Four feet down, one ear up, one tongue out. That’s the checklist for my running buddy. She’s a minimalist — no watch, no music, no shoes. She runs for the love of running (and to maybe chase a squirrel or two). Her name
is Hazel and she’s my dog.
Recently Hazel has been tagging along on leading my morning runs. On our first few outings she’d try to run as fast as possible, so I’m thankful she’s starting to get that we’re not in the Iditarod.
Now we’re at the point where each morning as I’m lacing up my shoes, she trots over and pushes her nose into my hands. She’s either trying to tell me I’m tying them wrong or she wants to make doubly sure that I know she wants to run. The guilt I feel when I leave her behind is nearly enough to entirely scrap my training plan to take her along.
So what’s her plan? I’m looking to get her up to 10 miles. At this point she’s run 6 miles, leading the way the whole time. Recently she tagged along from some intervals totaling
5.5 miles. For now I’m looking to take her out twice a week for a 5-6 mile run as her “long” run and maybe one other shorter jog. Hopefully in six months or so she’ll be able to get up there. The big unknown is how far she could go right now. She cruised through 6, but we’ll take it slow from here.
It’s great having a running buddy to enjoy the dark, early mornings. With her logging more and more miles, you’ll be sure to see her make more blog appearances soon. And I should point out, where she really wins is, after our run I go to work and she gets some R&R.
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