Look, Ryan, an update!

I hear you. I hear you saying I suck at keeping this blog updated. You're sick of checking in and finding nothing new. I guess the "blogolicous" post was enough satiate your demand for Renee & Scout updates for a couple of weeks, but that just doesn't cut it. You're right. The month of June was paltry in terms of blog postings. Just two. Pathetic. All right. I vow to be better in July. Afterall, you need something to do at work, right?

Training - I have now completed three weeks of a 12 week training program. This program is supposed to be my golden ticket to Boston. After all, I paid $99 for it, so it better work...as long as I actually put in the work ;) So, after three weeks, I would describe my relationship with this $99 training program as "rocky".

Week one started while I was on the family vacation, so I only got in 22 miles. 12 of those 22 were done in one long run. My notes say I felt good that day and ran at 9:22 pace (well within the plan recommended pace of 8:44 - 9:44).

Week two totaled 33 miles, with one tempo day, one stride day, a (not so long) long run of 7 miles (was supposed to be 12) followed by 6 miles at 8:40 pace the next day. On Saturday, my scheduled long run day, I felt really tired. Perhaps it was the tempo run (4 miles @ 7:36 w/ 2 warm up and 2 cool down) that left me fatigued. I'm not sure, but I'll watch it in the coming weeks. So, I only ran 7 of the 12. However, the next day I ran 6 at just 10 seconds slower than race pace, and I felt really good.

Week three was a shorter week with only 23 miles. This week was really hot, so I found it difficult to find a good time to run. If you know me at all, you know I am NOT a morning person, so getting up at 5:30 to do a run while the air is cool is not high on my list. I'll blame it on Scout. She likes to sleep in like nobody's business.

So, week four and it looks like I'm already playing catch-up. Today - tonight now, as it is - I will have to do my long run. Yesterday we hiked about 8 miles, but that doesn't really count. It counts for Scout, however, as she probably hiked (ran, jumped, chased critters, swam) about 25 miles. I should have hooked her up to a GPS and mapped it. That would be funny. Anyway, Scout's off the hook for tonight's run. She gets to stay home with Sargent and rest her little feet.

Speaking of Scout (since it is her blog too)...she's finally become "official" on the list of Pet Therapy dogs volunteering at the hospital. What a process! More of a process for me, really. Scout had to have two days of training and two behavior checks to make sure she wasn't going to bite anyone. I, on the other hand, had to have something like 6 months of training before the organizers even wanted to see Scout. Maybe they thought I was going to bite someone. I told Scout that even if she didn't like it, she had to pretend since it took what seemed like FOREVER to get approved. Look at that...she even has her own little photo ID badge.