That dog can read!

Tuesday: nothing.
Yesterday: athletic gain at the expense of good planning.  I grabbed the dog and headed out for a short run, but we got rolling and I was feeling good, so I decided to push to a 3 mile point, just to see.  The dog was dragging a bit, but I was in his awkward pace zone--I couldn't go fast enough for his canter except on some of the downhills.  Anyway, total: 21:20ish.  This included a pee break (for the dog), waiting for cars, and running about a third on it on the shoulder, mostly on grass and/or pine needles.   Since my best three mile time is only about a minute faster, I was pleasantly surprised.  Although, I was pretty sick then and the weather was great yesterday.

And then we cut back through the forest and it got dark.  I had to walk a few portions.  By the time we got back to the road, the headlights were blinding, and then I realized my excellent choice of wardrobe: all black.  Yep.  Winner!  total run/jogged/walked: 65ish minutes.

Had a decent weight workout after that, though.  Lots of power cleans, with pushups, pike situps, delt flies, and clamshells.

TODAY:  Gotta say, I'm sitting pretty right now.  I'm eating leftover pizza, drinking chocolate milk, just had a nice run, and I have absolutely no schoolwork to worry about because I turned in my phosphocreatine shuttle paper yesterday, no illustration (well, sort of, but nothing pressing and I finished editing yesterday too), and the Macy's parade is on TV--actually, now it's a dog show, even better, and I'm going to totally plow through turkey and the works later and I can smell it cooking, and I've already done most of the prep, and after I finish this, I'm going to read a book for FUN.  It's been weeks.

Plus I recently gained major street cred.  Oh, yeah.

The dog and I jogged to the forest and did 1 loop.  Total 75 minutes.  And the scene this morning was great.  Temps just around freezing, super duper stuff, and more people than usual (ie, zero or one) out running, including two guys with dogs.  And one dog without anyone: the German Shepherd.  But it can read!  I just found out.

On our way back, we were on the opposite side of the road (the wrong side, but the shoulder is wide), and I looked ahead and saw a guy and a dog running towards us.  No prob.  We crossed the road to give them space.  And then I heard the bark. 

Oh, yeah, it was on.  I stopped my dog and myself, locked into what felt like a strong stance, held out my hand, looked that GS in the eye, and told it to "back off", just once, and it ran off.  It actually tucked its tail in between its legs, although perhaps was a combination of dejection and inbreeding (some GS dogs have a cringy sort of stance due to poor genetics).  The lazy **** owner didn't bother opening her door this time, but started rapping on her window, but the dog was already in retreat by then.  Ha, ha, your big bad dog is a wuss!  We resumed our run and passed the guy with the dog.  Maybe he was rushing to our aid, maybe he'd stopped, I wasn't paying attention, but he asked me how I was doing.

"Fine.  Happy Thanksgiving!"

I was more than fine.  I felt half total Boss, half, WTF?  That dog has never backed off that quickly before.   And then I realized that I was wearing my shirt from the Old Glory Trail Trot.  It is one of those inclusive race shirts: all the distances are on it, 50 mile, 50K, and relays (maybe the 10 mile too, I can't remember).  Plus the American Flag is on one of the shoulders.  Maybe the GS saw "50 mile" and freaked.  Like a wuss!

Wow, the German pinscher is a gorgeous dog...kind of looks like mine.