A Personal Best for Stetson

A very calm dog during recovery after our run

Spring is coming in with an easy transition for my running endurance this year.  This is the first time since we have lived in Atlanta (10 years now), that it feels like we're experiencing Spring.  From my own conditioning perspective, I am grateful for the slow transition to warm or hot weather.  It is such a shock to my system to have a run on a 30 degree morning one weekend and the next weekend it is a warm, muggy 54+ degree morning.  It can make for a long, wheezy run that often left me feeling like I had zero conditioning and less than zero desire to put my sneakers back on a couple of days later.  Once I acclimate to heat, it's game on - bring up the temp and I'm out there, but that transition period can feel like starting at nill all over again.

This year, I also have Stetson's conditioning to contend with.  We have only been running together for six months now.  During that period, we've both have down times due to injury and/or illness, so reaching and maintaining a solid level of performance has been a moving target this winter.  He's given me some stellar 6 milers in cold conditions, but heat is something we haven't experienced together.  I decided to take it really slow and work him at mile and a half "warm up" distances and then drop him off so I could continue solo for a period, hopefully sufficient enough to allow him to acclimate to the heat gradually.  This plan was intended with the dual purpose of keeping his safety and comfort as my number one priority, while giving me some ability to determine how far we can target building up to for the season of warm and humid conditions.  Regardless of how far he ends up going into the heat this summer, I'm stoked about some fast and long runs come fall with him with this extra time of conditioning.

This morning it was 54 degrees and we hit the trail at the Hooch for an easy, flat 5K.  I haven't really asked him to do three miles for awhile, so I was prepared to hang back to see if he had any issues.  We stopped at the turn taking us from the river to the "inland" section of the trail to offer him water and he just looked at me as if to say "go ahead, whimp, I'm good".  So we finished without any further attempts on my part to baby him.  I stopped several times to walk and regain my breath, but he was never hesitant to start back into a trot again.

When we finished and I stopped my lap meter on the heart rate monitor, I realized we completed the trail in under 13 minute mile averages.  Madison is incredible for a 13 year old dog, the fact that she runs with us at all anymore is amazing; but our total time difference between the river runs with her this winter (in cool or cold weather), and today is over 13 minutes.  I'm thrilled with that performance and crazy excited about building on it!