Let’s hear it for some coolness: 9/3-9 Weekly Wrap

~ Chocolaterunsjudy
Doesn’t look sick, does she? And yet she is 😦

I touched on Lola briefly in my Friday Five post (read about it here), but here’s the long lowdown (if you’re not interested in the furkids, feel free to skip on down): last Sunday, out of the blue, she started coughing. We were supposed to go to my parents for Labor Day, but it had become really bad and we were afraid it was kennel cough, since we’d boarded her when I did my 1812 race (and no, Bandit wasn’t coughing, nor were any of the other dogs there at the time, apparently).

We really waffled about spending the $$ for the emergency vet, but in the end, while not fun for anyone — seriously, she sounded like an entire flock of honking geese almost non stop — it wasn’t an emergency. I got an appointment for Tuesday afternoon (and had a regular appointment for Gizmo already scheduled that morning).

Gizmo chills while the needle does its magic

By this point I’d noticed that she could do a regular walk and not cough at all. And that she would mostly stop coughing when we were outside. Unfortunately it was also about 90 and humid for much of the week.

So the vet listens to her heart, her lungs. Everything sounded fine. She wasn’t coughing at the vet’s office, either, although I’d taken some video of her coughing earlier. But she did eventually cough there, too. Because of her age (12, close to 13) he decided to take some xrays. When they were done, the assistant said he wanted to talk to me. I knew instantly it couldn’t be good news.

Long story short, he thinks, but is not sure, that her heart is enlarged, but that the coughing is due to bronchitis. He said we should make an appointment with a cardiologist, so I’m guessing he’s somewhat sure, anyway.

We have an appointment in November, because yes, that’s how long it takes. By that point she will actually be 13. I expect that she will have several more good years, though.

I’m joining up with the Weekly Wrap from Holly @ Hohoruns and Wendy @ Taking the Long Way Home to share my new, very brief training cycle for the Ocean City Half.

WWSki-Orange

Workouts update

  • Monday: Dogwalk, 5 treadmill miles with 6 x 400 speed repeats, PB Express Core for Runners (10 minutes)
  • Tuesday: 5 miles easy, Dogwalk, PB Bodyweight HIIT (25 minutes)
  • Wednesday: Dogwalk
  • Thursday:  Dogwalk, 5 TM miles 3 @ Tempo, PB Stability + Dumbells (30 minutes)
  • Friday:  Dogwalk, lunch walk with Running Buddy D & J
  • Saturday: 10 mile LSD, YFR Lower Back & Foundation
  • Sunday: PB KB Shred (20 minutes)

Mileage: 25 (+11)

JY = Jasyoga
PB = Killer B
TM = Treadmill
YFR = Yoga for Runners*
WU = warmup
CD = cooldown
SB = Stationary Bike
YFPR = Yoga for Pain Relief
YTU = Yoga Tune Up Lower Body*

*Disclaimer: Amazon affiliate links; I will make a small amount of money if you buy through these links

Running Updates

 

Monday
I planned to get out early and do an easy run. Life had other plans. Ended up not running until late afternoon so ran on the mill. Never easy, but it is what it is.

Yup, those leaves are changing & falling

Tuesday
Finally I was able to get out relatively early for a run to beat the heat. Because yes, it sure did heat up later. After a few relatively sleepless nights I was surprised by a nice strong easy run; cut it short a mile, though — double vet appointments!

Thursday
It was a very humid 87 outside by the time I could run, and even though I loathe doing tempos on the treadmill, that’s what I did. Bumped up the pace just a bit and survived, although I did only 1 mile warmup instead of 2, because it had just been a hard week and that’s all I was feeling.

I chose the road not taken and went the opposite way from my running buddies. They were tackling hills, but my upcoming half is flat (the one after that is a different story)

Saturday
Fall like weather — I’d forgotten what you felt like! It made for a glorious long run. Haven’t felt those sorts of temps since before I went to ID in July.

Favorites of the week
Our new AC was installed. Except they didn’t quite finish up Friday. Good thing it was a cool day — our bedroom had still heated up to 80 by bedtime and of course, no AC yet. A window fan brought it down to a sleepable 75.

Unfortunately our string of bad luck continues, because the unit did not work. The new new unit will be installed on Monday, supposedly. Thankfully it’s a cool weekend. But the rain and heat are supposed to move in next week . . .

Ran into some friendly faces I haven’t seen in a while on my long run. And catching up with Running Buddy D, who I don’t get to see too often these days.

I won’t lie, this was a tough week in a long string of tough weeks. But OTOH, we’re blessed in many ways, and I remain grateful for my blessings. And running always helps me to handle the stress in my life.

Sorry for the blurry pics — caught Mr. Judy working with Bandit on fetch
Bandit’s good for a few throws, but then he generally tires of the game and doesn’t bring the ball back
We all enjoyed the cool fall day

Feeling the need to get out of the house on a cooler day, we took the dogs up to the Saratoga National Historical Park (and ran a few errands along the way). Lola panted a lot in the car on the way there — with the moon roof open and obviously quite a cool day — but the moment we got home she had some major zoomies (running around the backyard like a nut). She’s slowly getting better and I apologize for the length of this post! Thank you if you got this far!

Let’s get the conversation started:

Does training help you destress or is training another stressor in your life?

Would you rather run on a cool, cloudy day or a sunny, warm day?

Ever taken any of your animals for acupuncture?

32 thoughts on “Let’s hear it for some coolness: 9/3-9 Weekly Wrap”

  1. Sorry to hear about Lola and hope she recovers well and quickly. Gizmo is super-cute and looks quite like our Morgan, awww!

    Training helps me destress and keep mentally well – when I say “training”, it’s “running” as I find races stressful so I’ve taken them out of the equation for a bit and feel great about that.

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  2. Awwe poor Lola 😦 Always so sad when one of our fur babies are sick. I can’t believe it takes so long to get an appointment!

    I have really enjoyed the cooler weather this weekend, although it rained most of the day on Saturday. Luckily I was able to finish my long run before it started raining.

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  3. I sure hope Lola is on the mend. The emergency vet is $$, but I”m glad we have it. When Cleo got so sick, it was nice to be able to go there in the middle of the night.

    Normally running isn’t stressful for me, but today’s run was inexplicably hard. That stressed me out!

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    1. Despite 20 years of very sick furkids — seriously, it’s been that long, I attract all the sickies — I have only ever had to make 2 trips to the emergency vet. We actually have 2 of them quite close to where we live!

      She was uncomfortable, but I could tell that it wasn’t emergent as they say. The regular vet almost didn’t take that xray!

      Running is definitely my stress relief & lately the stress has been through the roof. There’s always those inexplicably hard runs. They just happen, even to completely healthy people. Always really frustrating, though.

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  4. Ahh, the zoomies. I love the zoomies! haha! I definitely hope that means she is feeling better. Hopefully the heart thing is just a side effect of her being sick and that will remedy itself, as well.

    You know, sometimes training helps but sometimes, the actual training process can be a stressor to me. I’m waffling between the two right now.

    Cool, cloudy day any day of the week. Although, I do prefer sun but man, I am so over this heat!

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    1. Pretty sure the heart thing is due to age. 😦 She’s better but not yet back to normal. At least we can all get some sleep again.

      I actually enjoy training hard. I’ll feel beat down after several cycles, but really nothing helps me get through stress like a good hard run — and at the moment, I’ve got stress on my stress.

      When it’s cold, sun, definitely. But I’m actually digging gloomy weather at the moment! This summer was HARD.

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  5. The only time my running gets stressful is right near the peak of marathon training…there’s so many long runs to get in and the weather can certainly throw a wretch in your plans. Thankfully, I “just” have the 20-miler left (in two weeks), but I will be fine if it doesn’t happen. I made it to 18 yesterday, and that was my true test. Hope dear Lola is feeling better 😉

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    1. “just” 20 miles, LOL, indeed!

      I think the only time running really gets stressful for me is if I’m wondering if it’s an injury or trying to squeeze in runs when life is crazy (or trying to take an extra rest day because life is crazy).

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  6. I hope Lola gets a good diagnosis. Hudson gave my family a scare a couple weeks ago. I started doing acupuncture this summer, and I don’t think Allie needs it. She seems super chill most of the time. She’s currently sleeping on the back of my armchair right now.

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    1. Totally agree that when I’m not training for anything I’m good with most any distance/pace. And about another 6 weeks I’ll be there — but even then, runs really help me with stress!

      Lola is definitely improving, but it just seems pretty slow. She’s been a little off her feed, but she ate well for Mr. Judy this morning, so that’s encouraging. She goes to the holistic vet on wed. No doubt they’ll have a ton of new supplements for her. 😦

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  8. Sorry about the pet illnesses.

    Running is definitely a de-stressor. I try not to think of running as training so it doesn’t stress me out.

    Saturday’s weather was amazing and made the 12 miles almost seem easy.I hope I can have the same for race day. Although not running alone may have made more of a difference than the weather. It helps to chat with someone the whole time.

    I actually got to hike today – my hubby’s first and probably last LOL.

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      2. Waiting to hear what’s going on with the newest one (as in something new stressful going on today). But at least we have AC again. Obviously we don’t need it today & probably not tomorrow but pretty sure we’ll need it at some point this week.

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  11. Sorry to hear about Lola. I hope she hangs in there for a while. Our vet is an emergency vet, so we go the same place but just pay $$$ after hours — and most things seem to happen after hours! I definitely prefer a cloudy day, but choosing between heat and rain is harder ….

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    1. I would go with rain, even a cold rain, over heat any day!

      I do feel that Lola should be okay for a while once we sort out the stuff going on now. But still it’s never the news you’re hoping to hear & really took us by surprise. 😦

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  13. Sorry to hear about Lola, sounds like she’s feeling better so I hope that continues! The photos of the animals are so cute! I had no idea you could do acupuncture on animals. She doesn’t try to run away from the needles or anything?

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    1. It really just depends on the animal. We didn’t do acupuncture on Simba (Gizmo’s brother, gone many years) because he would move around a lot. Giz likes to just try to hide in a corner, so if you let him, he’ll just stay put there (plus he’s 17, after all).

      Lola is definitely on the mend, thankfully. Seemed to take a really long time. For a while she would gasp for breath all the time, which was really disturbing especially now that we’re concerned about her heart, but today she’s much better on that front, too, so I guess she just couldn’t breath much through her nose.

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  14. Wow. I can’t believe your trees are turning color. The cooler weather sounds so nice and that trail looks so pretty. Sorry to hear about Lola. I’ve never had a very sick pet or had to use an emergency vet. In fact, I didn’t even know they had pet cardiologists. I hope everything turns out OK. Thanks for linking.

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    1. I am a magnet for animals that have long, slow. lingering illnesses. Usually it doesn’t happen until their teens, after a good long life, although Simba & Chester were the exceptions to that.

      Seriously, I’ve been dealing with this sort of crap for almost 20 years and I have to admit it’s worn me down. That and the human age related stuff. 😦

      Well, we all have our own troubles & like I said, I am still grateful for my many blessings.

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  15. Hasn’t the break in the heat been heavenly? It makes running a different, very wonderful animal. I can see my breath here this morning! Wish it’d stick around. Running definitely destresses me. Sending all the best vibes to those fur kids!

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  16. I hope your fur babies are feeling better!

    To answer your questions: I’ll take cool and cloudy over sunny and warm any day of the week and squeezing in a run is definitely a destressor for me. One of my clients takes her dog in for acupuncture once a month and she says he loves it!

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