Busy

I've been too busy/tired to write in my blog and I guess that's a good thing. Last weekend's NADAC agility trial went much better than the USDAA trial the weekend before. The dogs still had some stress issues but overall were way more relaxed and had some nice runs. Lola finished up her Open Gamblers title which is something I've been working on since last summer so I was really pleased with that. I considered this a nice birthday present from Lola. Cody picked up his first Elite Gamblers Q in impressive fashion and almost got a second Q the following day on a really tough gamble but I was so shocked he made it through the hard part that I forgot to get in place properly to bring him back to me over the last jump and he ran past it without taking it. Even so, I was really pleased with what he'd done. I guess all the distance work we did while I was out of commission is paying off. Cody also managed a beautiful Elite Jumpers run on Sunday earining him a Q AND a first place. This is really something for a 7 year old dog, NADAC's Elite Jumpers times are notoriously brutal to make for the big dogs so to make time by 4 seconds AND win the class is a big deal. Lola's Jumpers run on the same course was almost as impressive but again I didn't manage her well after being shocked that she made it through the hard part and she had an off course on an easy part. Still, she was blazing fast and would have easily beat Cody's time.

Lola had a blazing Tunnelers run, earning a Q and third place. Lola is really fast because of her long legs and stride but her height is a disadvantage on a course made up only of tunnels since she has to duck to get into each tunnel. She lost out to two Aussies who didn't have to duck so far. I don't care too much about placements and I was thrilled she even placed at all since the class was huge. Cody came close to a Q on the same course but I screwed him up on an easy part at the second to last tunnel. It would have been his Open Tunnelers title too so I was mad at myself but part of it was due to not being able to run properly. I had quite a few problems this weekend with that because NADAC courses are very spread out and don't have many turns or technical challenges to them. You really have to haul ass and that kind of sprinting is really hard on me right now. Front crosses are also a problem so I had to make some creative handling adjustments to avoid them and they didn't always work out. It was interesting to experiment though. I managed 6 runs on Saturday and 10 runs on Sunday plus all the walking around, warming up and cooling down dogs, running back and forth between the tent and 2 rings, hauling crap, etc. My quads were screaming Monday morning but no more so than any other NADAC trial and the car crash muscles weren't doing too badly.

No more trials until October 1st. I want to spend some time working on motivation. I'm sure with the cooler weather things will improve but I don't want the dogs being so stressed out. I want them pulling my arm off to get in the ring.

I started running a couple of weeks ago. The doctor told me to start off with a mile and I laughed at her. I was having a hard time just running across the street. So she told me to split the walking and running for a mile until I could run a mile straight then add a second mile of run/walk, etc. It was hard going at the start, I couldn't go much more than 1/8-1/4 mile without walking but yesterday I managed over 3/4 mile without walking and I felt fine doing it. I also went to master's last night and managed 1800 yards, 40 minutes including some tough intervals. I'm at around 57 secs average pace per 50 yards which is way off the 50 secs I should be at but at least I can kind of keep up in the workouts. I even led the lane last night though I could tell the guy behind me was giving me a head start.

Believe it or not I have a race this weekend. I'm doing the swim leg of an off road tri relay in Fort Collins. It's only a 1/2 mile or so but I haven't done any open water swimming in weeks, I've swum in my full wetsuit only once this summer and this race was the site of one of my worst swim freak outs ever. I was going to swim at the Rez yesterday but found out they're only open on weekends now so I have no chance at an open water swim before Saturday. Should be interesting. Main goal, no drowning or panicking.