Survived the vet, survived the run…
Today was dog doctor day.
Thankfully, this only happens once a year as my border collie/german shepard mix (on left) has to be sedated and muzzled – with the leather muzzle because she gets out of the mesh one – just to get dragged in for her rabies and distemper shots. Fortunately, she’s otherwise healthy because if I had to bring her in for an emergency I don’t know what I’d do. Two years ago she got a dermal staph infection on her belly. The oral sedatives I usually give her to get her in for shots were no way going to be strong enough to allow for her being put on the table and rolled on her back! I pulled into the parking lot of the office, rolled down the front passenger side window and held Mira facing me, talking to her and otherwise distracting while the doc snuck up behind her, leaned in the window and gave her a shot in the butt to knock her out. He is a kind and patient man. Anyway, we all survived and now I’m tripping over a doped-up dog who won’t let me out of her sight. I am glad to report that Raisin (on right) is a much better patient.
Once home, I decided to head out for a run before I got distracted with much-neglected housework. The weather is strange today, 30′s F with rain/snow/sun coming and going, and frequently all appearing simultaneously. I had 50 minutes “moderate” scheduled for today and wanted to get 4 miles out of the time if I could. I went to a different trailhead for the towpath I like to run on and went in a different direction so it was all new scenery – and it was paved! Like nice, springy asphalt. Usually the paths I run on are groomed dirt/silt so I really appreciate the extra bounce it feels like I get from the asphalt. I was doing more than a moderate effort for sure, but not gasping, chest bursting by any means. I think it’s going to, and already does, benefit me to pay attention to my subjective level of effort (rather than getting myself all twisted and tangled in my HR right now). I had a sense of how I wanted to perform today and a sense of just how it felt to run my distance on Saturday and I was able to translate that into a harder effort and a bit faster time. So that’s all good. I’ve got a 5K in a couple of weeks that is going to be a pretty flat course from what I understand. If I can keep getting the idea of how to exert myself consistently over a distance, I could start to shift my focus from finishing to finishing better. Why didn’t anybody tell me this training stuff messes with your head!! 
Time: 50:00
Distance: 4.18
Avg. pace: 11:59
Effort: 8 of 10
Good job on your run, Lara. And don’t worry about your times, seriously. I am about your speed. 
Comment by Jon in Michigan
Monday April 25 2005 @ 5:47 pm
And the problem is that all head messing gets worse when I try to figure it out when I’m tired and running.
For some reason I like the same training location all the time. Going to a new spot makes me really anxious. But it sounds like you had a nice area to run on. Did they make the tow path into a running path? They did that around the Schenectady area. Its kinda cool. Lots of space to run/bike.
Funny about the dog wobbling around doped up. Our cat was doped up after getting fixed and they said to put him in a dark room or else he would try to walk around and end up crashing into things.