I was really dragging yesterday. I am not sure I am caught up from not sleeping earlier this week. I came home to a fun little package from Orange Mud. My husband immediately tried to claim the silicon pint glass. Nope. Not happening. Mine. All mine. I will be trying my new handheld out all week and will report back on my first impressions. You can read more about them here.

No. You can’t have my pint glass. It is sweet and it’s mine!

I had a 6 mile recovery run on the agenda. I was perked up a bit by hi-caff tea and toast with jelly. Atlas and I set out nice and easy at Prairie Spirit.

Here is the problem with Atlas. In the first mile, sometimes two, he thinks he has to stop. He usually poops two or three times, which is fine. But the marking thing…. No. I don’t have time for him to stop and pee on every rock or stick that looks interesting. I really need to figure out how to break him of that.

We were doing OK until we got to a road crossing. On the Prairie Spirit trail, you cross a gravel road every mile. Normally this is great since I can have someone meet me every two or three miles to make sure I am still running. In this case, Atlas decided he needed to pee in the middle of the road. He has done this before, but this time, there was a car coming. We had plenty of time to cross the road, but I am not keen on hanging out in the middle of a road. I kept trying to drag him along, but he did his stupid “lock his legs and crouch down” so he can’t be budged thing. I managed to tweak my knee trying to get him out of the road. And I was not happy about it. I let Atlas know how any happy I was by mean-mugging him and telling him “bad dog” the next mile as I had to run on a sore knee. Not cool, dog. Not cool.

First aid kits in your trunk are always a good idea.

Once I made it to the waiting car, I put an ice pack on my knee and gritted my teeth while we drove home. Atlas knew he had messed up, and slunked in the back seat.

After my shower, I slid the ice pack under the left leg of my jammie pants and watched a McFarland USA again. I get sucked in every time it is on TV. If you have not seen it – watch it! Even if you don’t like running or cross country (which… why are you reading this blog then????), it has a great story line. Danny always makes me cry at the end. Just like when Secretariat comes around the corner of the track. Damn Disney movies. Sniffles.

I am hoping I am good to go for 8 miles tonight. I probably won’t take Atlas. He is in running time-out.