Resistance Training - Temptation

After getting home from a great run in the snow with Stetson the first e-mail I find in my inbox is announcing a price increase tonight for the Publix Georgia Marathon and Half Marathon.  Adrenaline is still pushing through my veins at break neck speed and I began to head into the office to the computer when a very small voice faintly said, "remember your promise to this race, this is the one you need to beat, are you ready, are you really ready to set a personal best in a month on that course?  Are you?"

This race in 2010 was my first half marathon.  My sister came from Kansas City and we jogged and walked the course together.  A shared memory to last an eternity.  It was more than a rush to simply finish something that big. The following year, I trained harder and smarter and finished it again, knocking 17 minutes off the previous year's finish time.  It is a difficult course, with hills that seem to be endless.  The kind of hill that I have to go out of my neighborhood and search for in order to train adequately.  The humidity and pollen in March tend to make air thick, and so heavy it stings going into your lungs.  I have a nickname for this race, it isn't polite and not appropriate to include in this blog, but my dog friends will understand it is a female.

While driving home from a frustrating and disappointing finish in the Athens Half in October of 2013 I made a promise to that Publix course that I would regroup and use it to set my new personal best for a half.  March, 2014 would be my time.  I promised myself that I'd train so that I would deliver a performance that I was truly proud of.  More than a personal best, but I vowed I'd set a time goal that was worth the kind of effort I was ready to put out.  Athens was a painful event for me physically and mentally and I admit my ego was bruised.  Coming off an amazing Triathlon season where I shattered my previous personal best, by both my finish time, recovery time and performance, plus making a re-entry into the sport of Dog Agility after six years away with a new dog (Stetson), I was on a high that Athens almost crushed.  I felt like I'd been kicked.  I wasn't interested in just finishing anything anymore.  I wanted to set my goals to heights that would make me proud of the results.

From the beginning of November, until mid December I was really sick with an ear, sinus and respiratory problem.  I was never so ill when I smoked, and those weeks were filled with frustration and anxiety.  Finally around Christmas I was able to get back to working out some and began to build myself up again.  It didn't take long to get back into a routine, but I haven't pushed myself to train for the race.  I decided to play my recovery out and build for Triathlon season. I had mentally dismissed Publix until the email today.

Stetson has been a great running partner and he was on the trail with me at Kennesaw Mountain a few weeks back when I  set a new personal best for the trail.  Somehow, I let myself go with him.  It's easy to get wrapped up in the time together.  Twice I've been fortunate enough to take him for a run in the snow this year.  I hope I don't have a third opportunity, but today was especially nice.  Maybe because I've been watching the Olympics and following the Yukon Quest; somehow today felt more like an event than just a run.  The crunch of the snow under our feet and the birds singing overhead helped to lift me up out of my normal routine run.  The snow on the lines, brush, trees and houses was so beautiful, I forgot for those forty-five minutes that it had been an unprecedented storm here in the Southeast that brought this beauty to my eyes.

Sweetness

Beginning our second loop in the neighborhood

His hocks collected little snowballs, but his pads stayed clear

I'm going to listen to that little tiny voice in my head and honor my goal.  The 2014 Publix will go on without me, maybe I'll be on a trail with my dog somewhere.  I hope so.

Mutual adoration

It is easy to get wrapped up in the physical training for a sport and forget that the mental game is the toughest part.  There are times that when the physical training fails, the mental toughness brings you through.  But you have to train it and it must be trained more often than the physical.  Today was my mental game winner.  My brain achieved a new level of resistance training and stood up to temptation.  My promise lives, 2015 will be the new marker.

28 Days After Stem Cell Therapy

Hard to imagine that it's been 28 days since Madison underwent Stem Cell Therapy at Union Hill Animal Hospital in Canton, Georgia.  Here are a few videos to capture her improvement since.

This was before treatment and is a good example of how she used to dig at the surface with her front feet to get traction and pull herself up.

This was taken today.  One of her back legs was stuck under the scrunched up crate pad, but she managed to get up without effort.

The best demonstration of how much improved she is; she's lying on our slick tile floor and looks effortless as she gets up and moves away.  Taken today.

She is a sweet agility training "Supervisor" for Stetson.

For the next few days we are managing both dogs on the ice.  In our yard, there are two areas of concern for them.  First is the patio.  It is ice covered.  Dave and I debated this morning about shoveling the slushy stuff off, but decided the remaining surface would probably end up slicker than the crunchy ice so we left it.  It is a sheet of ice.  Since she launches over the threshold to go out, her footing is worrisome.  We are putting her "Help'Em Up" harness from Blue Dog Designs on her so we can support her entry onto the ice.  Once she's outside, her Siberian instincts and feet take over and she actually moves really well.  Typical of a herding dog without much regard to their body, Stetson is less sure footed, but he gets the hang of it quickly.

Looks like snow, but it's ice

Secondly, there is a river of standing water leftover from the rain yesterday.  It is a few inches deep in parts and I am certain that the ground underneath is not going to get cold enough for the ice on top to freeze it entirely through.  Neither dog needs to get onto that and break through to that freezing water so we are supervising them and keeping them to the right of the patio when they go out.  I would hate for Madison's old bones to be exposed to that extreme.

The area that looks like it is shaded, is actually standing water beneath ice; it runs from the outside of the fence down to the treeline and widens out once it gets past the patio edge.

We had no way of knowing when her surgery was scheduled that Atlanta would endure two significant winter storms this year.  Honestly, we can say that had she not received the therapy and been so responsive to it, managing her and making her comfortable in these conditions would have been difficult at best.  

Thankfully our little trooper is just plugging along and keeping Stetson and the rest of us in check.

Mud on the Mountain and a Tiger in my Head

As I left the house this morning for a trail run at Kennesaw Mountain with Stetson, the music on Symphony Hall drifting over the speakers in the truck was primarily vocal, and I don't like classical vocals (unless I'm actually at the Opera).  So I pressed "The Blend" on my entertainment system and easily slipped into the groove of current songs.

Approaching Burnt Hickory Road off Barrett, Katy Perry came on with "Roar".  My index finger went into automatic and began pressing the volume increase button, until I caught a glimpse of Stetson  in his crate behind me.  No doubt he was not enjoying the tune as much as I was, but I started singing along at the selected volume and before the song finished we were in the parking lot at the trail on Burnt Hickory.  It was time to change focus to the run.

We set into an easy pace and cruised up the hill until my heart rate exceeded 171, I backed down and took it easy until the rate came down near 160 and then picked the pace back up.  Continuing this pattern we quickly were at the bridge. The remainder of the run I was balancing a heart rate of 171 to 184, although my monitor clocked the fastest rate at 190.  I wasn't winded hard and neither was he, so we just kept going.

There are so many things that are starting to meld for as as partners.  He responds to my lag on the back end of the lead and slows without my having give him a tug.  I've begun to trust him as a partner and don't force him to slow down as much on the downhill slopes anymore.  He is the first dog I've run with that I can count on to respond without some degree of force and I think that is contributing to my ability to increase speed and endurance at good increments.

Cheatham hill was crazy muddy today.  There were a lot of horse tracks and they really dug up the mud in many places.  I misstepped once and was surprised at how my shoes instantly became significantly weighted down with mud packing the tread.

 

About a tenth of a mile after the turn around, I stopped to give him water, but he wasn't interested.  He just wanted to go today, no messing around, even with all the horse poop. We were both pretty much dripping in mud when we finished.  I guess my new Solomon's are truly broken in now, they look like the belong to a runner.  Barn dirt from agility is just dust in comparison to the red clay from the trail!

Statistically, I set a new personal best on the mountain.  My pace was just under 11 minute miles and I burned 1053 calories.  The memory will dance in my head until the next record setting endorphin release.  I bet those passing us on the trail could hear my soul, it roars...

"...I see it all, I see it now

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire

'cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar..."

  Kathy Perry "Roar"