Dogs.... plus the week in review.

Way back PB (pre blog)...probably circa fall 2008, I was in training for my first marathon.  I was 19.8 miles into a 20 mile run, i.e just about home and I was pretty tired.


I came around the last corner (I was in the street) and a dog that had been standing on the grass (between the sidewalk and street) suddenly darted over and chomped my right leg. 


I saw him out of the corner of my eye, but I was too tired to jump out of the way.


I was, of course, very surprised and shocked.  I looked down and saw blood ..then..as I recall I looked up at the owner (who'd been yakking on her cell phone at the time) and said "Your F*ing dog bit me!".


She had the dog on a leash, but it was one of those leashes you can pay out 20-30 feet and it was paid out at the time, obviously. 


The dog had a guilty "hangdog" expression

hang·dog/ˈhaNGˌdôg/

Adjective: Having a dejected or guilty appearance; shamefaced.

There's a reason for this word exists and this was it....he knew he'd done bad. Very bad. 


The owner was saying "I'm so sorry" over and over. 


I looked at the wound...the dog's upper and lower canines had grabbed a fold of skin and made little tunnels in my tissue until they touched..so I could see the blood coming out of two holes and the tunnel was full of blood. Kinda like some worm had burrowed in and out. It was clear the muscle was not affected so I was not worried.


I looked at the women and said something like "Pay attention and heel your dog!" and walked the 50 meters home. Cleaned up the wound, put a band aid on it. 


I've own dogs as a kid and I love dogs and cats (but alas am allergic to both now) so I think I know what happened: The dog hadn't heard me or seen me and was startled when I came around the corner...he bit me out of instinct.


I don't blame the dog one whit, I blame the owner for not keeping the dog reeled in. These days I assume the worst of any dog owner and stay the hell away from all of them if I can.


The reason I was reminded of this is that a couple of days ago Toni was at a crowded restaurant's outdoor patio and she happened to step backward. Apparently, she tread on the foot of a dog, which yelped and bit her hard in the leg. Luckily, she was wearing thick canvas jeans and so only had no bleeding, "just" a large subcutaneous hematoma....a.k.a. Honking Big Bruise. 


Again, this isn't the dog's fault, it's the owner's fault for bringing a dog into a crowded space. The reaction of the owners was interesting..total denial that the dog could/would bite: "Our dog never bites anybody!", etc.  Since there was no blood or torn fabric, the owners didn't think there was a bite. My wife didn't want drop her trousers in public, so they don't get to see that they are quite wrong. 


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Tue:

"pull" routine

20m ellip, 

10m rowing, 

30m stationary bike (upright)

Wed:

25 min walk

20 min swim 2.5-3 mph?

Thur:

"push" routine, planks, chin ups (wgt assisted)

15m row (2.7km) (HR 120-130?)

35m ellip (HR 120-130)

10m stationary bike (HR 110 115)

Fri:

25m swim ~3mph

Sat 
Rest


Sun
1:30 biking (real bike outdoors), 19.2 miles, 13.5mph, HR 127


Not a bad week. The swimming is going much better than I'd hoped, although I'm still mushing about with my technique.


Hopefully I will keep improving...soon I'll be up to 1/2 hour which is the nominal limit to the water treadmill sign up time. (But often you could get two back to back if you wanted it seems).


I like the rowing too...it's like doing zillions of very low effort squats with some low effort ab crunches and arm pulls. 


I think rowing  and the elliptical are best for complementing running


Sunday (today) I took my bike out on the roads. It takes me about 15 min to get to/from some fairly open road that has longer stretches without stop signs or lights and so really only 1 hr was at decent speeds (15-19mph)  


But I got some good HR going (135+) for that hour. 


I still refuse to buy a bike jersey...so I wear my running tech shirts which flutter in the wind and give me away as a old guy that really isn't a biker. 


The errant muscles in my right leg are healing up ....but I'm not going to run on it for at least another 2-3 weeks. 


BTW: If you look, you'll notice "Half Ironman Tri" is on my goal bucket list now 8)


The swimming is the big unknown..swimming 1.2 miles in open water still seems the hardest part by far.