2008.08.08 :: Week of Aug 3

MON 2 miles
TUE Agility Practice
WED 1 mile
THU 3 miles
FRI off
SAT Joy Foundation XC 5k :: 40:01
SUN off

Posted at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

:: Joy Foundation XC 5k

Scheduled for Saturday morning. Goal (don't laugh): Break 40 minutes.

To accomplish this great feat:
Splits Times
1 Mile: 00:12:54.19
2 Mile: 00:25:48.38
3 Mile: 00:38:42.58
3.1 Mile: 00:40:00

Posted at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

2008.07.28 :: Week of July 28

MON W9D1, 4 miles
TUE Agility Practice
WED W9D2, 4 miles
THU Travel to MI for Clean Run Seminar
FRI W9D3, 4 miles, CR Seminar
SAT CR Seminar
SUN CR Seminar, Travel Home

Posted at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)

2008.07.22 :: Week of July 21

MON W8D1, 3.75 miles, 2.4 mile dog walk
TUE Agility Practice
WED W8D2, 3.75 miles
THU Dog walk
FRI One mile in AM, Bike ride 5 miles home from work
SAT W8D3, 4.0 miles, played with the dogs by the swamp. Ellie impaled herself on a stick and had to get stitches
SUN Took Katy to park. Ellie home resting with her stitches

Posted at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

2008.07.19 :: CVNPA Summer Race Series

Dates for the CVNPA 2008 Fall Running Series:

Wednesday, July 30, 7 p.m., Pine Hollow - Summer Fun Run

Tuesday, Oct. 7 6 p.m. Station Bridge
Tuesday, Oct 14 6 p.m. Octagon Shelter
Friday, Oct 17 9 p.m. Kendall Lakes – SPECIAL Full Moon Run
Tuesday, Oct 21 6 p.m. Oak Hill
Tuesday, Oct 28 6 p.m. Boston Store

Do this one: Tuesday, Oct. 7 ~ 6 p.m. ~ Station Bridge Trailhead, Riverview Road

(from the website)

Posted at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

2008.07.14 :: This week...

MON W7D1, 3 miles, bike ride home from work
TUE Agility Practice, bike ride home from work
WED W7D2, 3.5 miles
THU Haircut at 5:30
FRI One mile in AM, Bike ride home from work
SAT W7D3, 3.5 miles
SUN CPE Trial with Katy

Posted at 04:15 PM | Comments (0)

:: Week Seven

So, I just checked out the week seven plan of attack:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes). Three times this week.

I can do that. And, I can finally ditch the podcasts! (Not that they are bad! They were awesome for those first six weeks where the intervals are all over the place. But, now, it will be nice to just get into my own zone!)

UPDATE :: I've decided to switch over to distance rather than time for the last three weeks of Cto5k. Right now, I'm pretty close on each, though not quite covering the distance. I've mapped out a half mile warm-up/cool-down segment and a 2.5 towpath segment. I'll run that three times this week with Ellie.

Posted at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

2008.07.13 :: Week Six was Weird

Cto5k
All of our Fourth of July weekend activities pushed my last run of Week Five into this past week. So, I did the twenty minute run on Monday, W6D1 on Wednesday and then ran the two mile Muddy Paws run on Saturday. I think the race counts as W6D3, so I'm just going to cross W6D2 off my schedule and start Week Seven tomorrow.

Muddy Paws Run
The Muddy Paws run was fun. It was a really pretty setting and even though the hills were kind of challenging, it was worth it for the views and overall scenic nature of the event. I accomplished both goals that I had for the race: One was to finish in under 30 minutes (29:40 - done) and the other was to not be last. There were a fair amount of walkers and people who ran the first part, then started walking after the uphills started, so not coming in last was fairly easily accomplished.

Ellie ran the two mile with me. She was pulling pretty hard for most of the race, though, surprisingly, she was actually running in a straight line. Not too much zig-zagging to contend with. She behaved really well around all of the other dogs and even tolerated a curious dalmation who came up to visit her multiple times after the race.

muddypawsmap.jpg

I ran into a friend from agility who was doing the run/walk with her daughter and her two dogs - Katy and Kip. I was with them for the first part of the race. They decided to walk after a few of the stair climbs. I kept running, so didn't see them again. It was fun to run into someone that I know.

Posted at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

2008.06.29 :: ASCA Trial

This weekend turned out pretty well. We ran both days, ten runs total. We went 5 Qs out of 10 runs, which wasn't too bad.

On Saturday, we got our second leg in Open Jumpers so we were able to move up to Elite Jumpers on Sunday. We NQ'd on both Elite Jumpers runs. Mostly just dropping bars and one off course. We got one Open Gamblers Q on Saturday and one on Sunday for our Open Gambler's title. And two Open Regular Qs today - one a 10pt and one a 5pt. Katy's Regular runs were really nice today. The five points off on the second run was for a dropped double jump.

So, she now has: JS-O, GS-O and RS-N.

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

2008.06.26 :: Daily Report

Cto5k
Ran W4D2 yesterday before class. Took Katy with me. She was dragging! I think that deep inside, she's a sprinter (funny). Or maybe not. If I want her to keep up, I'll probably have to bring her frisbee with me. The run was okay. I was thinking a little bit too much about finishing up each sequence rather than just enjoying my pace. But, better days are sure to come.

Bread!
Tonight! Finally, the bread baking class with Peter Reinhart. I've been anxiously awaiting this class and it will be awesome to learn from the master. Tonight's class is based on white breads from the Breadbaker's Apprentice. Tomorrow we work on whole grain breads. His latest book about baking whole grain breads just won a James Beard award.

Posted at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

2008.06.25 :: I made Cheese!

Finally.

I've been trying to make this 30 minute mozzarella forever. Well, it seems like forever. I've tried at least eight times, maybe ten, and it's never come out. The troubleshooting that I did was quite extensive - changing the type of milk that I used, the type of rennet, adding calcium chloride, changing the type of acid that I used to break the curds from the whey. And, still didn't get mozzarella that would actually stretch.

It finally happened. I picked up our first two gallons of raw milk yesterday and couldn't wait to try and use it for cheese. Last night at 10:30, I used half of the gallon to make yogurt and half of the gallon to make mozzarella. And it worked! After all of those failed attempts, I have the recipe and process memorized so perhaps all those failed attempts were not in vain. Last nights cheese-making went off without a hitch and we have a lovely ball of fresh mozzarella sitting in the fridge waiting to grace a bowl of pasta or a home-made pizza. I'm so happy about this!

Posted at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

2008.06.21 :: Brecksville Dog Jog

So, Ellie and I did the Brecksville Dog Jog. One mile, which we both ran without any trouble. It was pretty hot and there wasn't any shade on the course - which meant that I turned beet red before we were finished and Ellie may have overheated just a bit. She wasn't interested in drinking or snacks after we were finished, so I scratched her from the tricks contest! Too bad, since her competition would have been a dog doing a roll-over and a dog that jumped up in the air.

S took some photos and let's just say that I'll have a couple of nice "before" pictures to compare myself too in a couple of months.

It was a good day, though. Later on, I took Ellie home and brought Katy up so that we could do some counter-conditioning work. She was nicely behaved - similar to how she acts at a trial. Interested in looking around at the other dogs, but not particularly zoned in on anyone in particular. Her lunges are fairly benign - though I wouldn't think of letting her loose.

I was going to run again, but decided to hold off on W3D3 until Sunday.

Posted at 03:10 PM | Comments (0)