My new running partner?

This is Maddie.  She's my sister's dog and FULL of energy.  Her husband BIKES with her while she runs along.  Sometimes they do this for an hour! She has that much energy.

Although I've been running for a long time, when I look back at some of the things I've done, I think they haven't been the wisest decisions. I used to run in secluded trails very early in the morning by myself. Probably not so smart.

Since I recently moved into the same neighborhood as my sister and she recently had a baby, she doesn't have as much time for Maddie. This might be a good opportunity for Maddie to get some exercise and for me to gain an exercise partner for my early morning runs. Though she can look ferocious and mean, she's really a sweet dog. I ran with her this afternoon and we had a good time. She was going at a pretty good pace and was fairly well-behaved, save for the few attempts to chase after the bunnies she saw.

I wonder if she'll do intervals too??

That Crazy Girl on the Treadmill

That would be me. This morning. 5 am. Did you see me there? I was the one running non-stop. People came by and joined in, doing their walk/run, but then they left. Rounds of people came. And they looked over at me. With the water bottles, discarded gels, and drenched towel. Step, step, step... focus, focus, focus.

TWO HOURS. Two hours!!! The treadmill doesn't even allow you to go that long. The LED display only has enough digits for 99 minutes so at that point, it turned off and I had to reset it to start again.

I felt surprisingly good. There might be something to this theory that eating more during training will help you perform better. I managed to get down 2 gels and 1 bottle of the Powerbar drink. It started tasting nauseatingly sweet near the end and I had to chase it with some water afterward though. My fellow triathlete friend D (who is very fast BTW) says she would have tried to get down 3 gels, but this was pretty good for me.

I could barely walk after I was done. Just think, by this point in the race, I'd already have swam 2.4 miles and biked 112 miles. And I'd STILL have to run 13 more miles! YIKES.