~10 miles in 9:30 avg pace It's been awhile and the short summary is that I successfully defended my dissertation on 10/20/2010. It's been a long haul and although cliche; it's been real and it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun. I'm glad it's over. However, instead of taking any time off, I immediately returned from Hawaii and prepped for a conference the following week where I gave a poster on my current research. This week, I've spent the majority of my time in the lab running samples for my boss. So, I haven't had a whole lot of time to post but am going to try to ex post facto update the blog over the next few days. I ran with the pup today. I think it may be the longest run I've done with him and I was very proud of how well he did. He's slowly learning that he doesn't always have to run directly in front of me. It was pretty cold this morning and the roads were still snowy/icy. All was fine until we got to the local high school, which happened to be about the time for the start of the school day and there was a nonstop line of cars, trucks, and buses. So, it's icy and I'm struggling to keep myself and the pup (who is running off the road, with myself between him and the cars) in patches of relatively ice-free pavement/dirt and still well away from the cars. Well long story short, no one was even remotely considerate this morning. No one slowed down or moved over at all, despite the obvious icy roads. Well, the pup doesn't deal well with cars, he gets freaked out and spazzes all over the place- often cutting me off in the process. So, as expected, at some point a really loud, fast moving bus that was nearly over on the shoulder goes roaring by and he jumps over into the ditch, dragging me down with him. Luckily I did not bite it, but my knee was jerked and there was a pop (after all was said and done.. I think it is okay, but will ice and stretch more than usual over the next few days). Now, what I wanted to do was turn around, chase the bus down and yell all the profanities I could think of at the bus driver as well as at all the other cars that were being inconsiderate and not sharing the road this morning. But no- I took my frustration out on the pup and yelled at him and then proceeded to pull on his leash and harness all the way home. I've never laid a hand on him and whenever I see anyone hitting an animal (or child) I feel very sick - but I was definitely rougher than usual with him. Usually, since the last mile home is a serious uphill climb, our routine consists of me letting him have more leash and he gets to set the pace and check his pee mail and poo packages, but not today- I was really mad. And then, when we were almost home, I realized how inconsiderate I was being. I was being more inconsiderate to my pup than all those people that passed us this morning had been to us. I felt especially guilty after he looked up at me a few times and seemed to ask 'am I being good now?.. I'm so sorry' with those sweet eyes. I was scared of the bus too and really frustrated with all the people that were being jerks, but I should not have taken my frustration out on him. Maybe I should have chased the buses and cars down.. although, I doubt it would have done any good. In summary, I seem to continuously see acts of selfishness and inconsideration in the general population- so shame on them. However, a big shame on me for being even more inconsiderate to my pup. He is getting an extra long, slow walk this evening where he can stop every 5 feet if he wants too. |