Champ

Run: 10.2mi/1:39:10

++I really have to wonder what's up with the guy who's out walking his dog in the morning and carries a baseball bat. Is it to be intimidating? Does he hit baseballs for his dog? Is he a scary attacker? I don't know, but I ran right past him and he didn't hit me. I win!

++I had planned a run that involved running across town, out to the restaurant I normally run to, back home, and back out to the restaurant again, which would equal ten miles. Instead, I didn't want to do the out and back a second time, and I made up a really horrible course off the top of my head. It was bad.

++To remedy my bad fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants "plan", I pretended I was Dean Karnazes running the last 4 miles of his first attempt at the Western States 100 miler. Yeah, I wasn't quite Dean Karnazes but it was fun to think of it like that. My legs did hurt.

++The dogs were out in full force today. I hate them.

++Lucy ran almost all of the last 7 miles with me - her longest run ever. She's a champ. The best part is that toward the end I was making loops around my house and when she was feeling spent, she just went home. She's funny like that.

++I was reminded this morning of how scared and sensitive Lucy is. When I went out for my first three miles, I left Lucy tied up. I know she barked the whole time I was gone. When I came back to get her she was barking her head off, and as I approached her I pointed at her and said "I'm going to give you a tranquilizer!", and as I moved to take off her chain, she cowered next to the ground. I had to tell her I was just kidding. Lucy was abused in her formative years and still has quite a bit of fear.

+And I, personally, was just two tenths shy of running my first 30-mile-week ever. I'll take it!