Hubby has a leg injury. Pes something or other. It means he has a cankle - a calf combined with an ankle due to oedema and swelling. Major bummer because it means he has to pull out of his 100 mile run. Not to worry, there’s another 100 miler before the end of the year and it might be an option for him if he recovers well.

Sorry as I am that he’s injured, it means I can hog all the running time I want. No need to “discuss” who is running when. After last weekend when I didn’t run at all, I did a 10k on Monday and an 8.5k this morning. Tomorrow night is running club, and then on the weekend, I will probably hook up with Moreton Bay Road Runners, now it’s getting a bit warmer in the morning. Alternatively, Narangba Runners are heading along the Deception Bay foreshore which is nice, but they only go around 12k, and I think I should probably do 15 or so.

Hubby suggested that since he wasn’t running at Glasshouse, I should do the 30k, and I think that’s a good idea. His leg is recovering well enough so that he can more than likely do that distance with me, so I’ve suggested he enter too. The kidlets will still have their sleepover, but we’ll change the dogs’ kennel booking to the weekend after, so we can go to Toowoomba and I’ll do the Ridge to Ridge half marathon. I must admit, sometimes I feel like I don’t do enough because I don’t come back from a run totally spent, but I like it that way. Maybe a 30k trail run followed by a half marathon will tire me out a tad.

We were walking the dogs last weekend up near the IGA, and a couple asked us if we’d seen their lost labrador. After chatting with them a bit, it turns out it was their dog we found hit by the side of the road the other Thursday after club. I guess it’s good that they knew what had happened to her and she wasn’t suffering, but still very sad.

I took Miss 8 to her highland dancing competition last Sunday, instead of going to the Noosa half marathon. It was a nice morning and in spite of his total boredom, Master 6 was very well behaved. Miss 8 came home with one fifth, two fourths, and a second, for overall third in her category. So, four medals and a trophy, she was rapt. I videotaped her dancing and when I figure out what to do with it, I’ll stick it on here for all to see.

I have discovered cleanskin wine - inexpensive bottles from wineries with a generic label on them. I’ve partaken of a nice Shiraz this evening, and there’s a chardonnay chilling in the fridge. I read somewhere that it’s better to drink less frequently and higher quality, but there’s naught wrong with a cleanskin.

It’s been an awfully busy week, socially. Kidlets have had lots of activities, and I’m looking forward to the weekend to have a rest. I’m not working, so it’ll just be pottering around the house and tidying up. We may take the four dogs to Somerset Trail; the whippets are quite fit and it’d be good to start them on trail walking.

Thursday was a pretty quiet night at club. Hubby’s carrying an injury so sat and chatted, the kidlets played and I ran around the track. There were a couple of new people there - one was a man whose grandchildren are being homeschooled through the same distance ed college as us. Small world. By the time we got home and had dinner, it was a very late bedtime for the kidlets, and I’ve paid for it this afternoon. Tired cranky children just don’t float my boat.

We visited our friends yesterday afternoon, their dog had puppies last week and they called me to ask if I’d come down and keep an eye on things. She did just fine by herself, had 7 babies and the kidlets had front row seats at the back end of the dog. It was great - with four male dogs, three of which are desexed, they weren’t going to see puppies being born at our place. It was a bit of a contradiction, in that the night before we’d come across a labrador that had been hit by a car and left by the side of the road. When we found it, it was still alive but feeling no pain and really had no chance, so we stayed with it until it died. Hated the idea of leaving it there while it was alive, but it’s a surreal thing to feel a heartbeat as it slows and stops. It was sad, the kidlets were upset but they were most angry at the owner who let their dog get out. Life and death in the space of 48 hours.

I don’t expect I’ll get a long run in this weekend. I’m working tomorrow, then Hubby is working on Sunday while I take the kidlets to Miss 8’s dancing comp. If I go out tomorrow afternoon, we’d never see each other.

I took Guinness for a 10k loop this morning.. It wasn’t really cold but I still had on a long sleeved shirt and tights. Got a bit tired, I’ve had really sore quads since Sunday’s run, so I cut it short at just under 9k. I was absolutely knackered afterwards, so I ended up setting the kidlets some schoolwork and I went back to bed! I need to get back on my iron supplement, I think. I’ll go out again tomorrow. I’ve been thinking about the Great Ocean Road marathon again, and it’s 9 months away. I figure I can get ready for it by then, and it’s given me the tiniest spark of motivation.

I’ve switched Guinness to a higher fat diet, after reading about nutrition of working dogs. It’ll give him a ton more energy, but at the other end of the scale, his poos become really sloppy and are hard to pick up. I’m sure I’m going to end up wondering if the benefits outweigh the sloppy poos. Guinness has fallen heavily in love with Sherbet, which is quite discomfiting. I keep having to tell him to get off! I have an anti testosterone implant in the fridge and the way he’s going, it won’t take much for me to use it!

Kidlets start dog obedience with their whippets tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll be taking Guinness back to agility tomorrow night. Given my agreement with Lyndal, I need to make a start on his training.

Two blog posts in two days means there’s not much to report. I’ll have to start running more so I have more to comment on.

Good grief, it’s been almost two weeks since I posted to my blog. I’ve been up to my eyeballs writing this ebook, having to do it in the evenings after the kidlets have done their schoolwork, and letting my whole house go to pot. It really is a mess around here.

I’ll have to make up for it now - this will no doubt be quite an essay. For some reason, picture uploading is being cantankerous, so we’ll see how it goes.

We went to Coolum for the weekend and had a great time. The house we rented was perfect for the dogs - timber floors and fully fenced yard. It was very comfortable for us too. We had dinner at a little Thai restaurant around the corner and it was honestly the best Thai food I’ve had in a very long time. Big slabs of ginger in the jungle curry, mmmmm. I’m keen to go back there just so we can eat at that place again. I took Guinness a run along the boardwalk on the Sunday morning, we did around 10km in just over an hour but it was such a beautiful outlook, I wasn’t in any hurry. It wasn’t the warmest of weekends so we didn’t go swimming in the ocean, and even sitting on the beach building sandcastles with the kidlets just froze me.

After the run, we took the dogs to the off leash beach, which went for miles. Guinness and Sinner had a great run but we weren’t game to lt the whippets run free. Guinness was really good at coming back when he was called, but whenever he got close to me, Sinner barged him and bailed him up. Not exactly an incentive for Guinness to come back.The big black dog is feeling his hormones. He was like Pepe le Pew at the beach, sidling up to any lady dogs and looking very amorous. Got to be quite a nuisance. I entertained the thought of sticking one of those reversible anti-testosterone implants into him, but figured I’d just teach him better manners instead.

Guinness also met some sheep again last week. His last contact with the furry beasts was when he was 6 months old, and all he wanted to do was eat the poo. This was a different story altogether. He really had them figured, and was moving them, blocking them and herding them up. It’s amazing that he’s just programmed to do that. He had such a good time, and Lyndal (who owns the sheep, and also owns Caper, his prospective bride) thought he was quite nice to work. I made a deal with her that if she helps me get him working sheep well, I’d get him ready to trail in agility, and with he and Caper both having some points on the board, Caper’s pups will be very well regarded.

Lastly, I have actually done some running. Very little, though, cos I’ve been too tired to get up in the morning. Hubby and I took the big dogs to the Glasshouse Mountains yesterday afternoon for a trail run. The idea was that we do around 30km, to make sure my feet will hold up to pace him at the end of his 100 mile run next month. We took a wrong turn and ended up doing only 24km, but my feet did fine. The dogs loved it and were weary yesterday; if their legs felt anything like mine, they wouldn’t have wanted to do much walking! Hubby is resting a bit of a knee niggle, so I can go out and do as much (or as little!) as I want to in the mornings this week.

Kidlets have been so good lately - “who are you and what have you done with my children?”. They get up, get stuck into their schoolwork and get it done quickly and correctly, which leaves the afternoon free for sports and other activities. They had a photography workshop last week which they loved, so have been running around with a camera in hand. Master 6 started Joey Scouts last night and loved it. The shy, clingy little boy who wouldn’t let go of my trouser leg is completely gone, and in his place is a happy, outgoing confident lad. It just takes a little longer for some to find that independence, I guess, and I’m glad he wasn’t forced into it before he was ready.

Well, if you got this far, well done! I think we’ll be returning to our regular program schedule now.

I’ve been writing this ebook, and actually really enjoying it. There’s a ton I didn’t know about nutrition and the endurance dog, and It’s fascinating stuff. But, it’s taking time. I stayed up last night to try and get more done, but was pretty tired so I thought I’d go to bed and get up really early. That would be less disruptive to the family. So, I got up at 3.30am this morning and had tea and toast as I got stuck into writing. By 5am my eyeballs were hanging out so I went back to bed for a couple of hours. Just plain didn’t work. I think it’s easier for me to stay up late and sleep in than it is for me to get up really early in the morning. So, tonight I’m whacked and am going to bed very soon, and not getting up until a sensible hour.

Went to running club tonight, I haven’t really been doing anything much this week. I jogged around the track with Gundars a bit, so a pretty low key evening. I’m still feeling a bit unmotivated, but we’ve just got our tax refund and I promised myself a Garmin 305, so that might get me a bit more enthused.

My kidlets have been fantastic today. I think they’re ill. We got up just before 8am, and by the time we went to our homeschool co-op at around 9.50am, they had got themselves breakfast, got dressed, brushed hair and teeth and washed face, and fed the dogs. I’d got myself showered and dressed, put the laundry on, stacked the dishwasher and turned it on, and took the garbage out. That’s astounding. I’d love for every morning to be so productive but really, to quote the late John Denver, some days are diamonds and some days are stones. Miss 8 is trying really hard to better handle her frustration with Master 6, and Master 6 is working to find better ways of dealing with his frustration than fisticuffs. It’s unrelenting.

We’re off to the Sunshine Coast for the weekend - sun and dog friendly beaches. I’m looking forward to the break, and there’s a nice coastal road - might be nice to run along. The weather should be fantastic!!

So who else was really cross at the results of the Battle of the Choirs last night? Vox Synergy were by far the best choir on the night, but they gave the gong to Newcastle Uni. I hope Vox Synergy pick up some sort of recording deal because I’d grab their album - they were great. They probably could have used the prize money more than Newcastle Uni too, they said they were a bit strapped for cash. It’s been a great series, and no doubt we’ll tune into the next one.

I took Guinness out this morning for our usual 10k loop. Uneventful in the extreme. The kidlets did some schoolwork; Miss 8 was challenging - I think she’s finding the mundaneness of normal life hard to take after having such an exciting time at camp. I guess we all feel that way at times, but we don’t always take it out on our mother! Drove down to visit my mum this afternoon and fell asleep on the floor watching Madagascar on her new large screen television.

I’m thoroughly enjoying researching this ebook I’m writing. I’ve found some really interesting studies on the use of maltodextrin in dogs. When it’s given before, during and after exercise, muscle glycogen is replenished very quickly. I’m glad to have found that because when I take Guinness out for a long run, I’m always concerned that I could be doing something to make it better for him. I’ve got a dose rate for maltodextrin for dogs, so next time we head out for a half, I’ll make up a beefy gel and see what he thinks of that. Dogs don’t sweat, so they don’t need any electrolytes as we do. I’m sure my limited cooking skills can deal with that.

Got a full week planned again. I really need to spend tomorrow morning getting the work from last term shipped off to the distance ed college. Tomorrow afternoon is team sports and craft at Bunnings. Wednesday is a visit to a science exhibition. Thursday is Japanese, creative writing and science with our co-op. Friday is gymnastics, and we’re off to the coast for the weekend. I’m tired just typing about it. I’ll need to wind things back a little - starting to feel a little stretched with all that, plus the routine household management, and I know that if I keep going at this pace, I’ll burn out. Once this week is over, I’ll get things a bit more settled.

Nobody’s getting up for a run in the morning so we can snooze in for a while. Yay.

I took Guinness to work today, with the expectation that we could go over to the coast and have a run together when I knocked off. The forecast was for a clear day with a max of 23 degrees, so much more manageable for him. He was a total pain in the butt at work. We’ve had dogs pee around there a fair bit over the years, and he felt the need to mark it as his own. He argued with Sheba, the clinic dog, over some food, and barked his fool head off when I had to crate him because he kept coming into the reception area and trying to kiss cats! I won’t get to do that again because as of next week I’m working with the head nurse who won’t put up with that sort of nonsense. Lucie and I are trying to work out how we can subtly swap shifts so we can work together again, it’s much more relaxing.

Anyway, I got changed into my running gear at work and found that I’d only brought one sock. That’s what I get for hitting the snooze button twice - I didn’t get time to check what I’d packed. So, do I drive home, get the other sock and run around suburbia, or do I head to the beach and run without socks, and just see how it goes? I chose the latter. And do you blame me?

This is the foreshore, if it’s not calm beaches, it’s gorgeous rocky outcrops. Very hard to take, and much better than the streets of the suburbs.

So, off I went, sockless. Felt fine, no dramas, Guinness was just cruising, and it was one of those days you could have just gone on for ages. That was my plan, with no real rush to get home, I figured I’d do maybe 20k.

Alas, alack, the world conspired against me. At around 6 1/2km, I felt a stinging on the little toe of my left foot. Fair enough, it was always a possibility so I started walking back to the car. Nope, that stung too, so I took my shoe off to see that the skin had been completely rubbed from the top of my toe. It was a long slow barefoot walk to the car after that. Guinness peed on so many trees and lamp poles, I thought I was going to have to put him on a drip when we got home!

So, that was today’s disappointing run.

Other than that, an unenventful day. Work was quiet, I started reading another Jodie Picoult book but decided not to finish it because I don’t have tons of time and the theme was so similar to the last one I’d read, Keeping Faith. It wasn’t a bad book.

I’m off to edit some photos and upload them to flickr, and see what else I can do with them!!

Still haven’t been doing a whole lot of running, it’s been just too cold in the mornings and I’m not motivated enough to get out of my warm bed to run. I did go to club on Thursday night, to see Anja before she goes to Germany then moves to Bundaberg to live, and they had a 3km time trial. 15.07 is 2 seconds faster than my last one 3 months ago, which is neither here nor there, but I guess I haven’t got any slower. I’ll stay in Redcliffe after work tomorrow and run along the foreshore. I was thinking of taking Guinness into work and having him to run with, but I think at 2pm it will still be a bit hot for him. I think winter is over, today was sunny and 27 degrees, and even the evening was quite warm. Thank goodness.

Miss 8 is off to her first Girl Guides camp for the weekend, and she’s been bouncing out of her skin all week. Driving us all insane, agitated and with the attention span of a newt. Master 6 got to choose a video and we had iceblocks and chocolate while we watched Underdog. Quite cute! He’s asked if he can sleep in our bed tonight, so I’ve got a little warm snuggly body to cuddle for the next two nights.

I’ve just picked up my first decent paying internet writing gig. An ebook on dogs and exercise, right up my alley, for US$500. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Back to photographing the dog club on Sunday morning. I wonder if I can find a way to link to a flickr account or something in my sidebar… might have to have a tweak.