My dog is smarter than I am.

Coty was right & I was wrong.
I told her we'd go for a run this morning, then decided to wait out the rain first.  She was mad.
The rain let up and we headed out around lunch time... had a great run - 5.5 miles total, ran 4 of that, felt great!  And still got rained on for about half of it.  All I really accomplished was to delay the start of my day from 9am to 11:30.
My dog is smarter than I am.

I tried a couple of little experiments today:  wore a "belly bag" somewhat like a belt, and ran it through the hand-hold of her leash.  It was great having both hands free!  Bonus:  when my head got hot I had a pouch to put my hat in.  It bounced against my leg a bit while running, which I was worried would be annoying and distracting, but that wasn't bad.  Coty ran right at my hip for the first mile, then got the idea and started testing out the system, running ahead, hanging back to sniff things, just like normal. All in all it worked out well!

The other experiment today was working on endurance again.  If I'm going to join the 1/2-marathon training group, I need to be able to run longer distances without walking breaks.  My training over the past few months has de-emphasized the endurance factor and prioritized speed.  I'd like to keep working on both, but think I've been relying too heavily on those short breaks after each mile marker.  It's easy to justify the breaks since I'm always running with the dog, and her priority has nothing to do with distance or endurance!

So today I ran 2 miles without stopping (well, as best I could... Coty insisted on a couple of quick pee-breaks which couldn't be avoided).  I'd like to build up to running 5 miles without a break.  Two wasn't really that hard - I knew it wouldn't be - so maybe next time I'll go for three.  I may have to convince the dog it's a good idea.  :-)

One funny thing... lots of squirrels on the Trail today and not very many people, so after about 3 miles I let Coty run off-leash.  She had a great time chasing them around in the woodsy area at the edge of the Trail.  She kept coming back to me, and giving me a look as if to say, "See the squirrels?  They look FAT and JUICY and SLOW."

I told her, "I know... but so do I this week, which is why we have to KEEP RUNNING!"

My dog may be smarter than I am when it comes to procrastinating our running, but I know why we do it, and that's good enough for me.  <3