A Woman's Best Friend.

Everyone loves to run.
Even dog's :)
Pismo received the unfortunate news at this last physical that he was a smidgen overweight.  Weighing in at 105 pounds Dr.Kelly really wanted to see him closer to the 95 pound range; so that means he gets to do mommy's training runs!

I had run with him previously, but found him distracting and had stuck to nice long weekend walks with him instead.  This training season I figured I would give it another try, only to realize perhaps I was the distracting one :)
We did our first 3k last week and managed through with only one brief poop-stop. We did another 3k than moved onto 4k and just tonight completed our first 5k! The vet did say that I may not be able to do my long distance runs with him simply because he may become too tired and start to really effect my pace, but he should be good up until at least 7km!

Tonight's 5k went really well; my pace was a little slower than normal, because there is a safety aspect to running with Pismo.  I need to bring him in close when cars come, and make sure he sticks with me when we pass other dogs.  So that causes me to slow my pace down a little to ensure neither of us get hit by a car :)  Where I do my main runs, its all roads and no sidewalks which gives us both a little more room.  What my next venture will be is to try a maternity leash.  Right now Pismo and I use retractable leash so when there are no cars or other dogs around he can run ahead a little.  The leash is hard for me sometimes though; even though its probably only 1/2 pound I find I want it out of my hands at times.
A maternity leash (also known as a running belt) ties around my waist so I can be hands free.  It sounds very appealing however I find Pismo sometimes pulls and I just picture him seeing a bunny go hopping by resulting in me being dragged across someones front lawn by my large dog on his maternity leash :) This girl makes it look so great:

However, I also think this could be a great training leash for Pismo to learn not to pull.

I found a great link about running with dogs and am thinking of trying to find a run for me and Pismo to complete together:

http://www.runnersworld.com/dogrun/


Also, if you need a good pace partner, get a chocolate lab - a 6:00min/km pace is a light jog for him :)