I got a bit of a late start this morning as I had to wait for some lightning to pass and then needed to confirm that I wasn’t going to get caught out again by the next storm like happened a couple weeks ago.
After putting out some speed last night my legs really weren’t interested in more speed today so I figured I would go slow and steady. There was a good bit of mist as I got going and I figured it should be cooler but I was wrong – things did get pretty warm out there so deciding to stay at a slower steady pace was definitely the right move.
I ran 10.5 miles in 1:44:36 in the end – based on what the gps stuff is telling me I kept my pace strong and steady the whole time. Nice.
As I finished I quickly checked the radar as it was starting to get dark again outside but since it seemed like the bad stuff was holding off for a bit longer we strapped the harnesses on the dogs and decided to take them out one at a time to do a bit of running together practice.
I have never run with dogs before so this is going to be a training experience for me as well as the dogs. Because of this I decided that running with one at a time to start would help me get trained as well without getting frustrated.
We have 2 male dogs (both now fixed) – Sven born on Christmas Eve 2014 and Arrow born on New Years Eve 2014. Sven is the more dominant (not that Arrow is quite ready to let him be alpha) but also the more laid back (and perhaps lazy) so I decided to start with him as I figured Arrow is the faster and the most likely to really want to run and I could give him more time if I ran with him second.
Sven did excellent! He tried to lead a few times but was easy to pull back into line to let me lead. He never tried to cut me off either. Definitely more work to get him fully under control but when we were running he showed no sign of stopping to catch scents or to mark – so that is a very good start.
I paid extra attention to his gait to see how he was running so I could how hard he was working to keep up and how hard he was working. It looked like between 5.5 – 6 mph he was at a light trot and then he would break into a gallop at just over 6 mph. So he should be ok at my standard pacing lately.
I ran him for a half mile and he seemed very pleased with himself when we were done. A positive experience all around. Excellent.
Now for Arrow – I had to pull him back in pretty good right at the start because he wanted to fly but I got him back under control. I fairly quickly had to switch hands with him as he wanted to be nearer the side of the road. Nice that each dog by default wanted a different side – should make it easy to train them to run together later.
Unfortunately, we were weren’t far from the house when someone started using a nail gun and spooked him. He cut in front of me and then turtled and I had to leap him to avoid tripping and face planting – almost pulled my quad. I calmed him down for a minute and then tried to go again but he fought and only wanted to pull away from the direction we had heard the sound. I tried to calm him again and then tried once more. He wanted none of it – so I turned him toward home and he ran well with me back toward the house. Too bad that he only got maybe 0.1 of a mile but I didn’t want to force him and have him be upset every time we try to run.
So I will try again with Arrow and he should do better – he is a very accommodating and eager to please dog so he will get there, but it may take some time.
Looking forward to continuing the train with them – it should add an extra interesting element to my training!
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