Slower than a Turtle - but More Stamina than a Labrador

Wrigley and I ventured out for our second run today. All of the stars were aligned - it was warmer, I maped out about a 2.5 mile path, ate a good breakfast ... and the sun was shining! She seemed to "get it" a bit more today, that we were running for a purpose and not just for fun. She wasnt as zig-zaggy and paid a bit more attention to me.

Now, I do have to note a few things about my quirky Labrador. She gets hot VERY quickly and will walk along buildings to try to stay in the shade of their awnings and run toward random dirty puddles so that she can lay down to cool off - and this is when its about 60 degrees out ;) I knew it was warmer today, but didnt really realize how warm it was until 1/2 way through our run when my eternally energetic lab started running NEXT to me instead of IN FRONT of me. Then she started veering for patches of shade. Twice, I swear to you, she fake peed so that she could stop for a second. By the end of our run she was actually behind me and I was almost pulling her!

There were no squirrel incidents, and a cat sighting was timed perfectly with my 30 minute beep. We ran in front of a house a few doors south of mine and a woman was outside with two cats. Wrigley LOVES cats - so she put the breaks on, stood at her fence and tried to squeeze her head through the bars so she could get a better look. At the same time, the watch signaled to me that the run had come to an end for both of us. We spent our cool-down time staring at our new cat friend.

Unfortunately, I do have a life outside of training
Its the end of my school semester, I have a presentation next week, another presentation the week after, and a huge paper the week after that. Then, while summer may begin for most other students - it doesnt quite begin for me. As this is the end of my scheduled coursework for my program, I am scheduled to take 2 days worth of comprehensive exams the second week in June. Thus, my first 4 weeks of summer will consist of cramming, panicking, and remembering how much I hated some of the material I have to comb back over.

I have a bad case of "senioritis" and have had a hard time mentally keeping myself in the school mode. Starting this training gives me more excuses to postpone school-work, and the fact that I am a Cubs season ticket holder doesnt help much either. I am also a huge movie buff, and there is some exciting stuff coming up!
SpiderMan 3 5/4/07
Shrek the Third 5/18/07
Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End 5/25/07
Oceans Thirteen 6/8/07
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 6/11/07
Transformers 7/4/07
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 7/13/07
The Bourne Ultimatum 8.3.07

Looks like my summer is pretty busy already!!

Training Log
Time:30 minutes Distance:Original mapped route was 2.53 miles but after some alternations made in order to keep the dog moving it mapped out to 2.62

Progress Made

• Ran with dog, both lived to tell
• No squirrels were treed during this excursion
• Mapped run, steered clear of the lake, found myself a whole lot warmer and less confused

Lessons Learned

• The dog is lazier than expected and could use the training as much as I can
• Definitely warmer away from the lake, in fact (as everyone was telling me) 50 degrees felt quite warm by the end of the run

Tomorrow morning is our first TNT get-together. I plan to get my shoe shopping on. YEAH!