Yeah, We Are Crazy Like That!

    
     Well what can I say, my wife and I just can't get enough joy out of having cute little dogs running around, so without further ado, meet Mekah.  She is an nine week old short haired red dapple dachshund, that so far has fit in perfectly.  We have slowly transitioned away from chihuahuas into dachshund lovers, we must just love sausage parties! (#)  Sorry I had to say it!

     How we came about getting another dog you ask, well this one, like them all, was all Mandy.  She trolls this website hoobly.com that has all kinds of stuff for sale, kind of like craigslist, but seems to be a big site for pets.  She came across this listing for Mekah and we both instantly fell in love with her and there was no way I could say no.  If you are wondering why we would buy a dog when there are so many great dogs that are in need of adoption, well when you are interested in a specific breed it is harder to find a one that way and believe me when the time is right we will have a rescue dog in our family.

     Mandy came up with the name from a short lived character of a little girl on the Walking Dead after we were re-watching all of the seasons on Netflix.  This will will be the first girl dog since Buffy our Cocker Spaniel we had when I was a little kid.  She is definitely a daddy's girl and is working overtime to wrap me around her little paw.

Now for the gratuitous cute puppy pictures.

Jax Has Arrived

   

   
     Eight to ten weeks ago Mandy and I had been really talking a lot about getting another dog, why I don't know, we needed one like we needed another hole in the head.  We follow a ton of dogs and dog specific streams on Instagram of dachshunds and were just falling in love with all these puppies.  We, and when I say we I mean Mandy, started looking for new litters of puppies in the area and managed to find two.  We visited one and just weren't getting a good vibe or maybe we were just still unsure and we walked away.  Mandy called the next day and he was already gone, so we knew if we wanted one we would have to make an on the spot decision and live with it.

     We went to see another litter that wasn't ready to come home, but we found out that there was only one still available.  The minute we saw him we fell in love.  I am not much for a white dog, and maybe that is because I wear a lot of black, but the markings on this little guy were amazing.  We didn't hesitate to put down the deposit started counting the days till he came home.  

   

 We had about 8 weeks to weeks to wait and at week 4 we really wanted to see him again, so Mandy texted the owners and they were more than gracious enough to allow us to come over and visit.  By this time his eyes were open and all the puppies were moving around a lot more.

     Fast forward to a week ago and we brought our little Jax home.  We named him Jax because we wanted a cute name that sounded good with Jedi and Jax is the name of Mandy's favorite character on the show Sons of Anarchy.  Plus I got to name Jedi so it was only fair she got to name Jax.  He sleeps a lot, which is common for puppies and he has some trouble right now with separation anxiety, but we are working on it.  He is just so freaking adorable, and I can't wait till he grows up and I can start taking him for a run every now and then.  

And Then There Were Three

     Oh you think this post is about my running, well it was until today, now the title of this post can be considered a double entendre.  As you might have read a few posts ago about Team Elite, I am running the MercyHealth Glass City Marathon on a relay team.  As of now I am running the final leg of the relay which tops out at 5.3 miles, so my therapist has worked up a training plan to get me prepped and ready.  My plan is slowly ramping up my mileage and Wednesday I went for a three mile run for the first time in months.  Miles one and two were fine, however mile three was a little tougher.  By the time I finished my legs were tired and the muscles around my hip were a little sore.

     Today, was the second try at three miles and it when quite a bit better.  I won't lie and say that my legs weren't tired but overall I wasn't as tired and I wasn't sore at all following this try.  

     I woke up this morning ready to go out till I looked at the temperature sitting right at 30 degrees and thought "come on man".  I decided to put off the running till around 6:30 when the temp would be at its peak of 50 degrees, this turned out to be a good decision.  The sun stayed out and warmed things up enough to take today's run from almost bearable to down right enjoyable.  Now, I am supposed to keep my pace down to around ten minute miles, but I felt good enough that my pace naturally settled in at 9:45 per mile.

     Ok so now why the double entendre, well we're soon to be proud parents of a new baby boy.  Oh did you think a baby, baby?  Nope, were are more about the fur baby type then our species.  Currently we have a 13 year old, Widdle, and an almost two year old, Jedi, chihuahua/dachshund mix.  Back about a month before my first marathon we had to put down our 11 year old full blood chihuahua due to health issues and recently my life co-pilot Harley, my domestic short haired cat who had been with me for a long time.  We have talked several times about bringing in another pet and decided that getting a third dog vs a cat or any other animal would be best, but we didn't get serious about it till very recently.  Today Mandy came across a litter of mini dachshunds that were only about a half hour away from us that were born just two weeks ago.  They still had one male available, so we went for a visit.  We got to see the whole litter and could see why they were snatched up so quick.  They were all so cute seeing them cuddling together.

Introducing our new baby boy Jax.  He will be able to come home with us on May 14th.

 

The Loss & The Heartbreak

 You left my life,

But you will never leave my heart!

     It is a sad time in the Running In The Fat Lane household.  We were faced with the decision that no parent of a furry four legged child ever want to have to make.  I know this blog is geared toward my running and weight loss journey, but sometimes life throws you a curve ball that really can affect you.  I thought this would be a nice way to remember our little Stinka and give you all a little window into the family side of my life.

     Back on Valentine's Day of 2003 I asked Mandy to marry me, obviously she said yes, but that was the genesis to where Stinka would eventually enter our lives.  At this point we were not living together and we had decided to have our wedding in June of 2004, so we were trying to decide between renting our buying a home.  At this time the rates were pretty good and it made a lot more sense to buy, so we started looking for our home.  One day we were out shopping and stopped into a Petland store to look around and play with the puppies.  Now I know what your thinking, a fucking pet store, but when we saw Stinka we fell in love with him.  We were young, stupid and didn't know any better, but even those poor dogs deserve loving homes too.  Anyway, we bought him and Hemi became part of our lives.

     To explain the name thing, we originally named him Hemi and stuck with it for a while.  He was trained on it and all his vet papers and his original ID tag had that name.  Well as time went on Hemi became pretty known for; well his stinky farts!!  We were constantly commenting on how bad they were.  Mandy and her family are known for giving their pets all kinds of little nicknames, and one night Mandy called him Stinka.  Over time we were using Stinka more and more and Hemi less and less.  Before we new it, Hemi was a lost cause and Stinka would forever be his name.

     

     In October of 2003 Stinka, Harley (my black domestic short hair cat), Mandy and I moved into our new home.  It wasn't long after that that we felt like Stinka needed a friend and we brought Chopper, who through the same nickname process is now named Mr. Widdle, into our home.  The next 11 years Stinka has been nothing short of pure joy in our lives.  Dogs always seem to know when you need a pick me up and Stinka was always there to give us kisses, I mean A LOT OF KISSES, even when we didn't want any.  Stinka sure didn't like other people a whole hell of a lot, but he did love other dogs.  He would always wanna play with the neighbor dog and bark at every little noise he heard outside, which annoyed the shit out of Mandy and me, but today I miss it terribly.

     I am not going to get into the details of what led us to this decision because frankly it doesn't fucking matter.  It is a hard and painful decision and I don't envy anyone who has to do it.  All that matters to us is that we had 11 wonderful years with him and that we were able to give him what all dogs want, a home with parents that love him.  He was our child, our first child and we loved him every day of his little life. 

RIP Stinka

Mommy & Daddy love you and miss you

wednesday weigh in

     Finally, my schedule seems to be settling down a little and getting back to a normal routine.  Today was the first Wednesday that I have had off in at least a couple of weeks.  It is nice not having anything pressing to do today either.  I can finally just get my run in and kick back a little bit and enjoy the day.   

     I played with the puppy after my run so he is tuckered out and sleeping right now and the other two dogs followed suit so I've got a little free time to write this.  As you read last week, I am not concerning myself with my weight until after the marathon, but I am still going to monitor this situation.  As much as I don't care what the scale says, right now, I really don't want things getting to out of control.  Having said that, here is what my weigh in looked like this week.

9/17/14 Official Weigh In

181 lbs

Change: -2 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 136 lbs

Current BMI: 28.3 (overweight)

Change: -.3

     My running schedule is all kinds of jacked up this week due to some rearranging I had to make the last couple of weeks.  Normally my run today is my long run which usually is the longest mileage, but it also means I would be running it at 9:50-10:00 min per mile avg pace.  This week my Wednesday run is my longest mileage, but it is also wound being my race pace run for this week.    Now I am sure my regular readers have noticed I've been getting faster during this training cycle and that my original race goal was between 9:00 and 9:10 per mile  Lately I have been running slightly above race pace at 8:50-8:59 avg mile which, one, I think will better prepare me, and two, my body just naturally seems to wanna go faster.
   
     Today's run was 14 miles and it felt pretty darn good.  I did the same route I did for Saturday's 13 mile run, I just turned right instead of left towards the end to add that last mile.  The weather was really nice today, almost a perfect day to run.  It was a little chilly when I left so I wore a thin pair of gloves to keep the hands warm, but between my long sleeve tech shirt and the sun doing its thing, I warmed up pretty quickly.  By the end of the run it felt really comfortable out.  

     when I sat down to write this I uploaded my Garmin to see how my splits were.  I was really happy with how close and steady they were.  With the exception of the last mile, where I pushed myself to have a strong finish, my slowest mile was an 8:57 and my fastest was an 8:51.  The other thing I liked about it was the fact that there was no big swings in pace.  Its not like one mile I ran an 8:51 and the next was a 8:57 or vice versa.  The whole run felt rather smooth while I was running it and it shows in the numbers.

     I would love to stay and chat, but I have some chores to do and get ready for a Fremont Elite Runners Club meeting tonight.  Also, here is a funny picture one of my Ragnar SoCal friends shared on Facebook.  I thought I would show it because it is a great tip for anyone who may have a circus in town. LOL
 

Marathon training week 10 recap

     

     It was an insane week to say the least, but I managed to make it work.  Twenty mile long run, new puppy, work and a wedding, I sure as hell don't know how I fit in 41 miles but I did.

Sunday:

     Today's run had the best weather I have ever had for a long run, I couldn't ask for any better.  Mandy and a friend was heading to the local flea market so I gave her my route just in case she wanted to swing by and say hello.  When I got started I wasn't trying, but I was bookin it right off the bat.  I got to the end of mile one and looked at my pace, 9:37, and realized this was going to be a good run.  That is until I got another half mile in.  I was getting pain in my inner right thigh, I paused my watch and stopped to check what the problem was.  My compression shorts developed a hole and was causing a major chaffing issue.  Just as this was going on Mandy drove up.  I asked here to run home and get my body glide, so I continued on and she met me a little while later with the body glide.   The body glide helped tremendously, but when I got back home and took a shower, it was pain city.....
 
     Anyway, other than my early chaffing issue the rest of the run was nice and smooth.  I am not going to tell the minute by minute story of how we got our new puppy, Jedi, but while on the run, Mandy called me saying she was in love with a little puppy.  My response, keep in mind I am at mile 12 of 20, I said its up to you honey.  If you think its a good idea than bring him home.  I got home before she did, but when she did he was with her and I have to say I was in love when I saw him.

  
     I pulled my phone out and snapped one quick shot of my view, nothing spectacular but the clouds looked pretty cool.  My nutrition has not been a problem at all.  I did switch up from peanut butter Clif crunch bars to the chocolate chip ones, those seemed to be easier to get down with no issues and should be better if I am low on water.  I also wanted to show off my route.  When I saw it I thought it looked like a gun so I turned the map and sure enough....Bang!

Monday:

     Obviously a rest day following a 20 miler and with a new puppy, sleep is at a premium.

Tuesday:

     I woke up and my thighs still hurt from my long run so instead of an 8 mile easy run I switched some things around and decided to do just a 4 mile easy run.  I am glad I did because my thighs were burning by the end.  It was a full moon so visibility was going to be a lot better, or so I thought.  I did my usual out and back route on the bike trail and when I leave from my house the first quarter mile of the trail there are no trees.  With the full moon I could see low lying fog over the corn fields, but nothing on the trail, that is until I got to the trees.  After that first quarter mile, from that point on there is trees on at least one side of the trail and I am assuming that had a lot to do with why the fog was on the trail.  Once I hit the tree line it was thick fog and I wasn't able to see more than 5 feet in front of me. 

     On this run I really wanted to concentrate on keeping my pace very consistent.  I was shooting for a 9:30 mile and I ended up crushing my goal by being able to keep my pace between a 9:29 and a 9:31.  I was quite proud of myself and happy with how the run played out despite my legs still being so sore. 

Wednesday:

     With my legs still sore from Monday and being tired from my lack of sleep I decided to float my run till tomorrow.  The legs are feeling better but I just don't want to risk it.

Thursday:
     Quite cool and dark out.  First run I have worn long sleeve shirt since spring time.  I did 2 miles out and 2 miles back on the bike trail again.  This time there was a pretty good head wind for my first two miles which kinda explains my pace.  In the first 100 yards of my run I came across another skunk, but this one was in the grass along the edge of the field instead of right on the path.  Despite it being a skunk, it was kinda cute because it started to run along with me for a couple of seconds till I passed him and left him in my dust. LOL  After that it was a nice steady run to the turnaround where at that point I had the wind at my back and was able to cruise on home.  When I got just to the end of my run, who did I see, that darn skunk again.  This time he was almost on the path so I gave him plenty of room and sped past him.  That's all I need is to get sprayed by one of those damn things.    When I saw my splits I could tell that the wind did affect my pace, however I liked that my first two miles were steady as well as my last two miles.  

Friday:

     I had 4 miles on tap for today, but it wasn't going to happen, and here's why.  Thursday was a very busy day, I was up at 4:45 to run and spend time with the new puppy.  I was on the road to go to work by 7:45 and had a lot going on all day.  My work day finally came to a close a little after six then I headed across town to north Toledo to meet a couple buddies for a concert.  When the show let out at midnight I made my way home, which was almost an hour away, and of course the puppy woke up when I came in.  By the time I got the puppy tired and was able to crawl in bed it was almost 2am.  I was leaving work early so I could attend the rehearsal for my friends wedding so I though I could run before that.  Well the new pup had other plans, because all he wanted to do is play, which was fine because I could run after the rehearsal.
     The rehearsal ran a little longer than I thought and while I was on my way home I realized I didn't have anything to wear.  I made a pit stop to pick up a new pair of pants and a shirt.  By this time it was pretty late and I have 13 miles to do Saturday morning so I skipped the run and called it a day.

Saturday:

     Today's run was 13 miles at race pace and I set myself a goal to not let any mile drop slower than an 8:59 per mile.  It was a little cool out and with the wind blowing it was down right chilly.  Despite the chillier temps I did enjoy the run.  The route I planned for myself gave me a head wind for the a few miles.  I felt really good and got into a rhythm early.  During this run, all the right songs played and mentally I was just feeling this one.  My pace did bounce around a little, but overall the numbers look good and I was able to accomplish my goal.  When I got home, I had to rush around and eat so I could get ready for the wedding.  

Week 11 begins now

* For quick access to my entire Marathon training journal click the "Marathon Journal" tab just below the Running In The Fat Lane header