Day Thirty-Six

Monday
Another mile around the house - wind rain and snow in the space of 12 minutes.
1 minute - 12.12

Day Twenty-Four

Didn't mean to have this week turn out to be the week of bare minimums, but there you go. I set out with good intentions, only to have the heavens open up with knife-like freezing rain. Of course, the sun was shining through it, but it felt like more than just a passing shower and it both froze and soaked me to the bone. Not even a rainbow could keep me running through the rain and the wind.

We'd gone out about 3 minutes before we turned back and did the rest of the run (a total of 10.30) around the house.

Day Twenty-Two

The weather all day has been miserable - gale-force winds with sheets of rain. No letup at all. Toby and I just did 12.42 around the house. I think that should be a mile - I tacked on a few extra minutes to counteract the fierce headwind that slowed us down often. Toby was good - he stayed close.

Part of the yard is flooded and our rain bucket is showing at least a fresh inch and a half of rain. The lake is also quite high as is the river at work. Hope it's not like this all night.

Going out in this sort of miserable weather to keep the streak alive gives me a certain satisfaction and Pleased with Self-ed-ness that is difficult to get from other activities.

Day Seventeen

Did two miles in 20.28. I wanted to run more like 4 or 5 miles, but that retrievery thing was loose in the middle of the village. I didn't want to risk a dog fight, so we turned around and ran back home. Tomorrow's another day.

The weather was wild today - windy, rainy in patches, sunny in places, a rainbow.

Day Sixteen

Didn't have a great run today. It was windy and rainy, so I frequently found myself getting pelted with tiny cold knives. We did 41.09, about 4 miles. Toby wasn't great either - when he wasn't pulling on the leash, he was lunging at cars. It was a struggle the whole way, but I kept going because each minute I racked up made me feel better about myself.

Toby seems to have a great memory. He remembers where the crazy watch dog lives, where we got attacked by the retrievery thing, where he saw the sheep. It gives an added challenge to the run as I have to react to his beahaviour.

Day Twelve

I ran 21:37, two miles, along an old route I used to use. It was a fairly good run although a bit windy. No Toby, as he's in a kennel back in Cork.

Day Ten

The rain came down in windy sheets all afternoon. By the time I'd cycled home, I was already soaked to the bone. I decided I didn't want to get too far from the house and that I should just do laps around the house. Toby could be off the leash so he could get extra exercise.

It was a good plan for the first 14 minutes. Then Toby decided to take off after a car. He came back pretty shortly, but it was frightening to me. I went into the house and got the leash so I could finish the run without having to worry about Toby becoming roadkill.

It was quite disappointing because he'd been having such fun racing around. And when he gets going, he gets that torpedo look that I really admire about his breed.

The final numbers - 20:33, about 2 miles.