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January 22, 2006
Dog Encounters
A huge, enormous peeve of mine is people who have their dogs on trails without leashes. Now that may be a huge generalization since there are some dogs that mind their own business and leave every person runs, bikes, or walks by alone. In all honesty, the dog I encountered today wasn't all that bad, but she most definitely did not leave me alone. At some point in my youth, I must have had a very bad dog experience to explain why I get so skittish around dogs.
This morning, I decided to be adventrous and do the cornfield loop. This loop is off limits during the spring, summer, and fall. It's where I've determined I must have picked up my poison-something rash over the summer. After learning how terribly allergic I am to those plants, there is no going anywhere I could pick it up. The loop starts out with the out and back trail I run and then there is a sort of lollipop loop to it. The loop seems to be all uphill. In reality, it climbs most of the way and the drop is short and steep. The footing was not too good, lots of soft mud that ended up being slick, spikes would have been helpful. As I was coming down one of these slippery hills, a dog came towards me with no owner in site. This dog is at least part Doberman, if not all Doberman-in other words, looked pretty darn scary. I hear the owner calling, "Diesel, Disel"-not the kind of name that makes you feel too comfortable with the dog. Then I hear, "oh, hi----", it turns out the owner is a neighbor of one of my good friends. She kept telling me how friendly her dog is, but she kept running around and right up to me. This little encouter probably lasted two or three minutes.
Other than my dog encounter, the run was very pleasant. There were minimal ankle turns, a major accomplishment! It was cool, clear and very sunny. Not unbearably cold, just cool. I wore the heart rate monitor again, which continued to act up. Given the hilliness of the loop, I expected it to be a bit higher than on a regular Sunday morning run. I ran until it read an hour, but the run was a bit shorter since I didn't stop the watch when I ran into the dog.
This afternoon I had a bit of a guilty conscience for not getting to cross-train yesterday. Funny how that guilty feeling doesn't happen with real work, just with working out. I did the elliptical for half an hour while I was reading a magazine. I was surprised to see how "fast" I was on it since it didn't feel hard at all. Of course, I don't know how accurate the calibration is on it. After that, I rode the bike for 15 minutes and then stretched.
I ended up spending much more time at a friend's house this afternoon than I planned. It was fine since I didn't really have anything else that needs to get done right away. Tonight I do need to pay all of my bills, what a depressing way to spend a Sunday evening.
Posted by Blondie at January 22, 2006 07:36 PM