Running In Place

Today was the first run since Tuesday due to some late nights at work and another urgent trip to the vet.  Mira’s left eye was looking suspicious again so we trucked to dog doc again (an hour each way, did I mention?) to find that the occular pressure was up higher than ever (twice the normal limit).  After that, off to the drug store for yet another medication which, although expected to be beneficial, seems to be making her sick.  Last night she started to have a weird, somewhat labored, breathing pattern and is doing some drooling.  I suspect she’s nauseaus though she is eating her meals.  Whatever’s going on, it seems to me that every time she looks at me with her soulful brown eyes (one of which is so cloudy it’s opaque), she’s begging me to help her.  And I don’t know how.  I commiserated with the vet on the phone for a half hour or more last night and, in the end, it appeared to be best to continue with the new med as the benefits are expected to outweigh the discomfort of the side effects.  It’s so heartbreaking to see her uncomfortable and, at this point anyway, her eye does not look much improved.  I’ve been sleeping on the floor with her, and crying a little too.

On a happier note, I knew I was going to have to get moving this weekend if I wanted to get all 4 runs in for this week.  The weather was damn blustery this morning and looking to get worse.  At some point the promise was for rain turning to snow and warnings for winds up to 60 mph.  Sooner seemed better than later to get moving today so off I went. 

When I hit the towpath it was about 45F and raining - back and forth between a sprinkle and a pour - but, thankfully, no wind yet.  As always, a cool rainy run agreed with me and I felt great as I cruised along on the deserted path.  I was wearing Garm!n but running for a planned 30 minutes rather than a distance so I wasn’t paying any attention to how far I had gone.  You can imagine how pleased I was when I finished up and found I had gone 3.1 miles in 30:30!

Here’s my splits:

Mile 1 - 11:42

Mile 2 - 4:42

Mile 3 - 12:29 (hey, I was a little tired from that middle mile!) 

So, clearly, sporadic and inconsistent training pays off.