Picked Over

After 3 weekends of agility in a row and a heavy training schedule this is about how I feel.

I know, ewwww.  Buzzards gross me out.  Yet I couldn't help stopping when I saw them at the side of the road.  At first I thought they were some ugly ass breed of chicken.  Then I realized they were awfully big and had entrails on their heads.

I was hoping for zillions of pictures of cute babies - buffaloes, goats, horses, I don't know, anything but gross vultures.

Still.  Kind of cool even if they do barf me out.

USDAA trial this past weekend was very very fun, perfect weather for an outdoor trial.  Only 1 Q in Advanced Snooker which I do need to move up but still very fun, very challenging courses.  It was our debut in Masters Standard and it felt so good to be able to sink our teeth into them.  I missed Sunday's Standard walk-through but still managed to figure it out by watching some other handlers and except for Strummer popping out of his weaves it was a beautiful run.  The course was so difficult that he still ended up in 3rd place even with the 5 faults and lost time for re-doing the weaves.  So I guess it means a maximum of 2 dogs Q'ed in the 22" Championship class.  This was the theme for the weekend, very low Q rates in almost everything.  I'll write a bigger report when I'm not feeling so dragged out. 

Dragged my butt to masters today for the 1st outdoor workout of the season.  It was fabulous to be outside but I was dragging ass.  No one else in my lane and it was 'real' masters with Jane rather than the skills/technique session I go to all winter.  Jane's workouts are notorious and I haven't been to one since last summer so it was a bit of a shock to my already worn out system.  Seems wrong to take a rest day after taking it easy before the trial last week then not training during the weekend but it was an outdoor trial with lots of walking and I had lots of runs and my quads are toast so I think I need to take tomorrow off if I'm to have any hope of a semblance of a training week ahead of me.

Wordless Wednesday

Too Tired Tuesday

Too tired/busy right now for a post about the weekend's DOCNA trial so instead here's a nice photo from agility practice this morning at my training partner's house.  Strummer had some big fun and had some nice collection on jumps and a couple of awesome difficult weave pole entries.

View of clouds clearing out of the Flatirons.

I was supposed to go on a bike ride today but it was cloudy and I was tired and Tuesday is normally my rest day and wah wah wah.  So I rode my bike the 3 miles downtown to do an errand and called it good.  At least I saved gas, pollutants and driving aggravation though the idiot hippie in the big mad hatter hat who along with his friend was taking up 2/3 of the busy bike path downtown and refused to budge and let me by was somewhat aggravating.  I used to commute on my bike all the time back in the day and it was scary enough but now with cell phones and GPS displays and the basic decline in human common sense and intelligence I'm borderline terrified.  But I'd get so much more bike mileage in and save gas and wear and tear on the car and work is only 2 miles away on mostly quiet streets so I'm making an effort to ride my bike more when it makes sense.  May is going to be all about the bike.  I'm sad to leave behind all but one of my boot camp classes but it's time to shift my attention to the long neglected bike.  Just as soon as the 12" of snow we're supposed to get tomorrow melts.

Bear Creek Lake Park

Jonny and I took a trip to Golden to check out Bear Creek Lake Park since it was one of the few places where the trails were dry.  The trails are very easy, smooth singletrack.  A couple of short super steepy bits but otherwise fairly easy going.  There is a good climb up Mt. Carbon, if you want to call it a 'Mt.'

View of 'Mt.' Carbon

Nonetheless I had tired legs and felt the climb since I'd gone to Kangoo boot camp class in the morning and the instructor was feeling especially fiesty. 

View of Denver from the top of Mt. Carbon

Turn around 180 degrees and you see this.

And another view from Mt. Carbon.  If you squint really hard you can see the Red Rocks Amphitheater.

They have an off-road triathlon here in the fall and I've never done it.  Last year it was a couple weeks before Xterra Nationals and the year before, its first year, it was scheduled for October and this made me leery due to the possibility of snow or very cold conditions and sure enough it snowed.  They held the race a week or two later as a duathlon.  I'd love to do the race but again it's a week before Xterra Nat's. this year.

It's a nice park, not somewhere I'd send a tourist but a good place for locals to get out and stretch their legs while waiting for the mountain trails to melt.

In all we rode only 8 1/2 miles or so but I was tired after the morning's workout and an accumulation of hard training over the past couple of weeks.  And I have an agility trial this weekend so I didn't want to go too crazy.

I should say I hope I have an agility trial tomorrow.  Strummer managed to get into a 1/2 full container of Jonny's salsa.  I've given him some hydrogen peroxide but so far no puking.  Little stinker is determined to hold onto it.  I really don't want to find out what happens when a dog eats 1/2 a container of salsa.  Guess I'll try a little more H2O2 and hope for the best.  This dog is aging me quickly.


Edited to add:

We finally have pukeage!  Phew.  Though it's sad that a vomiting dog is the highlight of my Friday night.

Snow Fun

Once again Tuesday's agility practice is cancelled due to 10" of snow.  No, none of this snow is from last week, my yard was melted down to the grass.

April is the second snowiest month but still, this is getting kind of ridiculous.

Though aside from missing agility practice I don't mind all that much.  Thankfully Tuesday is my rest day.

Strummer doesn't believe in rest days.

At least the sun is out and the snow is winding down so this may finally be the end of the spring dumpings.  In a day or two I'll be complaining about the heat.

I have an indoor agility trial this weekend and with temps. expected in the 70's I am a bit concerned that it'll get too hot.  Especially since neither Strum nor I are acclimated to that kind of heat.

I'm also bummed that I'll be inside on such nice spring days but oh well.  I only signed up for 3 runs each day so hopefully I can get out a little early and enjoy the sunshine.  I did manage to get out to the field on Sunday for some solo practice.  Dogwalk is getting better with some remedial work.  Once the yard melts I'll set up the plank/table and I think a few refresher sessions will have him ready for the weekend.

At the field I set up a small sequence to practice wraps using different handling methods - Ketschker vs Front Cross vs Forward Send.  The ground was still a bit tacky so I was able to use his paw prints to trace his path after each rep.  The Ketschker ended up way tighter than the others.  It would be helpful if I had video to compare execution of the moves but I knew I wouldn't have time this week for the project of processing the video so I didn't bother.

Course was blue jump/tunnel/yellow jump back to tunnel.

The tightest path was with the Ketschker, next tightest was the front cross, widest was the forward send.

This is not to say the tightest turn was the fastest.  But it was by far the 'prettiest' and by that I mean Strum had nice collection before the turn and knew where he was going with the Ketschker.  With the others he turned more on the flat on the landing side and had more concussion to his shoulders.  Also worked on some Top Spin just for fun.  I had a similar set-up to last time and went much closer to the jump this time, had more of a pivot and remembered to leave myself enough room to allow for a little motion so he wouldn't stall out.  No photos or videos unfortunately but it did feel more comfortable this time and he hit the weaves correctly every time.

Now if only the snow will melt.  Someone decided to express his opinion about missing agility practice today and being cooped up yesterday during the storm.

Playing Tourist in East County

Trails were too muddy for biking on Saturday so once again I hit the dirt roads for a visit out to The Cowboy in East Boulder County.

I ran into Jonny who was all shook up from nearly being hit by a car.  He decided to ride with me for a bit even though I'm way slower.  He showed me a blue heron rookery which I've never quite made it out to.

One of these days I'll go out there with my telephoto lens and real camera but all I had on Saturday was the point and shoot.

We also visited the largest plains Cottonwood tree in the country.

There's an Osprey nest right next to the road on my route and today one of them was hanging out on a nearby pole while the other was in the nest.

You can see a wee bit of a fish tail to the left of the pole.  Guess he was saving his snack for later.

Nice view of the Front Range from the heron rookery.

I'd like to say that that last lingering bit of powder on the mountains is the end of the snow for the season but we're due for 8" by tomorrow morning.  It was supposed to start raining this afternoon then turn to snow later but alas, it's only 10:00 a.m. and the snow has started already.  They also said the first 2" probably wouldn't stick since the ground is so warm (was shorts weather yesterday) but it's sticking in my yard already.  Can't believe it was sunny and warm an hour ago.  Oh well, at least it's coming now and not this weekend for my agility trial.

Wordless Wednesday

Shock and Disbelief

As shocking as the Boston Marathon bombings are to the general population they are even more of a sucker punch to the gut for those of us who are runners and especially those of us who have completed marathons.

The finish line of a marathon is already a powerful and emotional experience.  For the average person, training for a 26.2 mile race involves a  lot of hard work and sacrifice.  Getting up at 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning to get that 20 mile run in on already tired legs before it gets too hot or getting up at 4:00 a.m. on a Wednesday to get in that 12 mile run before work.  Then having to go to work or mow the lawn or deal with your crazy dogs who now need their exercise and meet all of life's other demands and you're tired.  So tired, all the time.  You end up cutting out a lot of other activities because over time the training wears you down.  You become obsessed with your nutrition and your gear and the weather.  But you've set your goal and you know that after all your hard work that finish line and amazing sense of accomplishment are waiting for you.

This is me and my friend on April 24, 1983 finishing our first marathon, the now defunct Lake County Heart Marathon that went from Zion to Highland Park/Ravinia in the the northern suburbs of Chicago.  I was 18 years old and running a marathon was not so common as it is now.  I felt like if I could do this, I could do anything.

30 years later I can still feel the mix of physical and mental fatigue and joy and anticipation as I approached the finish line of my first marathon.  I even remember encouraging another runner on just a mile or two from the finish as she made noises about giving up.  And then the incredible feeling of accomplishment and exhaustion and relief and happiness when I crossed that finish line.  The emotions you feel at the sight of the finish line of a marathon are something you have to experience first hand to understand completely.

And for many, the Boston Marathon is even more of an emotional event.  It's not easy to qualify for Boston.  It can take many years of hard training to qualify and some never do despite the hard work.  Boston was never one of my goals but for many people I know it's a powerful, intense, life changing event.  The finish line there is particularly notorious for its incredible celebratory atmosphere.  I find the idea of being greeted by a bomb at the finish line of this or any marathon incomprehensible.  How those runners at the finish line of Boston found room for the emotions of a bomb going off and the horrible aftermath in addition to all the other emotions and exhaustion they were already feeling is even more incomprehensible.

Marathon running has grown in popularity over the years but it's still a fringe sport.  Most people don't even know Boston is being run until they see it on the evening news.  Heck, I didn't even realize it was going on until the NPR program I was listening to was interrupted by news of the bombing.  In hindsight I can see how it's a perfect target in so many ways but before yesterday I never in  a million years would have expected a marathon to be a terrorism target.  How dare the real world intrude on our little community.  And perhaps even worse, on the supporters of our little community because the spectators bore the brunt of the blasts and suffered the worst of the injuries.  I can't fathom how it must feel as a runner to have such a hard earned accomplishment paired with the death or severe injury of a loved one who had selflessly come to support me.

Finish lines should be about joy and accomplishment and the wonderful feeling of exhaustion from a goal well met.  Don't let the terrorists take away your finish line.

Edinburgh Marathon (Scotland), June 2004