Category: animal encounter

A Partial/ Awesome Fail

Had I written this yesterday I may have called it a major fail but I’ve had time to think on it. 🙂

I knew this past weekend was setting up to be a busy one. With that in mind, I moved my Saturday run to Friday and got in 7 miles. Which turned out to have been a very smart choice. Saturday saw a few errands in the morning and then getting ready to go celebrate NikeC’s birthday. Ever have one of those days when you just don’t feel comfortable in anything to the point where you skin feels like it doesn’t fit? Yeah that was Saturday… well, truthfully, that’s been the last few months but that’s another post. I finally just went with it and headed out. We went to a new-to-me restaurant. In fact my only association with it previously was that my mom had parked for there both times I ran City to the Sea. The food was so good, warm, fresh tortillas with apple cinnamon butter as a starter? Yes please. Plus you can’t complain about the view- It was a great evening with old friends and new ones that may have been capped by a milkshake at midnight. I party hard, right? Ha!

But that kind of leads into how running became a fail on Sunday. While I have kept my calorie count in a decent place while on vacation, I indulged too often in foods I know shouldn’t eat- like milkshakes, etc. And my stomach expressed its anger on Sunday, so running was out. However I did get in 3 solid running days last week for 23 miles. So, that’s not to shabby for me. 🙂Plus, Sunday ended on a cool note. There’s a local organization that rescues wild animals and uses them to educate the public. At my previous work location we would sometimes get random visits if they stopped in and had something cool in the truck. For example- a bobcat kitten, a reindeer, a spider monkey, a raven, and a brown thing that I think was a lemur? Sunday they had an event called Wild Lights. They strung up lights, had a bbq, Santa visits and the animals got presents. This was the first year and they seriously underestimated the draw- the place was jam-packed and they ran out of food quickly. The animals were awesome.

He was a fiesty one

Some engaged with the crowds and others looked supremely bored. Or like they wanted to eat you for dinner. 🙂 The monkeys were spoofing the kids and damn lemurs can make some noise. They all loved the presents, the lemurs tore the boxes open and enjoyed their popcorn and goldfish. The tiger, like most cats, looked exceedingly bored. That is until one of the workers walked by carrying a couple of gifts, he knew exactly what those were and wanted them, he stalked her through the fence.

It was sad seeing the ones that had been hurt but at least they had a home. There was a giant eagle who wasn’t even tied down and had no cage overhead. You could tell the one wing didn’t work anymore but he had branches and perches and ledges he could hop to and from. He also looked as bored as the tiger. Another bored one was my favorite and he was so big!!!

So the weekend may have brought fewer miles than planned but great experiences! And here’s a link to a video my brother made-

How was you weekend?

Ever visit a rescue type operation?

What’s your favorite animal? I love owls.

Did the tortillas make you hungry? I kind of want more. 🙂

Runaway Chicken

With daylight savings fast approaching and being one of the few runners who does not look forward to it, I have tried to get as many miles in after work as possible. This can mean shorter than normal runs but I would rather run that than the treadmill sooner.

Tuesday I headed to the lake path on the chance that it was open like last week. Unlike last week, the signs were out. Waah. I stood for a few minutes and pondered. Then I became a lemming and followed the 20 people ignoring the signs. So bad I know but it was my last time at the path until spring. I only managed 2.5 miles before I thought it would be too dark to complete another lap. The path only has two lights- both near the playground.

from last week, when the signs were down

I was stretching out on the fitness bars when I saw a Chihuahua looking dog coming down the street. I waited a moment and didn’t see any owners. This corner of the path can be pretty busy car-wise so I decide to see if I could figure out where the dog lives. He was having none of that. His barking made me laugh. He didn’t sound mean, more like a petulant teenager. “Leave me alone, mind your own business, what are you looking at”. While I am trying to decide if I want to force it, I hear a rustling in the bushed across the street. I looked up to see a chicken walking away from a house and going towards the street. It’s making a jail break!

So now I don’t know if I should chase the dog or the chicken! Or do I leave them both and just go back to my car? A group of people was coming my way and a nice older man told me that the dog wanders on its own all the time. He also agreed that it wasn’t the friendliest. So I asked him about the chicken. While we were chatting the chicken came back down around the house. It walked to a gate in the fence and tried to squeeze in. Then it tried to climb the bush running along the fence. It wasn’t escaping, it was locked out! Once again, it followed the path around the fence, I think there must have been another gate back there. The man tried to open the gate but couldn’t get it open. I was beginning to feel bad for the chicken, all it wanted to do was go home. It knew exactly what door to go to but couldn’t open it. So the nice man and I went door knockin’. We found someone who lived in the same house but didn’t own the chickens. He called the owner before heading out to try to catch it.

Apparently the chickens roam during the day before going back inside the fence. I run this path 2x a week and have never seen or heard the chickens before. Plus it’s a residential area. After handling that, the man and I parted ways. So I probably could have finished another lap but I wouldn’t have had the runaway chicken experience. 🙂 Last evening at the path completed. I work this Saturday, so I was able to get off a little early on Wednesday. I headed back to town hoping for at least 6 miles but dreaming of more. Ha! I completed 6 but it was so damn hard. Nothing hurt, I just had zero energy. It was also 87º… on October 29. Ugh, where is fall. I hit 4 stop lights between mile 2.5 to 3.5. Then my stomach informed me that 4 miles would have been a better idea at mile 3.75. I was 2 miles from my car. There was a bench just past mile 4 and I took a break. I think I sat for about 10 minutes before finally heading off to finish my run. 6 miles done and I managed to keep my overall average pace at 11:45. Considering how I felt though, I will call that a win!

What was not a win was the bloody toe I found when taking off my socks. Boo.

What’s the strangest animal situation you’ve ever run into?

Did you know chickens were so good with direction? I had no idea.

Anyone racing this weekend?

A picnic and a challenge

We’re almost halfway through the week, woo hoo!

Sunday was bright and sunny and on the schedule was the company picnic. I really like lazy Sundays but I don’t get one for awhile beginning with this picnic. I always seem to be one of the first people to show up anywhere. I even tried to be late. I left later than planned and even got stuck at a take-your-life-in-your-hands stop sign turning onto a highway. I was still on time. I always feel awkward at these kind of things, I am not the best at mingling. Case in point- a slideshow of pictures from the event was released today- in one pic, you can see me standing by myself with my arms crossed. I eventually did get to mingling. The weather was great, the food (BBQ) was good. There was a bounce house-slide thing, volleyball courts, some bean bag toss thing and lots of chairs and cabana type things, oh and a tug of war. Am I not great with the descriptions? I got to see some people I hadn’t seen in a while and met some new ones. Tug of war was interesting to watch. I also took part in a volleyball game against the executives. Not that I did much, I don’t think the ball ever came my way. Truthfully, I was ok with that because during the warm up games, my left foot managed to find a rock. Which left a nice hole in my left foot. The paranoid runner in me was kind of freaking out, I have a half in 2 weeks!Speaking of a runner, when I first got to the picnic, one of the greeters asked me how many miles I was running or had run that day. When did I become that person? I admit that I am still surprised when people call me that, I still feel like a slacker. 🙂 The picnic went til 3 but I left at 2. Between Saturday’s long run and a few hours on the beach, I had had way too much sun. Before leaving my house I plastered on sunblock but I still ended up red. I took more pictures but my phone was having issues and didn’t save them, boo.

Monday I came up with every excuse to avoid a run. Work had been stressful, I had a headache, my foot still hurt from the day before, yada yada yada. But I knew the main reason was because of Saturday. I told myself to stop being such a sissy and made myself go to the lake path. Why the path? Because I knew there would be dogs there. Let’s rip off the band-aid before my imagination can make things even worse. My foot really did hurt so I took it easy, only 3 miles. My mom called while I was warming up and apparently I sounded a little freaked out. The first dogs I saw were Chihuahua size, ok I got this. An off lease German Shepherd- not so cool. Oh look a pit bull, but on a leash, another Chihuahua, and a Pomeranian. The pep talk I was giving myself in my head was all over the place. I was not exactly relaxed but I was dealing. I rounded a corner and there was a Great Dane. He looked friendly but his sheer size had me skittish. 3 miles was enough pushing it for that night. I did it! Still not happy around dogs but run done!

Ever play tug of war at work? How about slicing your foot and trying to run?

What are you doing this weekend? Looking forward to it?

Facing Fears-some old, some new

Saturday was a little rougher than I had hoped for. I faced a long run I was afraid of as well as a fear I thought I was past.

I was really nervous, more like freaking out, about this week’s long run. I had never actually completed 12 consecutive miles outside of a race before. My previous longest training day was 11.5 miles that was split into a 7 mile run followed later by a 4.5 mile run/ walk. Something about 12 just seemed so far and impossible. I had a headache Friday evening and it was lingering Saturday morning. I checked the weather and it was only predicted to be in the 80’s so I figured I would run then and get a little more rest. I had a route mapped out of 3 loops of 3.8 miles. I would add one last hill to that last loop to bring myself to 12 miles.

I was already thinking about calling it at 10 when I set out, did I really need 12? I did my first loop and since I felt tired I decided to do the extra hill then instead of last. Even though that got that hill out of the way, somehow it really screwed up my mileage, I lost a mile. I figured it out around mile 9, I didn’t have enough road left to hit 12, so I looped another street to add it back in. As I was running up one hill for the third time, I realized why I may hate long runs so much. My long runs are usually loops of hills- I’ve been doing hill repeats in disguise and never figured it out! Hello, blonde runner over here. This run had an elevation gain of 920. By mile 9.5 I was done. I stopped at the middle school and doused myself and my visor in water at the fountains. I walked the last 2.5 miles but I did it!! 12 miles done! This fear was mostly overcome.

I honestly thought I was over my fear of dogs. I had been bit before as a teen but the worst was when I had just started running. I want to say it’s been more than 4 years since I was attacked by 2 border collies while running. Ok, let’s be honest, I was walking. It was near the top of a street that I had probably walked 100 times by then; I had never even noticed the 2 dogs in that yard until that night. The standard Poodle who stood guard at the second to last house at the top, sure, we had had conversations before. I first noticed the dogs on my way up the street, they were in the front yard and their barks sounded less than friendly but I didn’t think much of it. There were kids playing in a nearby yard and a woman gardening. I went all up the end of the road and turned around like always. On my return trip, both dogs rushed out of the yard and ran my way growling and barking. I froze because running away makes it worse right? Plus I thought they were just going to be noisy and not actually do anything. Wrong- one got around behind me and bit me. On the ass, nice. I was in shock. By now the owner was running out for the dogs and the woman gardening had come closer to observe. The owner informed me that he had just removed their shock collars to give them a bath. Umm, what? By now I had determined I was bleeding so we exchanged numbers and I started the trek back to my car, it was about a mile away. About a block later, the shock wore off and I burst into to tears and started shaking. I had 2 puncture wounds and a gnarly, scary bruise. I later found out that I was not the first person the dogs had attacked. It hurt to run for weeks after- you know you need to lose weight when your butt hurts because it jiggles while running. I started carrying pepper spray on my runs and I still have not gone all the way up that street since that day.

I was afraid of all dogs for a while. I was once rushed by a yellow lab who just wanted to have fun and I freaked out. But over the years, I thought it had eased. There are dogs in the office all the time, ranging from Chihuahua’s to Pits to Dobermans to Bouvier’s. I had come across a loose pit bull on a run once and been ok about it, I told her she was pretty and we went our separate ways. Like I said I was over it. Until Saturday. I was finishing my long run and had just turned up my driveway. When I day driveway I mean street, but there are only 7 houses on the street and with the exception of 2 houses, the rest of us have been here for 10+ years. All the houses have some land so while we don’t all know each others names we know what is usual behavior. One house I call the Victorian has 2 Bouvier’s. Ever seen one? They look like bears, gentle nice bears, but huge all the same. One of the Bouvier’s passed away a year or so ago because I have only seen the gray one. Saturday, there was a gray one and a white one, I still didn’t think much of it because it’s my driveway for crying out loud. I was just passing the first house when I heard them bark. I looked up from pausing my Nike+ app to see them tearing out of their driveway my way, the white one in the lead. Once again I stood still, I had a water bottle in one hand and had been screwing with my phone in the other so I couldn’t even grab my pepper spray. I should have thrown the water bottle but wasn’t thinking that clearly. The white one looked possessed, it looked like it wanted me for dinner, the grey on was just along for the ride. The owner was now yelling, trying to call them back. It got within three inches of my waist before listening to the owner. Crisis over right? Nope. It got about 10 feet away and decided it didn’t want to listen the guy anymore. It turned around and came back at me growling and snarling. Screw standing still, I started backpedaling as fast as I could go. By now the owner was running and finally managed to grab the white one’s collar. As soon as the white one was contained, the gray one was perfectly behaved. He apologized but I was having troubles stringing words together to make a sentence. I finally just bolted up the driveway. I lost it just past his house, again sobbing and shaking. I was shaking so badly I couldn’t get my gate open. I had to stand there for a few minutes before I could get it unlocked.

The one dog I am not afraid of right now- Zoey

So yeah, still not over it. And now I am afraid to go back down my driveway. What am I going to do when that customer brings her 2 Bouvier’s into the office? What about the dogs that are always at the lake path? Even just typing this kind of freaked me out again. One step forward, two steps back.

But I did my 12 miles! Sorry this was so long, thanks for sticking it out!

Anyone else ever had a scary run in?

How was your weekend?

Tell me something fun!

Slacker Reboot -Training to SLO (and beyond)

Back in February, I had a few issues with my legs not feeling so good. I figured it was caused by overuse as the training plan that I had been following was a little overeager. The mileage that it was calling for was a little intimidating. 40 mile weeks are great for some people and in theory I like them, but come on, Slacker over here. Weeks 2-5 hitting 40 was yowza! I never actually hit that mileage but I was running more than I was used too. After the ugliness that was the Heart & Soles 10K, I took a week off resting my ankle, Achilles and basically my left leg and started fresh with a new plan. A Slacker Plan. I tried using it leading up to my half in March and I am planning on continuing with it through SLO and for the beach half I want to run in May (doh!).

I thought about what worked for me before 3 days a week and then I considered the fact that I want to run more races this year and continue to improve my times ( sub 2 please?!). Plus there was my goal of hitting 750 miles this year. So I decided on 4 days a week and decided to call it 4-5-6-SLR.And either 1 long run (L), or a track workout (S) or a race (R) on the weekend. Why does it need a name? Because I like names. Why so many letters? When I figured out the SLR almost looked like Slacker, I tried really hard to come up with a word for C or K, but no luck yet. 😦 Maybe someday I can graduate to 5-7-9 🙂 Kind of random, but does anyone else remember that store?

There are no set days and I can switch of the mileage and work out when I want. Plus, with 3 different towns and a treadmill to choose from, I have a lot of flexibility. And I don’t get frustrated when I miss a Track Tuesday or hill interval Wednesday because I can do them on whatever day I feel like it. Now I don’t feel guilty for never running on Fridays. 🙂 I would like to get to the point where a weekend long run is at least 10 miles; every week. I’m not there but I’m working on it.

Wednesday morning’s commute! Double rainbow!

So with that being said, after Monday’s crazy rain and a Tuesday rest, I headed out Wednesday for a quick 4 miles. I wasn’t feeling the run for some reason so I wanted it done quickly. I was aiming for as close to 5k race pace as possible. I had missed my Wave Rider’s so I ran in them that night. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I am faster in those shoes. My first mile included a little warm up and then I was off. Miles 1-3 felt good, I hardly felt like I was pushing. When my Garmin chimed at mile 3, I saw a chance to push. If I pushed- hard- I could pull off 4 miles in what was my very first official 5K time- 35:44. So I pushed. 4 Miles- 35:35-holy crap. This left me on the backside of the lake so it gave me plenty of time to walk it out and breath after. I was super stoked.

Thursday called for 5 easy miles. The first 2 miles were pretty good, but by starting my 3rd lap, I knew I wasn’t completing 5. My ears were freezing. I can’t stand cold ears, they hurt, so I figured one more lap would bring me to 3.5 miles and I would be done for the night. Which I was ok with because there were a few border collies out for an evening walk. They looked well-behaved, but then I never expected to be attacked by one in the first place a few years ago. I admit I never took my eyes off of them when I ran past and my hand may have strayed to my pepper spray. I had a 1/4 mile left to complete when I got to add a new animal to my animal encounter list-

Yep, these guys are actually pretty scary when they charge you and then try to follow you. Great for a strong burst of speed at the end but freaky. Then I realized they were between me and my car. Boo.

My weekend looks pretty clear. No complaints, I would love to sleep in. I need to get in a long run and an easy run at some point but other than that, nothing. I can’t even begin to say how much I am looking forward to that. 🙂
Anyone else have an aggressive goose (or any animal) encounter?
How was your week? Anyone racing this weekend?