough to wear shorts; my legs were going to be plenty warm anyway running hill repeats. I decided to leash up both dogs and into the weather we ran!
There's a residential street right next to my house with a .25 mile hill that ascends 80 feet in the first .15 miles before cresting and descending slightly, maybe 10 feet, over the last .10 miles. I ran up that thing seven times, running hard until I reached the crest and then walking or slow-jogging the flat. Then I turned around and jogged back down, then up I went again without rest. The first two ascents I felt surprisingly strong compared to last fall when I ran the hill. The last three I felt OK until I reached the top, then I could barely walk I was so out of breath! At least I can see my improvement, though.
Haven and Beacon couldn't figure out why I kept turning around. They're also not that fond of the rain but the heavy stuff let up a bit after the first two ascents. The dogs got to have their fun and now they're enjoying a well-deserved sleep, just as I'm about to.
I ran twice today! Both were rather short, but remember I'm trying to improve speed this year. I noticed in my running logs for 2004, 2005 and 2006 that my average pace was right around 10:00 miles for all three years! While I've been going farther and farther, I haven't become much faster.
Well today was a decent start. O' dark thirty this morning I leashed up Haven to my brand new Just-a-Cinch leash that Amanda got me for Christmas and struck out under a bright, full moon. I started out fast and kept it up for 12 minutes before slowing for a couple, then I pretty much alternated fast and slow every two minutes until I got back home 2.9 miles later. We did it in 23 minutes, good for an 8:00 pace, so my first 12 minutes were probably 7:30 or so.
Funny story of the run was that Haven got freaked out by a Christmas tree! Someone had put their old live tree on the curb for pickup and in the moonlit darkness Havy must've thought it was a monster and wouldn't go anywhere near it!
By the way, that Just-a-Cinch leash is awesome! It has reflective fibers woven in for visibility, it has a round (instead of flat) cross-section, and best of all there's a slight amount of stretch to it so there's less jarring whenever Haven spots a squirrel and tries to take my arm off.
When I got home from work I felt like running some more, so I did. Wary of over-doing the mileage, I decided to do a short run and make up for the decrease in miles with an increase in speed. I even took both dogs with me! It started raining as soon as I walked down the driveway and it was a balmy 47 degrees out! Great running weather. The first minute felt good but at my fast pace I felt pretty wasted for the rest of the run. Luckily it only lasted 1.4 miles and it felt like 10-11 minutes. To my amazement when I finished my watch read 8:41 - that's a 6:12 pace!! Wicked. Earlier this summer I was happy to run a 1/4 mile lap on a track in 90 seconds (a 6:00 pace). Maybe the dogs were pulling me along a bit, but I also had to stop once to untangle their leashes.
Must remember to take it easy running tomorrow at work...
Naturally I went running today - gotta get an early start on those 2007 miles! ;) I brought Haven along while Amanda walked Beacon at a nearby park where I would eventually end up. Haven and I tallied 6.2 miles in under an hour through the chilly drizzle, although I got warm enough to take off my jacket after four miles.
I treated myself to wearing my brand new shoes for the first time, shoes that I had bought a couple months ago when Striders had a sale. I now have three pairs of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 shoes: one with 400 miles that I only use for casual purposes now, one with 300 miles that I'll now use for sloppy conditions, and my new pair with 6 miles. If it ever snows here again, I'd like to experiment on some icy trails by converting my 400 mile shoes into screw shoes.
And for the first time ever, I ran while listening to music! I'd never tried the walkman thing before Amanda wisely convinced my family to give me an iPod Shuffle for Christmas. I must admit that it was a lot of fun to get lost in my own world of tunes, although I was still able to hear vehicles approaching from behind. The first song to accompany the rhythm of my footsteps: Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line".
Driving home from work Tuesday (11 July) there were two things I knew: 1) I needed to go for a run, and 2) it was raining pretty hard. It shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me that I was looking forward to running in the rain!
There are several things that can make running fun aside from the act of running itself. Running in scenic locations, running with friends, running in crazy weather, and running with dogs... ah yes, dogs. Looks like Haven and Beacon are coming with me this time!
Once home I quickly changed and leashed up both dogs, using a single leash attached to a double-lead, sorta like a two-dog dog sled. "Mush, you huskies!" And mush they did, hauling me up the large hill at the start of my 3.4 mile route. We had stepped outside into a downpour that lasted for the first 1.5 miles before letting up to "just" a steady rain.
We had a blast and even ran at a quick pace. I was kinda jealous of the dogs' paws - they're so well designed for running! They stepped through puddles with ease no matter how deep; I, however, splashed quite messily (albeit quite happily) with each step. As I ran through some of the dirt road's brown water, a phrase came to mind:
"When the world is puddle-wonderful"
It's from a poem by E. E. Cummings called "In Just-" that I first read in high school. A good way to summarize that Tuesday.
On December 31 I went for my 128th and final run of the year, taking Haven and Beacon with me while Amanda tried out our new camera despite the sleet coming down. As you can see, we caught up to Amanda near the riverwalk behind the old school building. It was a slow recovery run because the day before I surprised myself by running five miles in just 36 minutes! I had no idea I could keep up that pace for even three miles. It's nice to see such improvement once in a while.
During 2005 I logged 625 miles, compared to 284 in 2004. The average was 4.9 miles per run, although the distances ranged from 1.4 (trying out a new pair of trail shoes) to 26.2 (the Grand Rapids Marathon) miles. I spent a total of 105 hours on the run in 2005. I don't have any specific training goals for 2006 - yeah it'd be cool if I passed 1000 miles but I have to be careful that I don't overtrain just to add up the miles. I would, however, like to try a local 50-mile race this fall, plus another marathon sometime.
2006's training indeed got started today, running 11.6 miles along the North Country Trail. Man, I was tired from staying up late for the new year (Amanda and I were throwing snowballs for Haven and Beacon in the backyard at midnight) and I ran pretty slow. But I lasted for the 2:25 it took me to get back home.
By the way, we just picked up our first foster dog of the year! A young lab/shepherd mix named Buttercup has joined us for a week or so.