This week I’m Thinking Out Loud about the Olympics — still! — the weather (always), running (pretty much always), and of course Bandit. Because it wouldn’t be a TOLT without an animal update.

I’m digging this weather
I’m not so sorry that I missed that week of running — the weather was hot and humid and miserable that week. This week is so much nicer.

It’s going to get warmer again, but at least the early mornings are nice and cool now. I even have to throw on a jacket to take Bandit out around 5 am.

I may be going into Olympics withdrawal
Well, seriously, normally I don’t lay around on the couch all day. And while I didn’t enjoy being sick, it was nice to have something to entertain me while I was getting some much needed rest.

When will I get it through my thick skull?
That it’s okay to miss runs? If you’re sick, or feeling an ache, that is. When you’re sick, your body is telling you loud and clear what it wants — in my case, it was a lot of rest, a lot of tea, and a lot of soup.

So why do I have such a hard time with not running every run on my plan?

I am not one of those people who can just go out there and run 13.1 miles without training for it. My IT band let me know that loud and clear at the end of last week’s long run.

It said you want to run 8 miles with a previous week of 4.5 miles total? Then I’m going to make sure that the last little bit isn’t pleasant. And I’m going to continue to protest once you’re done.

I threw some tape on it this week to shut it up. It worked.

Missing out
Missing my group running buddy, who meets with the surgeon today.

Missing swimming, since the pool is closed until September.

But looking forward to a long weekend away at the end of September. Finally!

My mom’s surgery is today, by the way, so any good vibes/prayers are appreciated.

Adapting from cool to hot weather?
My next half is in Phoenix in October. Looking at the averages for that time of year, at the start it might be about mid to high 60s. Basically about 20 degrees above the average for what the weather will be like back home.

A big difference will be humidity, of course. Phoenix is much dryer.

While I would love to PR this race, as it’s probably my only chance to PR a half this year, I am not really holding out great hopes for that. Still, I’m wondering if there’s anything different I have to consider to accommodate running in a much less humid area? Other than making sure I hydrate well, of course.

Relaxing with Gizmo in the kennel. Because we wanted to, not because we had to! Gizmo now has complete freedom in the house; he has had for several weeks. Bandit, of course, does not, although he has more freedom than he had.

Bandit update
Bandit clearly made Lola nervous at first, to the point that she was throwing up a little. I don’t know if it was just the changes in her routine, or Bandit’s behavior — probably a bit of both.

One reason we wanted a second dog was that while Lola didn’t seem to miss Chester initially, she eventually seemed kind of depressed.

She seems to be much more calm around him now — maybe a bit too calm. She loves to play, and she practically rolls on top of him in an effort to get him to play, which I admit makes me nervous.

So far so good. Bandit doesn’t always play with her when she works her feminine wiles on him, but he does sometimes and they both seem to enjoy it. He is no longer on a long lead as he was in the video above, by the way (and I was talking to my mom, by the way), so when he does decide to play, they run around the entire yard.

Unfortunately he had a terrible case of diarrhea (with no other abnormal symptoms) over the weekend, and we had to take him out every couple of hours for a couple of days — day and night. And once it seemed to pass, he still needed to go out in the middle of the night for a couple of days. We are both so tired. And it’s a busy week.The next little bit might be TMI for some.

The poop department has not been good from the day we got him, and I’ve yet to get to the bottom of it. It had finally seemed normal, until we boarded him and he had his first class, and it wasn’t long after that that he had the diarrhea (which is not that unusual after being boarded, but not, I think, to this degree).

It’s looking better again, but we’ll be boarding him again next week. I’m really hoping we don’t have to go through that again!

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Talk to me. Tell me in the comments:

Any tricks for racing in a warmer area than you train in?

Do all female dogs act as slutty as Lola?

What savory snacks do you enjoy?

I’m linking up with Amanda at Running with Spoons for her: