Part of this week’s running program included intervals – specifically 6 x 500 metre at speed with a 1 minute standing rest.

With some minor stiffness in the calves and a big run planned for the weekend I elected to run around the football oval on soft ground.  And as it was intervals Missy the golden retriever with OCD was allowed to come along too.

Just the sight of the dog lead or hearing the familiar clinking noise of the chain is enough to send her into grunting, whining squeals of excitement and wagging her tail so hard she almost falls over.  When she finally composed herself we hopped in the car and headed to the oval.  Two big things – a ride in the car and a walk!

Normally Missy behaves quite well on the lead, especially when we are running intervals (running at speed stops her from being distracted) – but on this day she introduced new training obstacles to test my adaptability and resilience (not to mention patience!).

The first two 500m runs were knocked over in pretty good time and Missy didn’t even seem to mind the standing rest.  On the third run though we saw a couple of dogs being walked outside the oval.  Excited at the prospect of new playmates and fresh butts to sniff, Missy managed to cut me off, then run behind me and then double back while we were both running at a fair pace.

The result for me was a mid run pirouette, scissor jump over the lead, a couple of one legged hops all the time trying to prevent my self from being tied up in the dog lead.  For anyone watching I can only assume I looked a bit like someone from the Ministry of Funny Walks (a la Monty Python) or Mr. Bean at his best.

Missy’s reward was being dragged back into line and an almighty spray from me.   Looking all apologetic and remorseful I figured that wouldn’t happen again…. Yeah right!

Who me?

Whilst the acrobatics were interesting, hardly helpful for a solid run.  By the time we got to the last 500 metre run she had little interest in anything other than stopping for a rest.  So despite a number of small distractions we had a pretty good hit out and I’m now ready for a couple of big runs towards the end of the week.  After all its only a couple of months to go til the big race!!

The main aim now is to stick as close to the program as possible and good management to avoid injuries – so far so good!

My top 5 Running songs from my playlist from Tuesday are:

Hard To Handle – by The Black Crowes
Sex On Fire – by Kings of Leon
Minority – by GreenDay
Miss You – by Foster the People
Run – by Gnarls Barkley

A 50 minute run and a 2hour 2o minute run scheduled for the next few days.

Happy Running!!