I’ve Thinking Out Loud — well, not out loud, but I’ve been thinking for a long time, about my car. And whether or not it would pass inspection. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. But that’s not the end of the story.

Remember my wonky check engine light?
My car didn’t pass inspection. The first time. But not because of the light. Mr. Judy turned it off with our code detector.

No, we forgot about the fact that NY state has started to enforce the law against tinted windows — we’d tinted our windows when we lived in TX. So it failed because of that and because the tech managed to break one of the lug nuts.

Mr. Judy went kind of ballistic on them, as they were the last people to put the tires on the car. So they agreed to fix it no charge. Except we still had to take the tint off of 4 windows.

We got it done, although it was time consuming and tiring, and I am happy to say the car is legal for another year. I suppose this is a sign that I really should consider a new car. You kind of hate to get rid of a 17 year old car that runs well though!

Collecting trail running tips
I enjoy learning and I’m a former Girl Scout who believes in being prepared. So yes, I’ve been surfing around for trail running tips.

I’d love to hear yours, though.

I can’t yet tell if my body feels better by doing 50% of my runs on trails. I think it does, but sometimes when I get up I still feel like a 100 year old woman — it takes a while to loosen up, it seems.

I thought it was the heat . . .
That I sucked at heat. But the truth is I still haven’t figured it out. Maybe it’s hills + heat, or hills + heat + humidity. Obviously I did well in NOLA (read about it here), despite the heat & humidity; it was a flat course. I did well in Phoenix, too (read about that here) — insanely hilly, but a dry heat.

Both of those races I also got in a few runs in those conditions prior to the race.

But races with a sudden heatwave?  Races that were hot & humid & hilly? My next to last, hot long run this training cycle? Those all sucked.

The good lord made us all out of iron. Then he turns up the heat to forge some of us into steel.
— Marie Osmond

I guess I need more data points, as Mr. Judy likes to say.

Is Half Fanatics worth it?
It occurred to me, one day, that if I finish my scheduled halfs, I will, indeed, have completed three half marathons in three months.

I don’t really see what you get for your $45? And I don’t envision myself ever mooning up, either.

So tell me, half fanatics, wise investment or not?

A shoutout to Sporn
No, that isn’t a misspelling. It’s just the most awesome double dog leash (you can buy at this Amazon Affiliate link here) ever.

You can walk two different sized dogs, even a small one and a large one (although of course I’ve never tested that). It resists tangling, and when it does, it’s easy to detangle.

We always walked Chester and Lola on one. I always thought using two leashes was just nuts, and that was pretty much confirmed for me when we got Bandit and I had to, although Mr. Judy didn’t seem to mind it. I didn’t think we’d ever walk the dogs on a double leash.

Only now we do. So much easier.

You can adjust the space between the dogs — we used to have Lola and Chester fairly close together, but I just think Bandit and Lola need a bit more space between them. Sometimes I do have to grab Bandit’s leash so that he doesn’t take off while Lola is still sniffing.

But the company is even more of a class act than I realized. I noticed, after we got out of our fenced in yard but thankfully before we’d gone very far, that the leash on Lola had come off. Turned out the claw hook had broken. Being a little dog, I just picked her up and we took the dogs back into the yard and got two leashes.

We had a spare, only I couldn’t locate it. Mr. Judy contacted the company because there’s a limited lifetime warranty. We’d been using this leash for at the very least a decade, probably longer. And they sent us a brand spanking new one. Now that’s a class act!

I’m not sure the story would as happy an ending if it had been Bandit who busted free. No doubt it was Bandit that broke it in the first place, he can get pretty excited when he sees other dogs.

Come run Utah with me
Don’t forget that code crj15 gets you 15% off of your registration for the Utah Valley Marathon (your choice of three race distances). The price goes up on March 2, so register today!

I’m running the half, and quite a few other bloggers will be racing, too.

Disclaimer: I make a small amount of money if you register using my code.

Bandit update
While he’s still a little leery of the crate in the mornings, I haven’t had a day when I couldn’t get him into it. Usually I just let him go in on his own as I’m finishing adding his supplements after his training.

Oddly enough, getting him in when I go out hasn’t been a problem.

He has changed so much and we haven’t even had him a year yet. Just getting him to eat at first was a struggle. Finding treats he would deign to eat was also a struggle. Now he has real laser-like focus when the treats come out . . . unless there’s something else more exciting around (another dog, a human).

Since it’s “warmer” (it happens to be a particularly raw, cold day as I type this), I’ve begun to work on doing some training out in the backyard, too. Ignoring distractions is hard for dogs — even harder for an older dog who didn’t have any training.

Talk to me. Tell me in the comments:

Are you a half fanatic? Think it’s worth it?

Do you train your dogs beyond puppy class (or your cats)?

Ever had a car fail inspection?

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