A running partner, Adelaide is not!

Time: 5:15am
Distance: 3.06 miles
Pace: 11:49

Sheesh! Here I was, thinking I would be the nice pet owner that I am (ha!) and take Adelaide along with me for my morning run. Oh my goodness, what a terrible idea! When we started, she took off, dragging me along behind her. I usually like to start out slowly and pace myself, but this morning I felt like we were flying! I managed to rein her in after a little while, but we were still running faster than I usually run which meant that I found myself struggling after about a mile. Add to that her incessant sniffing which, in turn, led to her constantly running in front of me and tripping me up, and my run was a right old mess! Don't even get me started on the potty breaks! All-in-all, it was an incredibly frustrating run. Oh well, these things happen. Now I'm trying to decide whether I want to take her out with me next time and try to get her used to running with me (and hopefully behave), or if I want to go it alone. There were times this morning when she was trotting along quite nicely beside me and, although those times were few and far between, that was kind of nice. Maybe I'll give it another shot and see how she does. Maybe it will all "click" with her and she'll be a perfect angel! Ha! Not likely.

On another note, I had read a couple of stories last week about female runners who had been attacked while out on trails (not near here!), and I was a little apprehensive about running before dawn by myself. Last week I ordered pepper spray and a personal alarm to carry with me, but those hadn't arrived in time for my run this morning. But, after braving the pre-dawn world alone, I actually felt really safe. I was out at a time when it was still dark enough for cars to need headlights, but the sun was just beginning to rise which made it light enough for me to see. I felt extremely comfortable running by myself and not once did I feel that I was in an unsafe position. Hopefully that will be the same for all my runs, and I pray that I won't have to use my pepper spray, but I will carry it anyway - just in case.

The dreaded training schedule

Ha! Me? Following a training schedule? Sheesh! We'll see just how well I follow this thing - for a beginner runner it looks pretty brutal. You can see the schedule in the blog list to the left. It doesn't officially start until next Monday, so this week I'm going to try to put in some decent miles as preparation. Now that I have a schedule done up, all I have to do is force myself out of bed in the morning...which is most definitely the hardest part!

As a side note, I really want to sell my Garmin Forerunner 50 on e-bay and buy a 205 instead. The Garmin I have now doesn't calculate distance or current pace, and those features sure would be nifty to have for this silly schedule. I don't know if I'm allowed to run on the local school's track, so how else would I be able to measure 800m distances? Plus, my Garmin has a heart rate monitor and I've found I haven't really been using it - it either falls down or is too tight and hurts my chest - so really all my Garmin is is an overpriced stopwatch! Hmm..but the 205 looks so BIG and bulky...Oh, the decisions!

Another blog?!

Yes, it's true - I have started a second blog. Why do I need a second blog? To write about the excitement that is running, that's why! Yep, I know it's so exciting you can barely contain yourselves! Truth be told, this blog is more for my benefit than for yours - if I think that someone out there is keeping tabs on my running (even if I'm slightly deluded in thinking so), then I will be more inclined to actually get out there and do it. Well, that's my theory anyway. We'll see how well it works out for me.