Roxy training diary month 44
January 2007

Jan 27.  Ran my first race today since starting my marathon training plan.

The Good: I felt like my training has been helping my time.  I put in a pretty fast first mile and then gutted it out for a PR of 25'05".  That was 87/186 overall and 9/11 for males 45 to 49.  That's just over 8 minutes per mile, which is faster than I have been but still far from where I need to be on a 5K.  If I can get to a 7 minute mile, I'll be doing pretty well.  The overall Masters (i.e. over 40) winner was Jules Magda, who posted a 17'54" time.  He's a year older than me, too.

The course was dead flat, running near the "shore" of the Great Salt Lake.

The Bad: The race was held in rotten weather conditions.  We've been having serious inversions here lately, and so we all had to breathe a frozen chemical fog as we ran.  We started at a frigid 14°F (–10°C) and by the time I finished my 5K and training run, it was a blazing 24°F (-4°C).  

As I mentioned, I really pushed myself — I really wanted that PR — and so by the end of 5K (3.1 miles), I was pretty wiped.  Rosemary came and met me at the finish line and all I could do was to go sit on a rock for a few minutes and catch my breath.  At first, I was pretty sure I couldn't run any more today.  After a few minutes, I felt pretty good again so I got up and started walking.  I needed to put in a total of 7 miles to keep up on my training calendar.  The marina was almost two miles in the other direction from where the race was held, so I walked about 200 yards of it and started running again; there and back plus the 5K I ran already was between 6½ and 7 miles, so that was good enough for me.

Jan 17.  More followup on this weekend's activities, and some weird odds-and-ends I've collected recently.

KUED did a radio report on the agility trial.  Their description of Elizabethanne is spot-on, especially if you know Elizabethanne. 

Brandy sends us a link to Roo's blog.  I guess Roo had a good time visiting with us.

Okay, enough for the normal part of the world.  Here comes the weirdness.

New Zealander Denise on 43T sends along a link to a story about John Hopoate, a rugby player with a strange, strange way of saying "hello".  This one is for my friend Tracy Smith.

Those of you who enjoy watching people make fools of themselves just to get 15 seconds on TV being dissed by Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell might like to hear Ali Lohan sing a self-penned Christmas ditty.

Meanwhile, sister Lindsay (who sings backing vocals on the above "song") has checked herself into rehab one more time.

It's odd to ask for privacy at the same time you have to bring an entire SUV-laden entourage to help you check in to a high-profile facility.

Not as odd as publicly claiming you've been sober one week when you've "been going to AA for a year," but some people lead confusing lives. 

Jim Cradles Roo

Finally, the couture from this weekend's Golden Globes is ready to be studied at Go Fug Yourself. 

Along with global warming, the recent strong uptick in global weirdness has me concerned.

Roxy Is Surprised to Be So Cute

5/6 of the Arnolduses

Jäger and Roo

Jan 14.  The Arnoldus family again met us at the agility trial.  Rosemary and I swapped dogs for Standard, and Roxy did a fantastic job running with her.  There were some problems with the contacts — Roxy came off the side of the seesaw and you can see her launching on the dogwalk below — but other than that, Rosemary and Roxy made a great team.  I ran Dylan and got a first place with him, but only because the border collie who had been beating us all weekend NQd.  He had a refusal at the A-frame that was my fault, but the end of the run was fast and fun.

In JWW, back with the "regular" handlers, Dylan did great but Roxy had a bit of trouble, so we wrote that one off.

In FAST, Roxy did not qualify.  We did fantastic up until the Send.  The "Send" (a gamble-like sequence) was seesaw – panel jump, and she balked at the panel.  The line bent away from the seesaw (5') to the panel (7') and I could have handled it better.  That used up enough time that we did not get to the finish line as we should have, and we were 8 seconds over anyhow.  Roxy did very well, though, and I was proud of her.

"Roo" is a four-month old puppy out of Cowcutta Kennels.  She is a beauty out of a Giddy X Ryder litter.  Brandy, Crystyl and Joe really love her.  She and Roxy got to get their play ya-yas out, too.  Good times.  You can even see baby pictures of Roo.  It was nice for me to get my puppy fix for the month. 

Jan 13.  Today was an agility trial, just 30 minutes south in Farmington.  It is really cold outside, in the teens, so it makes dog-walking especially unpleasant.

Nonetheless, both Roxy and Dylan had a great time.  Roxy continues her steady progress.  She's much less freaked out at trials than she was last summer and fall.  I've kept her in Novice to try and build up her confidence.

The first run today was pretty bad, but I expected that.  She often has trouble with the first run of the weekend.  Her standard run was not too bad, with 4 refusals/runouts but a huge improvement in attention from what I had been seeing. 

We took time late in the afternoon for an obedience "show and go" that the sponsoring club mounted.  Stand for Exam is her weakest exercise and she almost made it through without moving, but she was overcome with shyness and shirked away from the judge.  We worked on that a bit.  Her heeling was not bad, and on the group stays, she did fine on the one-minute sit but broke on the three-minute down.  Considering the rough dirt surface and the distraction of dogs running agility just six feet away, I was pretty pleased with her performance.  I think we are on track to do Novice obedience "for real" in March when the local club has a trial.

Finally, she and I tried out the AKC's new "FAST" class, which is a kind of gamblers/snooker hybrid (let's call it "Gambooker" or "Snooklers"), for those who know about agility games. 

Roxy Launches Herself

Roxy and Dylan Want to Be Elsewhere

To my amazement, we picked up a qualifying score of 51.  There were lots of Qs today, but I was still proud of my little girl.  Since it's a new class, everyone was in Novice, so she beat out some more experienced dogs to get her Q.  That's one of the three Qs she needs for her Novice FAST title.

Roxy is doing so well, I've decided to try moving her back up to Open on February 17 when we go to our next agility trial.

We also spent a good bit of time hanging with Brandy and Crystal and their new ACD puppy, Roo.  Roo and Roxy even got to play a bit.  We forgot our camera but Rosemary took some pictures on the phone and Brandy promised to send some, so I will post them here if/when I have 'em.

Roxy's Goal for 2007: Drool More

Jan 2.  I had a big ol' time in the kitchen tonight, cooking up a storm.  I made stuffed bell peppers, and baked oatmeal, and butterscotch pudding, and Watergate salad.  (No, I have no idea why it's called "Watergate salad".)  There I was, bustling away, and I noticed that Roxy was really enjoying watching me cook — so much, in fact, that a couple of huge ropes of drool were hanging from her flews.  By the time I got the camera, only one huge rope of drool was left, but you get the idea.  I guess Roxy thinks I'm a pretty good cook.

Time to run down progress on last year's training goals, and then make new ones.

2006 goals

Maintain my weight loss and stay between 190 and 200 lbs each day in 2006.  (I started 2005 at 237 lbs.) 

I was a little above 200 for the last several weeks this year.  Time to recommit and get back to it.  My marathon training plan should help with that.

Exercise regularly (at least five times per week) and run in my first 10K in the spring of 2006.  Run a 5K with a sub-30 minute time.  Run a leg of the Ogden Marathon with my Academic Affairs teammates.

I did exercise regularly, but probably not five times per week consistently.  I ran my first 10K, my first 15K, and first half-marathon.  Then I ran two more half-marathons, including the Ogden half. 

Earn Roxy's NA and NAJ.

Done.  We still haven't progressed out of Novice, though.

Roxy and I will earn one standard leg and two games legs in USDAA agility.

We got one games leg (in Snooker, just last month) but no Standard legs.  While it's hard to find USDAA trials around here, we didn't make as much progress as I would have liked in USDAA.

Compete with Roxy at the Novice level in AKC obedience.

Did not do this. Maybe this spring (see 2007 goals).

Train in agility at least three times a week.

Didn't happen.

Train in obedience at least three times a week.

Once a week, if you count the training classes we attended all year.

2007 goals

• Maintain my weight loss and stay at or below my goal weight (200 lbs) each day in 2007.

• Exercise at least five times a week.  Train for, and run, Ogden Marathon on May 19.

• Compete with Roxy in AKC Open agility, earning at least one standard and one jumpers leg.  Earn Novice FAST title in AKC.

• Roxy and I will earn the Agility Dog and Starters Snooker titles in USDAA agility.

• Compete with Roxy at the Novice level in AKC obedience in March 2007.

• Establish regular agility and obedience training routines.

Paris Hilton Alert

Paris visits Sydney NSW

(not Sidney, Montana) and:

stiffs a waitress

visits little babies

gets hosed off