People who deserve extra blessings: people who shovel not only their driveways, but their sidewalks as well (oh, I just want to hug you all!), people who actually slow down and move slightly over when they see you running, and people who have control over their dogs (or, if they don’t, that at least have a leash on them).
I think I have the world’s worst luck with dogs in this neighborhood. I swear, Matt never comes home with any stories about dogs trying to eat him, but I come home with such stories almost every day. Take yesterday, for example–I was on the last mile of my 7-mile run, when this curly-haired, cream-colored dog comes tearing out of the house across the street and pursues me mightily, despite his owner screaming, “TITO! Ven aqui! GET OVER HERE!” at him. Of course, had it not been for the presence of the owner, I probably would have tried to kick the dog to make it go away. And then we all would have been in trouble. (Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t have KICKED it. But Matt did tell me that if a dog were trying to eat me, I should raise my hand as if I were going to hit it and supposedly it should go away. I made the mistake of doing this in front of the dog’s owner earlier in the week–yeah, never going to try that again). Amazingly, I haven’t gotten bit yet. But I’m kinda starting to wonder if it’s only a matter of time.
As far as the training overall this week, I didn’t do too well. Thursday I had parent-teacher conferences all night, and so I was forced to do my run during my lunch hour, which meant I had to cut down my run from about 6 miles to 3 miles. And then on Friday, I donated plasma right before going out to jog (I know, it was stupid of me, but I had no other time to go), and I only was able to run 2 out of my 3 scheduled miles. So I kind of feel like I failed this week, or cheated. But the great news is, my body (for the most part) is still getting stronger and my lungs are getting better at breathing so I don’t have nearly as many sideaches, unless I eat right before I run.
Highs of the Week: FINALLY losing the holiday weight. After a few weeks of seeing the scale not budge and then go UP a pound, I lost four pounds in 5 days this week. Body, you are so weird.
Lows of the Week: Not being able to finish my run on Friday because I felt so sick and lightheaded. That’s the first time I haven’t finished a run because I haven’t been physically up to it, and I sure don’t want to repeat it again.
Next week our training schedule kicks it up a notch and I’ll be bumping my 3 mile jogs up to 3.5, my 5.5 miles up to 6, and my long run on Saturday (now at 7) to 8. Should be fun.
