Rocks & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails
When I looked at the run scheduled for yesterday, I thought it might kill me. We ran immediately after a brief (but intense) rock climbing session, so I was already a little tired. Even though climbing is supposed to be mostly in your lower body, I always feel it the most in my upper body. (I like to believe this speaks more for the comparative conditions of my lower and upper body than it does for my climbing form.) In any case, I was tired--my upper body especially so.
As is always the case when we run at night, I had to wrangle the dog so that Micah could handle the watch and lantern. Twitch is a 110 lb German Shepherd/Chow mix with nary an extra ounce of fat on him. He's just a BIG dog. He's also Micah's dog, and while he more or less listens to me, he's definitely more obedient to Micah. He's also--have I mentioned this before?--not leash trained.
There's been a noticeable improvement in his behavior since we first took him running about three weeks ago... but what he seems to have learned is that he's not to pull too far ahead of Micah. Which is fine on Sundays when we run in the early afternoon and Micah has the leash. This is less okay on Wednesdays and Fridays when I have the leash, because Micah's been running far longer than I have and I tend to lag behind.
Anyway, my shoulders and upper back are sore today and I'm not sure if I should blame the dog, the rock wall, or both.
The run itself was daunting, but not nearly as bad as I'd feared. I set an easy pace (on account of feeling so intimidated), but in retrospect I should have pushed a little harder. It's the first time the schedule measured ALL of the running time in full minutes, rather than seconds. It was intimidating, but, I realize now, not outside of my current abilities. Friday I'll push harder.
As is always the case when we run at night, I had to wrangle the dog so that Micah could handle the watch and lantern. Twitch is a 110 lb German Shepherd/Chow mix with nary an extra ounce of fat on him. He's just a BIG dog. He's also Micah's dog, and while he more or less listens to me, he's definitely more obedient to Micah. He's also--have I mentioned this before?--not leash trained.
There's been a noticeable improvement in his behavior since we first took him running about three weeks ago... but what he seems to have learned is that he's not to pull too far ahead of Micah. Which is fine on Sundays when we run in the early afternoon and Micah has the leash. This is less okay on Wednesdays and Fridays when I have the leash, because Micah's been running far longer than I have and I tend to lag behind.
Anyway, my shoulders and upper back are sore today and I'm not sure if I should blame the dog, the rock wall, or both.
The run itself was daunting, but not nearly as bad as I'd feared. I set an easy pace (on account of feeling so intimidated), but in retrospect I should have pushed a little harder. It's the first time the schedule measured ALL of the running time in full minutes, rather than seconds. It was intimidating, but, I realize now, not outside of my current abilities. Friday I'll push harder.