Running Doags of Boyden

It's not a typo, doags is a real word according to Wiktionary, which I just discovered through good old Google. Imagine what my grade 10 English teach would have thought of that sentence some xx years ago... fail!

But speaking of dogs, it was the hot topic for yesterday's run on the Boyden Lake roads with good olde Andrew and Trevor. Andrew is finally coming around from his calf/achilles problem and Trevor is winding down for an upcoming leg of the Cabot Trail relay race next weekend. Trevor's comment about midway through our 12 mile loop was something like "This is a nice quiet route but why is it there seems to be more dogs than cars!?" I think he's right. The dogs were all very good with 2 friendly labs looking to go for a little jog along with us but most were tied up and looking for something to bark at . The 2 little terriers, who went completely bonkers as we passed by their territory, at the end of the run were just the icing on the cake! Besides the animals, it was a perfect day for us running doags and we were able to get caught up on each others plans and strategies for the coming months. I won't spill any beans here just to keep up the suspense and will leave it to them to say.

My running is starting to come along with a total of 42 miles for the past week including a nice out and back tempo run on Thursday. This is one of my favorite type runs where I go out for a certain time or distance and then turn around and retrace my steps at a stronger pace and effort. This one was 30 minutes out and 26:30 back for a total of 7 miles at an 8:12 average pace. I always feel energized and refreshed after these and often use them when running with no specific goal in mind for the day. I'm also still on the alcohol free diet, which is a real pain (and I let my dentist know in no uncertain terms) but this should soon pass when I get off the medication. My face is also finally almost back to normal (after 2+ weeks) which is a great relief, as is being on solid food once again!

Besides this, I'm now looking forward to just 2 more weeks of work before a nice little holiday to visit family in Ontario. There will be lots of running and visiting going on as we travel here and there to cover all our bases. It should be lots of fun!

Have a great week and keep on running!