I’m joining Marcia @ Marcia’s Healthy Slice a little ahead of time, because she’s running just another marathon. Well, not just another, she’s running London to wrap up her quest to run all 6 major world marathons — how awesome is that? Let’s all send her some great running vibes! Marcia’s moved the Runfessional to next Friday, along with our Coffee/Tea dates, but since I’d already written this post I’m just going with it.

I runfess . . .
It’s Spring. Sort of. No blizzards here, but we still had a lot of rainy, very windy, and some days almost winter-like temp during April — even some snow in the beginning. Motivating myself to run outside, when there are no goal races out there, has been hard.

Most days when I do get out there, it’s really not as bad as I think it is (although some days it really is). I also know my body actually appreciates some treadmill runs. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

By the end of the month we got some beautiful Spring weather, allowing me to run outside and shun the treadmill again, but it’s still back and forth (hello 30s overnight a couple of nights ago). There’s a lot of rain in the forecast this weekend . . . stay tuned.

I runfess . . .
The debates on foam rolling rages on. Some Doctors swear by it, others say it’s a waste of time. On the few days I run and skip it (yes, it happens), I absolutely feel much tighter the next day. Foam rolling won’t cure everything that ails you, but it helps (and my chiropractor agrees with me).

I runfess . . .
I thought I would be doing a 5k before the 5k in June that I’m mentoring for. I haven’t found one that really calls to me on a weekend that’s good for me. I do kind of want to run the inaugural one mile race in May — hey, it’s a guaranteed PR! — but none of my running friends seem interested and I wouldn’t be able to run the race and mentor that day.

I found another race I thought could be fun this weekend, a nice little road trip, and then the forecast got pretty crappy. I would like to find a race in May . . . somewhere.

I runfess . . .
We are trying to teach some old dogs some new tricks. We have repurposed Gizmo’s kennel for the dogs, and put a dog door into our storm door. The hope being that we can be out longer without having to worry about accidents. It also allows the dogs some access to grass while still being somewhat protected.

Bandit, luckily, is not the problem when it comes to accidents. He does have separation anxiety — heavy emphasis on the anxiety. He doesn’t have accidents and he’s not destructive, but you can almost see him heave a sigh of relief after running around like a nut when we come back from being out.

Lola is a different story. She’s 13, and she’s always had those once in a blue moon accidents. As she gets older it’s harder on her when we’re out. Sometimes I’d like to be out for more than just a couple of hours!

Lola is a little familiar with a dog door (although it was a cat door) from our time in TX, and tried to get out that way a time or two when we lived in TX. She’s taken to the new set up fairly quickly, but we still have the flap tied up so they don’t have to push through (as I’m writing this the flap is now down, and she still goes through like a champ). Unfortunately she doesn’t want to actually use the kennel for pottying (although she has a time or two).

Bandit is somewhat balky about going out through the door, even with the flap tied up, but once he’s out there he’ll pee on most anything. Boy dogs.

We have upped the treats we’re using. High value treats are always very important when training a behavior that is hard for a dog. We used them to get Bandit used to the crate initially — he loves it now. A little hamburger is working miracles. If we hold the flap just slightly and entice him with hamburger, we can get him in and out.

Lola will actually go in and out on her own sometimes if it’s a nice day. Will she realize that she can just go out if we’re out and she really needs to go? Stay tuned!

I runfess . . .
On a hot steamy run last week I made every rookie mistake:

• I waited too long to get out the door. 10:30 on a hot day, anyone? Thank goodness it was cloudy!
• I way underestimated the way the sudden humidity would make me feel.
• Because of the point above, I did not have enough water with me, and I sure felt it. I should have had double the amount. Thank goodness the water fountains are now on.
• Not only did I not have enough water, I should have done half the run, stopped to refill my one very small water bottle, and completed the rest of the run.
• I should have worn an even lighter top — I have one, but I just didn’t anticipate (again) how much a humid 70F run was going to effect me.
• I probably could’ve nixed the compression socks — no doubt they contributed to the feeling of overheating.
• I didn’t bring sandals to change into after the run.

Ever taught a dog to use a pet door? Any tips?

What was the last rookie mistake you made in running?

Do you get out too late and really regret it afterwards?

What do you have to runfess from April? Come join us

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