Have I mentioned that I’m officially “in training” for my ultra season this year? Did a 10k two weeks ago which kicked off the start and have been ramping up mileage ever since. I hope to settle in around (and how crazy does this sound?!?) a pretty standard 50 miles a week. I’m at about 30 right now and adding about 10% to that each week. My next race is a 20k in March, then a 50k in May, another 50k in July and finally my “A” race which is the Dirk Collin’s 50-miler in October.

All the running has been great. I’ve got my new running kicks, a coupla track buddies at work (one of my partners and I do sprint workouts and plyo stuff between calls at work), interesting places around here to run, an awesome and supportive “crew” and overall things have been splendid.

One problemo: Now that I’m a Serious Runner, what happens to my little jog with the dog?

See, Old Courtney used to roll out of bed, laze around with Nerd, meander into her day, and then when she felt like it head out con woof on a leisurely and fun little 3 mile jog. I LOVE our little jogs together. I feel like Linus gets a good chunk of his daily exercise, we explore all the sites and sounds of the hood, he gets to socialize at two dog parks, and we chitchat with our neighbors. But, it’s NOT a speedy run. We stop, we chat, we sniff butts, we attempt to eat leftover McDonalds wrappers from potheads toking up in Buena Vista Park, we shamelessly pander for pets, treats, and attention. We also have fun trying to trip me up in the leash by employing a wide array of darting and wrapping techniques. All this doesn’t exactly jive with a “focused training run.” I can’t really do a “legit” training run with Buddy.

Linus will still be my faithful running partner for all “easy” runs, recovery jogs, BRICK runs, runs on the beach and of course trail running. He’s fine with keeping up on the mileage (not sure if you recall, but I took him on a 14mile trail run last year), and he’s okay on pacing, it’s just the deadly combo of the leash and distractions that make him hard to run with en la ciudad.

So… what to do. For example, tomorrow on the boards: I’ve got a 6-mile “regular” run at 60% effort, and then 2 miles of hill repeats later. What I need to figure out is, where does “jog with Linus around the neighborhood” fit into that?

One idea I’m chewing on- what about if I take Linus out with me for a “warm up” … say- 2 miles, easy around the hood, like normal, then come back, drop him off and head right back out the door solo to bag some REAL miles? I guess I could do the same with a cool down… though I bet I would tend to cheat on the tail end and cut it short. Hmm… hmm…. Any thoughts?