I'm doing it. I've decided. I don't know how, but I'm going to Indianapolis, and I shall elude zombies and clear obstacles and get to the finish, dead or alive.
It's such a great idea, and it just sounds like so much fun. I have to support it. I've started talking to friends, seeing if they will join me. I've got some nibbles, ambivalent interest. We'll see. But I'm doing it, even if I do it all by myself. Obstacle training will be a challenge. Maybe I'll have D play zombie and swipe at me while I dodge out of the way. We could practice in the basement, and he could make zombie noises! Of course, that's only the evasion portion of it. If I have to do anything involving upper body strength I'd be in trouble. I guess I could lift weights or something. A plan is needed. But for now, I'm working on the running itself.
After all, it's a matter of survival.
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| The front of this shirt says "if you see me running..." |
Yesterday morning was the beginning of my training. It went... not well.
I had the motivation to get out there and start something, and I'm quite pleased about that. I managed to get up early (don't laugh, I did! Unlike this morning), and as a chronic over-sleeper/snooze-button-abuser, this is quite something. A repeatable achievement. Anyway I readied myself. I find that I was somewhat ill-prepared.
DISTRACTION: I don't enjoy running for its own sake, so my mind needs to be occupied or the sound of gasping breaths and chortling onlookers will temper my enthusiasm. But I haven't been able to find my mp3 player since we moved. So I used my phone, which has a grand total of five songs on it. This was a disaster because it was too bulky and heavy, and wouldn't stay in my pocket. At one point it lemming-ed onto the sidewalk, busting my groove (but not busting the phone itself, happily).
DOG (leash): I chose poorly. I chose the medium leash, which was not particularly bright (it was early). Next time we go with the short leash. Too much slack equals too much opportunity for a border collie to ignore. I ended up with the leash wrapped multiple times around one hand, clutching at my phone in the other. This is imprudent because when I needed to control the dog with both hands as I attempted to go past a section busy with morning traffic... ugh, let's just say it was both embarrassing and terrible.
DOG (hisself): And then there's Bobby. It is so hard to run with this dog. It's a challenge to walk with this dog, why did I think he'd just lope beside me with perfect etiquette because he was pleased to get a chance to run around outside? He's so hard to control.. It isn't that he wants to trip me (surely). I think he's just... dumb. Even with the leash as short as I could make it, he still wound up weaving and veering underfoot until I had to pull constantly up and out on the leash to make a zillion constant corrections. My outstretched arm felt like it was weighted with iron, and afterwards I ached shoulder to fingertips, but the dog didn't trip me. Points for me.
This is not sustainable. I couldn't keep up any decent pace, nor even an indecent one. Constantly correcting the dog so as to not get knocked over required concentration and moreover I quite often had to stutter stop altogether, or start to walk. For all my exertions, and believe me I worked up a light sweat, I ran so intermittently that I'd be loathe to say I even ran at all yesterday. Attempting to run in the morning is hard enough. Training for a goal helps, but the tenacity to continue to train on a regular basis isn't innate, its something I will really have to push myself to do. And if running is as hard as it was yesterday, it will be impossible to keep it up. I won't want to. My enthusiasm will only last so long, so Bobby has got to be better behaved on the leash.
I work with him whenever I have him on the leash, but he's not cured of his bad habits, nor am I cured of mine. I get frustrated. It'll take time. I need something with a quicker payback. People have told me that putting a prong collar on Bobby will make a new dog out of him. I just don't want to fall on my face when we're walking/jogging together. And if I need to buy even more canine accoutrement to accomplish this, I will, but dagnabit. He already has more accessories than I do.
I'll be trying to see if I can pick up a prong collar and test it out.
In other news, this weekend is going to be a project weekend, including our second drainage/waterproofing project, and something for the basement. We like to keep busy.
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