Hair of the dog.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a beautiful dog which looked remarkably like the one below, except with no leash, no owner in sight, and chasing after me on a busy street about twelve minutes into my run. Based on size I'm guessing it was a female.

I stopped to address the dog because I was pretty sure she was about to take a chunk out of my calf out of sheer exuberance for the chase. I also felt a bit like I was going to vomit becuase I couldn't breathe, so that was some handy timing!

Red Siberian Husky - very pretty when it's not about to hamstring you

While I know you're not "supposed" to approach strange dogs she did have visible tags and I am a total sucker for stray animals (not the first time I've done it this summer, or even sort of technically this *week* now that I think about it). I attempted to read the tag and sadly while she had no problem approaching me in a friendly manner she was having none of me grabbing near her collar and warned me off in no uncertain terms. Shortly after this she took off in the other direction after a SUV.

Once I was sure she was a couple of blocks away I resumed my run, (though I did take a moment to chat with another jogger that had been dodging her) and then once I returned home I spent about forty five minutes trying to find a phone line to report the dog for pickup. To top it all off the "report a lost or found dog" number I kept getting referred to is out of service so all I can do is spread the word via social networks, keep an eye out while I'm driving around, and hope for the best.

Technically one of the reasons I'm carrying pepper spray is in case I am attacked by a dog, but I honestly don't know if I could use it (not on a dog anyway, all bets are off for two legged predators).

Could be worse, could be this guy!
Team Jeep cyclist Evan Van Der Spuy meets an antelope, the hard way

Have you ever had a wildlife encounter? Story of my life. I'm actually considering a wildlife rehabilitation license but couldn't do something like that in my current place. I am that crazy woman on the side of the road about to get hit by traffic over a possum. One of my most cherished early memories of my father was watching him brave traffic to get a pigeon with a broken neck out of the middle of the road. It died in his hands moments later but he said he just couldn't let it die in the road like that.
Compassion like that leaves its mark.


Do you believe in "best left alone" or are you willing to risk the stitches and rabies shots in rescue scenarios? I have clearly come to terms with the fact that I am going to end up with rabies one of these days.

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September Blog Challenge Day 6
How do you log your eating and/or workouts?

I used to log my eating with the Lose It iPhone app. I would lose the weight and re-balance my portion sizes over time, but I was just paying attention to caloric intake and there was clearly something lacking.
I wasn't doing much in the way of exercise and I found I wasn't getting near enough protein. There are only so many times you can start drooling when someone walks past with a microwave lunch before you realize that there is a problem with the balance of your diet.

I went back and forth with that several times over the last few years and considered starting it back up when I started doing C25K, but I decided instead to tackle one thing at a time and focus on exercise. When you compare the caloric loss from a two mile run to the caloric gain from a bag of Doritos you get really depressed, or at at least I do, so instead I put my focus on gaining health and muscle.

I have lost about five pounds since I started, but more importantly I've lost a LOT of the excess squish I was starting to accumulate and regained a good portion of my wardrobe. My clothes are fitting as if I was ten or fifteen pounds lighter and I no longer need to check to see if a shirt is too tight across my muffin top! My legs are starting to look really nice and I'm almost at the point where I feel I can wear my goal garment (more on that later).

Added bonus: I have found that I'm naturally paying more attention to what I'm eating as a function of fueling my body, and because I'm eating better stuff overall I am not stressing my indulgences. I have a cheese problem, and by that I mean I'm seriously nearly a cheesatarian. So good!
I am so happy to be able to eat it again like I want to.

I track my running simultaneously with the Active Trainer Couch to 5k app and the Nike+ app. I lost some data when I restarted C25K, so I now also back up the basic info (time, distance, notes etc) for both programs in an excel sheet.

I actually just arranged today to buy a used Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor off of The Cheerleader so I'm looking forward to keeping track of more stuff and geeking out even further with it!

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My run today: C25K week 7 day2

2.88 miles at 12:08 per mile

Best moment of the run; a gaggle of pre-teens on bikes passed me when I was about 2 miles in and one boy yelled out "Woman! What are you, crazy???" and kept going.

I had social plans for later in the evening so I decided before I went out not to do the full 5K tonight and just stick to the C25K workout. This was a really good idea as trying to report the dog took up the majority of my post run free time and I was late to my evening plans. I also had a VERY hard time keeping going today. My legs were fine but my lungs were having none of it and I had a small side stitch for part of the run (this went away during the dog encounter).

I took one of those really flimsy 16oz bottled waters and drank half of it before I left. I squeezed the air out of the other half and shoved it in my belt. It stayed quite well and I was very glad to have the water during cool-down, though I would like to find one with a squeeze top so I could have some while running too. Eventually I'll get one of those belt thingys with the water bottles, but I am making do for the moment as I have some serious expenses to address in the near future and need to put a cork in the running-related cash hemorrhaging.

I am rapidly learning that I am not very good at keeping to a reasonable pace, even when I am feeling overextended. I may have to put together a specifically down-tempo running mix to keep me to a pace my body can handle.