Officially met Mr. Whiz-past-me and his doberman

I like Doberman Pinchers. As long as they stay on the other side of the fence, that is.

I love how strong and fierce and sleek and fit they look, though. I wouldn't mind having a body like that someday. Strong, fierce, sleek, fit.

Speaking of Dobermans, I officially met Mr. Whiz-past-me and his doberman yesterday. More on that in a minute.

Saturday morning I didn't make it to the 5K race. Many factors played into it, but I'll spare you the details. It's just as well, though, because Saturday evening, I decided to take my daughter in the big Graco stoller and go for my own 5K run on my usual 5K route, and realized pretty quickly that if I had tried to run in the 5K race, I probably would not have done too well. It was one of those days when your body just isn't up for running. I wound up letting my daughter get out of the stroller and we ran/walked together for the 5K route.

Along the way, we met Mr. Whiz-past me and his doberman, who was actually walking this time, with a friend, who also had a dog, a boxer. My daughter saw the dogs first, and yelled out to the guys, asking if she could pet their dogs. They said it was fine, and as we walked over to them, I started to recognize who one of the guys was, and we introduced ourselves and started talking. Turns out, he runs mainly for his health, because he his cholesterol is too high. You would never know that looking at him, as he looks very fit. Just goes to prove that you don't have to be overweight to have an issue with cholesterol.

After that meet and greet session, we started to run again when my daughter spotted a puppy in someone's yard, so I reluctantly stopped again so we could get the skin licked off our faces and necks and meet the puppy's owner, a big guy of African descent, and discovered he was a personal trainer. My daughter had a great time playing with the puppy (another boxer, by the way) while the guy answered my questions and gave me some tips and advice. He said that when I was ready, he'd write me out a plan for strength training. I asked him about the Ironstrength workout, and he said that was a great one to do to build my strength as a runner, especially my core strength.

I need to get back to that workout, by the way. I've been slacking.

This week will be interesting, as the Smartcoach training plan will be upping the ante a bit. I'll be running two 3-mile runs this week instead of just one, tomorrow and again on Wednesday, then a 2-mile run on Friday. The week after that it will be three 3-mile runs. The Monday following that week will be my first 4-mile run.

I'm looking forward to it, because it will challenge me and I love a good challenge.