Well, I’m stuck working from home today as I wait for the painters to come and finish taking care of our doors. So rather than racing to get up to the trail for my seven mile run and to get back - in traffic - I decided to run at the local park. The look that my lab gave me convinced me to take him along as well. After all, we are supposed to be doing the Bun Run together, and it had been months since we’d gone for a run.

Let’s just say that we didn’t get all seven miles in. More like three. I had water for him every lap (2k - 1.2m), but he would only take a couple of mouthfuls and reject it. About halfway through the third lap, he started panting more and mouthing at the dew on the grass as we passed - I figured that he had had enough for one outing. Even when we got back to the trailhead, he wouldn’t take any water. He did want to keep going, but I don’t want to hurt him.

So, we did about 3.25 miles in about 34 minutes. Not the run I wanted for today, and we already have plans for the evening so I don’t know if I can get another one in. Maybe I can do some more tomorrow morning at Town Lake. Our pace was generally about 8:30, but we had lots of stops for interesting smells, bathroom breaks, and all that. This happened the last time I started running with him, but he got better - and indeed, by the end he was being much more well behaved. I think we just need some practice time. We also took a minute or two between each lap while I tried to get Bear to drink.

That 8:30 was a pretty comfortable pace for me, although we did have lots of breaks as I said. Probably too comfortable for a short training run, although I was originally intending to do six laps (7.2 miles) not just two and a half. I’d like to cut that down to an 8:00 pace for this distance, which would mean a 25:00 5K time - a pretty reasonable goal, I think.

Time: 34:00
Distance: 3.23
Pace: 10:00 overall with lots of stops

Popularity: 4%