10 January 2015
This morning was cool and rainy with hardly any breeze at all; icicles (they were small) hung from the overhead utility lines. Today’s high temperature was 38°F and, by 14:00 (2 PM), the temperature had already dropped to 37°F, but the rain had stopped. Clouds hung fairly low–I estimated they were only about 200-250 feet above the elevation of the RV campground where we are currently living–and, my estimate was confirmed before I arrived at the top of the steep hill. I was running in a mist and the temperature was definitely lower at the top of the hill.
Endurance Running – Week 8 of 13 Weeks, Day 4 of 4 Days
While running today, I made a decision to run all of today’s training miles within the one neighborhood community along the ridge line of the one steep hill–I was being wimpy and didn’t want to have to try to run up the second steep hill, as I had done for last week’s Long Run. The good news is that I wasn’t tired; but, my legs certainly weren’t as fresh as last week’s Long Run. However, toward the end of today’s training session, my legs–and most other muscles in my body–were complaining; i.e., they, all, were tired and I was exhausted.
After I got home and went inside, my legs began to ache; so, I lay on the floor with my feet elevated–one minute per mile of running. After lying there for ~16 minutes, the aching had subsided; but, when I started to get up, my hip adductor muscles (thigh muscles of both legs, which stabilize the hips and pull the legs toward the midline) started to cramp. I managed to stand up and stretch, which relaxed my adductors. I walked to the refrigerator and poured a glass of kefir (actually, a kefir smoothie) [to supply carbohydrates and protein to my system] and dug into a container of Fage non-fat, plain, Greek yogurt [to supply more protein and some carbs]. About 30 min later, I felt recovered enough to wash my Garmin FR620 and associated HRM/chest strap and go take a bath.
One unusual incident did happen during my training session today:
Somewhere between Mile 13.5 and Mile 13.6, a beautiful malamute bitch (female dog) came bolting toward me; she circled me and began jumping–it was obvious that she was friendly and just wanted to play; so, I put my hand down at my side and she came up sniffed my gloved hand and started licking it before bolting down the road ahead of me. I’ve been running through that particular neighborhood community for nearly two months and this is only the second time anyone’s dog has run loose…at least, when I’ve been on the roadways.
She was really well cared for and had a lavender collar; so, I thought she must live very close to where I was currently running and that she would return home…but NO, she ran along with me (mostly about 100 yards [~100 meters] ahead) veering into neighbors’ yards, into the brush, and into the woods; but, each time, she would always run back to see where I was running and would run past me, then take up her typical “point” position ahead of me. She seemed to be enjoying the sport of running with someone that was not so fast that she couldn’t take side trips to investigate the neighborhood.
As I was running down the steep hill (~Mile 14.4), a young couple in a pickup truck were heading up the hill and spotted the dog–at that time, she was about 100 ft (~30.5 m) ahead of me. I successfully attracted their attention and saw that they were stopping; so, I, too, stopped. I explained that the dog had been running with me for about a mile and wouldn’t go home–by that time the dog had moved about 100 yds ahead of me and waited. The young man wasn’t too interested in chasing the dog and I was too tired to run any faster than I was, which certainly wasn’t fast enough to catch her. However, before the couple departed, the young man did say that he would post a notice on the community website.
To shorten this already long story, the dog followed me back to my home, but stayed a couple of hundred feet from me–she just wanted to keep running; but, I was too fatigued to do anything but go inside to rest. I did look though the windows for her and would have gone out to try to hold her for authorities, but could not see where she had gone…hopefully, she has found her way to her home. [I know that, if she were my dog that had gone missing, I would be grieved for the loss, even if the loss were temporary.]
Happy Running!!!