Running with Armadillos, Skunks, Kanyes & Humans!

I’m tired, kids. Gone over 500 miles the past 2-3 months getting ready for the Chicago Marathon. That’s a lot of 3:45-4:00 am wake-up alarms. The good news is that I still haven’t missed a single day of training. That, and I’m relatively healthy – no major injuries to report – just the odd aches and pains and colds and coughs. It’s going relatively well, all things considered, if you must know, I do declare, but I digress.

The past weekend saw our 2nd 20 miler of the training plan.

If we make funny faces, it’ll mask our pain.

Oh, that reminds me, in August we ran 198 miles. And yeah, I thought about running an extra two, but then I unthought about it.

So close to the double century mark. Oh well, there’s always next month.

Back to last week – One nice surprise was the rare “short” weekday run – Only a 5k! That’s a far cry from the 12 miles scheduled we ran just 7 days richard prior. Decided to do it on the track – just a few pre-sun 800’s amongst friends.

It was dark. Used a flash. My shoes glowed.

And is it just me, or are there a lot more varmints out and about lately? On the track there was a skunk…a SKUNK…On.The.Track!!!!

There’s also been some coyotes, frogs, bobcats, bunnies, more skunks, and some giant roly poly bugs…

Happy to report we outran the armadillo. And we were sure to cautiously approach the dangerous HS XC team behind us – oh how I hate them with their short shorts, long hair & zero body fat.

Not sure what’s going on…are they all foraging for winter sustenance? Do I need to do the same? Should I start hoarding choco-sprinkle donuts like these smelly critters…?

Strange beasts indeed.

Oh, and did I mention the snakes? Indiana Jones would hate it up in hurrah..

It’s totes real.

That pic above is courtesy of Thursday Night Social Run – as always, things got crazy with TNSR. There is so much going on below, that I don’t even…

Da Fu?

There’s been some more runs and funs, but I’ll get to that, like later, or whatever, no big whoop. For now, I gotta go lay down, put my feet up and watch the new episode of Drunk History. Hasta luego, playas!

How bout you? Been seeing any critters on your runs? Armadillos – cute or dangerous? If you were an animal, what would you be?

-Scott

Disney Dopey Training Week 8

Disney World Dopey Challenge – 4 straight days of races in Jan – 5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2.  On the Hal Higdon plan I’m following, his week’s start on Monday…er, ok.  Mine start on Sunday, but whatevs.  Going by his plan, it looks like this:

Mon – Rest, Tues – 4 miles, Wed – 7 miles, Thurs – 4 miles, Fri – Rest, Sat – 10 miles, Sun – Cross Train.  I also have a couple gym sessions in there, and still deciding on my cross – Def yoga, but maybe a little trail run too?  We shall see.

So Dopey indeed!

This is one of the “easy” “off” weeks that we are rewarded with after pulling a back to back weekend of runs.  This past weekend was a 6 miler followed by 16.

This morning’s run was kind of eerie.  Not many people on the roads, not much light from the crescent moon, very overcast, mighty windy (around 20 mph), humid humid – 90%, and 70 degrees.  So yes, my tank top was soaked.  The weird thing was that most of the run there was a faint smell of skunk in the air.  I hate coming across skunks on my runs.  I have yet to be sprayed, but I’d rather avoid any chance.  Believe you me you, I was analyzing every shadow to see if there was a white stripe in there (no, I’m not talking about Jack White).  Luckily, ole Peppy never revealed himself to me today.  Maybe he smelled my musk from my sweat and it was too much to handle, so he scurried off.

True words. It takes a lot of work.

My only dilemma this week is that I usually get up early before work to run.  If you don’t know, I work as a TV producer.  And the problem is that I have an early shoot on Wed.  So I’d have to get up extra extra early to get my 7 miles in.  I’d say I should just wait and do it in the afternoon, but we’re supposed to have a massive storm roll through town.  Don’t think I want to be running in hail weather.

Oh crizzap, I think I just convinced myself to get up at the butt crack of dawn.  I guess it’s good training, after all for the Disney races, we have to wake up at 2 a.m.  Yes, it’s an early check in and start time, so the alarm goes off at 2 flippin a.m.

How’s bouts yous guys?  Ever come across a skunk on a run?  What’s the earliest you’ve gotten up to run?

Running with Dogs, Skunks, and Roosters, Oh My!

So in my post yesterday, I wrote about some wildlife encounters I’ve had while running.  I’ve since remembered a few others.

Dogs.  I am a dog person, but not when I’m running.  I can’t tell you how many times dogs have come charging at me.  It especially happens whenever I run with my (leashed) dogs.  Almost every time it happens because the dog’s owner doesn’t have him/her on a leash, and aren’t pack leader enough to make them stay by their side without one.  Sometimes the dog is a stray or escaped from it’s home.  I’m sorry, but when a dog comes at me barking, I am going to kick it or throw something at it.  I don’t care if the owners are there or not, I don’t want to get bit.  The owners never get mad at me for doing so, they’re too busy apologizing…I rarely accept their apologies.  I will tell you this, the one time I didn’t kick a little barking dog that came at me, it bit me.  It turned into a whole big thing with animal control, emergency rooms, quarantine, rabies tests, etc.  What a mess.  I should’ve followed my instinct and kicked it, but I was trying to be nice.  Don’t worry, after it bit me, I kicked it good in the head and it scurried off whimpering, all while the owner apologized.

Skunks.  Nothing makes me alter my course more than coming across a skunk.  Recently I came across a couple of them on a paved trail I was running on through a neighborhood.  I stopped dead in my tracks and slowly backed up.  Luckily they ignored me and eventually left the trail so I could continue on (only after I let them get far away).  I will never do anything to piss a skunk off cause I don’t want to get sprayed.  My one friend actually did get sprayed by one on one of his runs.  No thank you!  I don’t want to have to bathe in Chef Boyardee Ravioli, or whatever the remedy is.

Roosters.  This one actually freaked me out the most.  I was in Guam and was about to go for a run, when our hosts looked at me in dis-belief.  They couldn’t believe I was going to run with all the wild roosters out there.  I didn’t get what the big deal was, but they said they’re very territorial.  They also explained that many of them had escaped or been set free after being trained for cock-fighting.  Then they gave me a metal pipe to run with in case I had to defend myself.  I had never been scared of a chicken before, but was so freaked out that I ran in a circle around the block over and over, too afraid to venture out and suffer the wrath of a territorial cock.  After that, I did all my runs on the roster-less beaches!

Peace!