Saturday, January 14, 2006

First Post of the New Year

It's already 2 weeks into the new year and this is the first chance I've had to post anything. I signed the adoption papers for Strummer so now he's officially mine and he's been running us ragged. He does not settle down. Ever. Now I know this about Border Collies, it's not like this very hard to miss fact has slipped my mind and I like hyper dogs but with the other two it's a bit much. But he's a lot of fun and we're settling into a schedule. I don't think I'm going to make any grand triathlon plans this year, probably a good idea anyway since running is coming back so SLOWLY. Right now I'm battling some problems with my right knee popping/giving out every so often. Running makes it way worse so I've backed off of what little running I was doing. Swimming is coming along o.k. and I'm even getting some mountain biking in with the nice balmy weather we've been having. I'm going to try to be better at posting weekly mileage counts, really I am.

Had a wonderful ride on my mountain bike today, 2 3/4 hours, 26 miles of sweet singletrack and dirt roads. I've been taking to doing a mixture of trails/dirt roads on my mountain bike rather than going for a long, boring road ride on the pavement. For some reason the traffic's been freaking me out and I can't motivate myself to leave the house due the thought of it so the trails it is. More fun, I can wear my mp3 player and it's all biking, right?

AGILITY
I had a USDAA trial last weekend that did not go as well as I'd hoped. The dogs had been doing so well in practice I was sure we'd have a great trial, pick up some titles, qualify for regionals, none of which happened. The dogs didn't seem all that stressed out but Cody did some things he does when he's stressed. Both dogs had trouble going down on the table and this cost Cody a Q in his standard run (we were clean but 2 seconds over time) and his advanced level title. Lola had a nice table on Sat. (but we had some other problems) and laid down right away on Sunday but popped up and wouldn't lay back down at all. Most of the rest of the issues were mine, poor handling caused missed Q's in both snooker and jumpers runs.

Ironically the highlights of the trial were in the 2 masters (highest level) classes that we're in. Cody pulled of an amazing performance in master gamblers TWICE (we had to rerun it because there was a problem with the timer). He got a Q and first place on a course that most of the really good people were shaking their heads and laughing at. One of these days I'll scan in the courses, noting my mistakes for future reference and so I can keep track of what I need to work on. Lola's first time in the master jumpers ring went well too, we got all the difficult parts but I celebrated too early in my brain and ran past a tunnel before she was really committed to it, causing her to run past it and go off course.

Now I have to decide if I want to go to Lawrence, Kansas in Feb. for a 3 day USDAA trial. Well, I WANT to go but it's a 9 hour drive and a lot of money to enter so it's a big risk if there's a snowstorm and I can't go. Somebody slap me upside the head and tell me it's a stupid idea.

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