Training for 9/28/18

Ever have one of those days where you wake up with a reasonable idea of how it’s going to go, and it winds up going somewhere else instead?

I’m having one of those days today. I woke up thinking I’d go out and do this weekend’s 12-mile long run in the 890s I’ve grown to hate, cover something for the paper later in the morning and then come back home to write the story.

Instead, I haven’t run a step, I’ve rinsed dog puke out of my front door welcome mat, I didn’t cover anything for work and I’m about to be signed up for a sprint triathlon — my first triathlon of any distance — TOMORROW MORNING.

Oh, and I’m wearing my new Zantes right now, because I was an early stop on the UPS guy’s route today. I guess he noticed 90 percent of the boxes that come here with my name on them are from Running Warehouse, because he asked how many miles I jog every day, and when I told him up to 20, he almost dropped my shoes haha. I assured him typical daily mileage is much less than that.

Anyway, it all started going sideways when Pepper got hit with one of his nausea attacks after breakfast this morning. I’d wanted to go out for my run early, but that wasn’t going to happen with a dog who kept needing to go out and puke.

The welcome mat thing happened when I saw him wandering out near the road in the front yard and I yelled at him to get away from it. He took it to mean I was calling him back in the house, so he came running up to the front door. His damn lips were all curled back and it was obvious he was about to hurl again, but there he stood, looking like the Joker, patiently waiting for the door to open. I was in the middle of telling him he should go back to the yard when he emptied his stomach contents right on the mat. Then he looked at me like “OK, can I come in NOW?” Well no, because now I have to go rinse off the mat, idiot!

I believe that was finally the last time he puked. He’s mostly been asleep since then. Poor Pepper.

The triathlon thing. Clark is supposed to do the Osprey Sprint Triathlon in Snow Hill again tomorrow morning. I’d said a while back I’d maybe do it, but I haven’t ridden my bike since July and I never got together with Kara for a swim lesson, so I thought it was pretty well established it was not on my schedule. Also, I don’t have tri shorts or a top, or whatever you’re supposed to swim in. Well, Clark flew back to Baltimore this morning, so he went on down to Cambridge, where Ironman Maryland is taking place this weekend, and bought me tri shorts and a top, a swim skin and a race belt (what you clip the bib to so it’s faster to put on, since you only wear it for the run.) And now he’s going to register me.

So it looks like I’m going to do my first triathlon tomorrow morning. I don’t even have time to get nervous about it.

And of course, Dogfish Dash is Sunday morning, so right now I’m just hoping I don’t drown the day before one of my favorite races of the year!

Anyway, as far as today goes, Pepper seems to be feeling normal again, so I think I’ll take out the new Zantes for a shorter run, probably just the 4.5-mile loop, since I have a triathlon in the morning now.