Running: Troubled Training

I have to say that I'm kind of glad that the trouble has started this early. It seems like that trouble has usually occured nearer to race day, but not this year.

Part of the trouble is that I haven't really managed to maintain my training pace since we got Ursa. The time demands of puppy are pretty high even now that she's settled in. This has slowed things a little, but that isn't the major cause of my troubles.

The real trouble has been the muscles spasms in my back and shoulder. I'm not even sure what could have caused it. But it has slowed down my training since it has made long runs very difficult to complete. In the last couple of weeks I've only managed one run longer than 2 hours without the spasms bringing things to a premature halt. Even that single long run was on the edge of something painful in my back.

So training up the curve is on hold while I work with deep tissue massage, shiatsu, and more core workouts. Shorter runs have not been a problem, so I will try to get more of those into the schedule. In a way the shorter runs have been lots of fun since I don't have to worry so much about carrying myself for more than an hour or so. It's also been a great way to get back to basics by working my form some more. The shorter runs also mean I can run faster.

So overall there are pros and cons to the situations. I'm just happy I can still run.

Life: Ursa @ Home

Time flies when you're having fun - or running after a three and a half month old puppy. Thankfully things have started to settle into a routine.

I won't post the photos of Ursa here, but you can check out the Flickr Photostream here. I have more photos to go through and upload. Of course, there will be many more photos to come. Ursa is kind of hard to photograph well sometimes with all that puppy energy.

The time spent in on the flight was obviously one thing Ursa didn't like all that much. She wasn't at all happy the first couple of night about being back in a kennel or in the dark by herself. Eventually it worked out that I slept in the living room where I was visible from the kennel, and also that there was a little more light coming into the house from the street lights. She's still not always willing to go into her kennel when we need to leave her home alone for a few hours, or even just to keep her out from under foot or safe while unobserved. But she is slowly adjusting.

Our Solstice party was a hit by all accounts. I have no doubt that we will make this an annual event. We had lots of kabobs to grill, so between manning the grill and keeping an eye on Ursa I had my hands plenty full. Thankfully the Blackie temperament put in a stellar show as she was quit calm and at ease despite all the people and activity. She had little reaction to the kids running around or the noisy conversation.

The following weekend it was off to Dinosaur Provincial Park. The drive out was uneventful, and the highway was downright deserted for a Friday evening when compared to the QEII heading to Edmonton. Ursa got to meet many other people and a few dogs during our trip. Everyone was curious about her breed, amazed at how calm she was, and awed by the fact that she was only three months old at the time. Ursa also managed to collect all sorts of dust, grass and tree fuzz in her coat over the weekend. She was downright dirty, and it wasn't all going away without a bath later that week.

Canada Day we headed to Cypress Hills in southeast Alberta before coming back to Medicine Hat for a family reunion with my Dad's side of the family. Again Ursa was a star as people wondered about her breed, amazed at her size and age, and surprised by her temperament. This made for a family reunion somewhat short on visiting because of puppy supervision, but she did well again with the crowd and the kids.

In between the trips have been lots of walks and play. It's downright hilarious to see Ursa's ears flapping away as she runs along beside me sometimes for a block or two. This and her happiness at ear scratches have garned her the affectionate title of "Floppy Earred Monster". Also on the funny side is her penchance for hiccups and snoring.

House training is going well for both Ursa and her owners. No significant accidents to report as of late, but vigilance is still required. We try to take her out every few hours, after meals and after letting her out from the kennel. We are also getting better at reading the signs for the need to make a trip outside. Progress is also being made to train Ursa to relieve herself on command. This will be especially helpful for traveling.

Progress is also being made in other areas. Except for being a puppy and having some lack of focus therein, Ursa does amazingly well when walked on a leash. She will often want to stop to smell or taste things, but can usually be coaxed into moving without to much delay. Ursa will usually 'sit' nicely if you have her attention, but 'down' seems to elude her even when attempting to lure her with treats. 'Stay' is again hit-and-miss dependent on her attention and energy.

Aerin and I both swear you can notice Ursa slowly getting bigger as the day's pass - or even in an afternoon sometimes. Such is the Wway of the Puppy.

Life: Puppy Arriving!

It's been a long while since I posted anything here. The weeks have passed, and we are finally going to the airport to pickup Ursa. Something happened -- we're not sure what -- to delay her departure from last week to this week, but she is currently crossing the Atlantic and soon to go "feet dry" over Canadian soil somewhere out east.

So tonight it's off to the cargo company to pickup paperwork. Then it's a trip to the Canada Customs office in the Arrivals Terminal at the airport. And then finally it's back to the cargo company to actually pickup Ursa. We're taking her some food and water for after the flight, and no doubt she'll be ready to stretch her legs for a bit before we load up in the car again to head home.

The remainder of the evening will be spent introducing Ursa to her new home - the backyard, the rooms she'll be allowed to roam, and her crates. It'll be an interesting night to see how she does in the unfamiliar surroundings. Luckily I'm taking the rest of the week off to help Ursa get settled.

We're having our Solstice BBQ (yes, we know we're early) this weekend, so that'll be the first real introduction to a lot of people. It isn't a large affair, so I think Ursa will do just fine with some close supervision of her and the small children.

More later this week. Of course, pictures of Ursa too.

Life: Puppy & Stuff

I would seem odd to mention our interest in getting a trailer for traveling in a post about Ursa, but it does have a connection.

Our major consideration is how do we travel with a large dog. A Kia Spectra5 isn't the biggest car in the world. So we thought about getting a car top carrier. I have a number of issues with this. Security and aerodymanic profile are my two big ones. I'm not sold on how you would keep things secured. Since we car camp we're pretty much stuck with reloading the car with a lot of our gear just to go somewhere other than the campsite. Any large enough to carry what we need would make the car significantly top heavy and high profile. This is on top of the relatively low cargo capacity of the axles when fully loaded. We'd likely still need space in the car, and then there's the matter of fitting Ursa in there too.

Thus, we come to the trailer option. While more expensive up front I think we do better for space and cargo capacity for the reduction in fuel efficiency. There is also the plus that the trailer we're considering is all aluminum construction. It will hold up pretty well over the long haul so long as we continue with vehicles that have a trailer hitch. We do need a trailer hitch for the car, but that is a relatively minor thing overall. A car top carrier may or may not work down the road, and, frankly, the construction is nothing by comparison to the trailer. I'm sure that Meg and Geoff could also get some use out of it too.

As for Ursa's arrival we have a tentative date of June 2 with departure on June 1. Exact times and cost are to be determined. This means we can hold off on a few final decisions (trailer, dog stuff) for another week. We will make the trip to Edmonton to volunteer at the Blackfoot Ultra without having to worry about Ursa. Our first official trip with Ursa will come in June when we go camping at Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Running: Back in the Groove

I've been trying to get this blog written all week. It's about time I actually finished it.

It's been a month and a half since I did my run analysis. I'm very happy to report that it is really paying off for me. The strength and form are doing well from what I can tell on my end. My running pace has improved significantly without an increase in perceived effort. My runs have gone from an average pace with walk breaks of around 11:30/mile to 10:00/mile. When I'm actually running it's closer to 9:00/mile. And the really cool part is that my hill running has greatly improved. I can sustain the uphill much longer and go much faster on the downhill.

Last weekend I finally got in a run around the Glenmore Reservoir. Half-way around it started to drizzle and snow, and it kept up until I finished 9.45 miles after 1hr 35min. It was too cold with the wet and wind to take walk breaks on the second half, so I just kept plugging away. I felt really good through most of the run after some early tummy complaints. At the end I was very happy with this run. I'll certainly go back for more since it's a lot more interesting than the trail along the river valley in my locale.

It will be a few more weeks before I venture across the river to run on the escarpment again. The snow and ice on the trail will take some time yet to melt enough to be safe to run on. Or I might just go anyway with my crampons again - I just don't want to be constantly switching them on/off.

The arrival of June will herald weekends in the mountains for training runs. I hope to be out there every couple weekends. I need to sit down with a trail book for a bit to figure out where I want to actually go.

One thing I'm going to try is less frequent runs, but higher mileage per run. This deviates from what most training regimes would recommend, but for me it's a matter of getting in my miles in a way that I can enjoy. Usually the first 45 to 60 minutes has never been the best part of a run, but once I get past that I feel much more relaxed and ready to put on the miles. So I'll try this for a few weeks to see how things work for me and my body. In between I'll continue the core and strength training.

Life: Puppy Update

A little under four weeks to go until Ursa can be shipped from Sweden.

I went to the bank to wire transfer a deposit to the breeder, but found out that 1) I didn't have enough information for the transfer and 2) the banks are crooks. With a $15 fee plus 10% of the transfer for the shifting of a few electrons representing 1's and 0's is robbery in my books. Unfortunately something like an international funds draft or money order hits the breeder even worse with what is apparently a 33% tax. So now we are trying to find out if we can use another bank to do the wire transfer for cheaper. We are talking with the breeder about just sending the whole price of puppy and transportation as one payment, but we have to wait to see how big Ursa is when she ships.

Yesterday Aerin and I took in the Calgary Pet Expo. It was a relatively small, but busy, affair on the Stampede grounds. There were a lot of booths that we didn't stop at, but there was more than enough dog related stuff to interest us to make it a worthwhile trip. We got a sealed food container and some bio-degradable poop pickup bags for our walks. We also found out some interesting info pet insurance.

The fun find of the day was a group called Urban Mushers. They had some examples of dog scooters (or kick bikes) that Aerin could ride while Ursa pulls. This is something again that will have to wait for Ursa to finish growing, but it means both Aerin and Ursa can come along for some exercise while I'm running. We also hope to make contact with some people about dog drafting too through these guys.

Training options are an ongoing discussion between Aerin and I these days, but I think we've kind of settled on a combination of the purely positive training methods with corrective methods to give us the best results. Both have their pros and cons, but after a lot of research we're pretty confident we can maximize the pros and minimize the cons by taking a mixed approach. We will likely take in a puppy class for the socialization opportunities, but we will forego any additional training classes with the exception of some specialized training (scent tracking, drafting, PALS) that we need certifications or are simply outside our experience.

So there remains some dog gear to acquire for the arrive of puppy. Most of the additional gear will come next year when Ursa is finished growing to allows us to expand our activity choices.

[Edited at the behest of Aerin.]

Life: Puppies!

Just in case you were waiting for word on our progress towards getting a Black Russian Terrier pup, wait no more! The litter was born March 19th.

We'll be getting a female pup from a breeder in Sweden hopefully the middle of May.

You can see puppy pictures on Aerin's blog. We won't know which of the girls will be ours for a few more weeks.

Our parents will have to be content with the "granddog" instead of a grandchild.