First Walks of 2011 - and Max the dog

Rainy, damp, cool - that was January 2 - yesterday - and I walked. And it was a terrible walk. Within the first 2 minutes I was reminded by various parts of my anatomy that I had fallen on January 1st.

I was out at 5:30 am with Meathead who needed a walk. It was a chilly, quiet New Years Day morning - and still dark. I walked down a grassy slope. Suddenly my right foot started to slide and then my right leg folded under me at an odd angle while the rest of me rolled to the left. It was an awkward fall. I did a quick body-check and counted myself lucky that I was not injured.

However the little aches from the fall made themselves known on my first walk of the year: my right knee, then my right calf, then my left big toe, then my right heel and so on. Heck, it was a complete nag, nag, nag for about 30 minutes. I decided right then that tomorrow I would take a handful of Advil before going out. Ok, maybe just 3 Advil would do. No sense risking liver failure just to get a walk in.

I walked 1.7 miles - 4,375 steps in 34 minutes. So that those are my baseline stats for 2011. No where to go but up!!

Today, January 3, it was sunny, I was loaded up with Advil and ready to do the second walk of the year!! It was hugely better. No little reminders of my fall. Just a constant reminder that I have lost endurance with all my false starts in 2010. The fatigue will lift with time.

I walked 1.8 miles -4,530 steps in 34 minutes. Slightly more mileage and steps in the same amount of time as yesterday.

And this year I plan to track stats only related to my walks - just like my good friend Happy One.

As I was swinging past the ball park I was pleasantly surprised to see my "dog friends" out going through their retrieval practice. The day was perfect for running and enjoying life.

Those folks who read my post from early December

(http://mynext20yearsofliving.blogspot.com/2010/12/break-out-winter-walk.html) will remember these 2 dogs and their owner. At the time they were going through a retrieval regimen in our local ball park. ... just like today. I couldn't help myself. I stopped to talk to him.

The dog I identified as a lab mix is, in fact, a full lab, bred from championship lines well-known in the retrieval competitions. His name is Max. Max has participated in a few competitions, but is now being trained to become a Search and Rescue dog. How cool is that! His owner stated that retrieval competitions use real birds instead of the orange bumpers. He doesn't want Max retrieving birds. He wants him to be focused on finding humans and the bird retrieval would be a distraction.

The dog I identified as a full poodle was, in fact, a Labradoodle - a mix of a lab and a poodle. (Hey, at least I knew they were both dogs!! ;-) ) His owner pointed out that the Labradoodle wasn't so focused in his training - guessing the poodle side of his personality was a little more dominant. He sure looks like a poodle even up close. But he is put through is paces regardless.

Everyone in our house is well! (No easy feat!) So January 3 is a great day for a whole bunch of reasons! Hope your January 3 was great as well.