Copper, the Big Red Dog Update

Just over a year ago, Copper and I started doing Ease Into 5K to train for a couple of virtual races. I wrote about the beginning of our journey and our completion of the X-Files 5K, but never got around to updating about our Greased Lightning race.

Again, I bought socks to commemorate the race. I was hoping to find some cool Grease socks, but when I did an Amazon search, all I could find were bobby socks. Nebalee suggested I get some lightning socks, so I did.

Can't "race" without obnoxious socks

Nebalee also was kind enough to come run with us. For some reason, her GPS and my GPS didn't line up, but since she uses hers to keep track of her mileage, we used hers as the official distance/time. For some reason, we were almost four and a half minutes slower in our second 5K than our first. I have no idea why, but there it is.

Nebalee and Copper always look great in our finish photos

A couple of weeks after I submitted our official race time, Copper's finisher's medal came in the mail. I made him model it. He was not impressed.

We had one more race planned in October, but I got scheduled to travel for work, so we ditched it. I can't say I was terribly disappointed, but I hated losing the entry fee.

Greased Lightning was the last race we ended up "running" in 2018; in no time at all, it was to dark to run when I got home from work, so we hung up our running shoes until spring.

For some stupid reason, I thought it would be fun to sign up for a cumulative race (121.1 miles) and set a goal to complete it by my birthday in July. It was still too cold and gross for Copper and I to run outside, so I joined a gym and spent a whole four or five trips to the gym racking up four or five miles. Since Nebalee was such a good sister and did my virtual races with me last year, I agreed to run the Bolder Boulder 10K with her in May. I figured those six miles would help chip away at the cumulative race. Unfortunately, crazy shit was happening at work and my training went out the window. I did complete the Bolder Boulder with Nebalee, but it sucked big time.

I realized there was no way I was going to complete the cumulative race by my birthday, so I threw that goal out the window and once life settled down, started back up with Copper in July.

July 10, starting all over again with a nice slow walk.

Slowly but surely, Copper and I started chipping away at the miles. Sometimes, Copper and I go out by ourselves and do some run intervals. Other times, L.E. and Pearl join us and there's no running involved (I kinda really like those mornings).

Slowly but surely, with almost daily walks, we're making headway with on our race.

Screenshot taken 8/5

I took a screenshot on 8/5 of our progress, so this is a little outdated. As of today, we've completed 32 workouts, 45.5% of our race, 55.1 miles. I was disappointed that we were not able to walk today because last night's storm turned the farm roads into a muddy, mucky mess. Hopefully, tonight's storms will bypass us and we can be back at it tomorrow.

Last week, Facebook memories was kind enough to show me our first night of Ease Into 5K. The caption still holds true!

Not only does the caption still hold true, but Copper still hasn't gotten past the fact that I literally have to drag him for the first few minutes of our walks. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. He hates the beginning of the walk, but then loosens up and walks/trots nicely next to me.

Pissy Mare Face on a gelding

"Oh, we're going home? Okay, let's go!"

I tried to officially start Ease Into 5K the other day, after doing a month of my own random walk/run intervals, but it did not go well. Copper was in a mood and it was like we'd regressed a full year. I was Not Pleased. We'll start again on Monday, after we've had a few more walk/runs under our belt. Maybe by then his full moon pissiness will have passed.

Copper, the Big Red Dog

Wow, my last post was kind of a downer, wasn't it? Yikes. I guess I should have been better about updating the blog. I've posted snippets on the FB page, but haven't taken the time to sit down and write an actual blog post. Skeeter's doing amazing on the mountain, Pearl is doing amazing in her lessons with L.E., and Copper and I have taken on a new project.

Since Copper's got a hitch in his get-along, we can't ride him much (in fact, I think he's only been ridden twice this year by Mom and Autobot). However, he still needs exercise. As much as he loves being a pasture pet, the lounging around and eating all day isn't good for him, so I knew we needed to start doing something with him, I just didn't know what.

Just over a month ago, I was working at the range and was carrying a case of ammo from the storage room down to the deck and was dying. So very out of shape. I mean, I knew I was out of shape, but being surrounded by a bunch of fit cops will really drive the point home. As I was huffing and puffing, trying not to show that I couldn't breathe, I decided I needed to join a gym, so I started thinking about it. There is an incredible community center that is very reasonably priced about five miles southeast of our place, but I knew I would not drive past our house to go work out. I needed something closer. I had pretty much decided on re-joining the gym that is on my way to work, but hadn't actually stopped in.

Scrolling through Facebook one night, I saw an ad for a virtual race. Normally, I would have scrolled right on by, but the theme of the virtual race piqued my interest and I looked a bit deeper into what a virtual race was and what it entailed. I could pay my registration online and run the race wherever I wanted to. A plan began to form. I could kill two birds with one stone here - Copper and I would both get the exercise we desperately needed and the X-Files-themed race made me happy. Before I could chicken out, I registered both of us for the race.

I dusted off my Ease Into 5k app and we were off!

Who am I kidding? Nothing's that easy.

Copper's well trained in ground work. The kid knows how to lead at all gaits, so I didn't think there would be a problem. I was wrong. While he enjoyed the walking part of the training, the running part was a ... challenge. I completed our first two training runs with a 1000# anchor. You know those crazy people who run with parachutes attached to them to increase their resistance? Yeah, this was kind of like that, only the resistance was in the form of a cranky gelding.

Only, I can be a lot crankier than he can, and by our fourth training run, I was D-O-N-E with his attitude, so we went to work. When he balked, he got to do some circling exercises, and then I started driving him from the shoulder during each of the run portions of the training. It's a lot more work to have to run in circles than just jog alongside Mom, is what he finally decided. I still wasn't able to do much more than a quick shuffle during that training run, but at least I wasn't dragging a boat anchor behind me either.

He tries for a mare face, but the food hanging out his mouth detracts from the look.

After a couple of days to think about it, our fifth training run went much better. I still had to drive him, but circles weren't necessary and for the first time since we started running, I was able to RUN. Leg-stretching, lung-burning run. It felt wonderful - and I *hate* running. The euphoria came from not having to fight him. I swung the end of the rope at his shoulder, clucked and he stepped up into a nice trot. It was heavenly. You know, for running, which I hate.

Once he understood that he was going to have to trot whether he liked it or not, he began to enjoy it and my workouts got a lot harder! Running next to a trotting horse is HARD! Like, really hard.

Copper looks all sorts of fresh; I look (and feel) like I'm dying.

Two to three times a week for the last four weeks, we've been doing training runs. Copper is enjoying them far more than I am now. I still have to "encourage" him with our first run each time out, but then he trots alongside like a well-trained dog. Once or twice he got charge-y and pulled on the lead rope, but making him back quickly fixed that. It's funny, I literally have him dragging his feet behind me during our five minute warm up, and then after our first run interval, he's looking for excuses to trot. Traitor.

A couple of weeks ago, I was physically hitting a wall. Getting up to go running was an incredible chore and it took everything I had to lace up my running shoes. I was considering scratching from the race (and losing the $54.00 in registration fees), but a little bit of retail therapy lit the fire under my butt again.

X-Files race requires alien socks, right?

I'm still not completely thrilled with this whole running thing, and wish I could say after a month that I'm feeling stronger physically, but that would be a lie. However, Copper *loves* it, and psychologically, I feel good. If only my 47 year old body would get on board that would be great.

Technically, tomorrow is race day, as it's the 25th anniversary of the day X-Files was released, but the beauty of virtual races is that you can do you race at pretty much any time. I have work and Posse stuff tomorrow, so I chose to do the run today. My sister Nebalee, and my niece Asset came out to run it with us, which was fun.

Looking all fresh and hopeful before the race

Just dragging my dog along (and check out the alien socks!)

Nebalee, Asset, and Copper look great. I felt like death, but I made it.

Our reported time.

Official race shirt - I earned it.

Nebalee and I found discrepancies between our GPS apps, so we went with her Map My Run app for distance, which thousands of people use for race reporting. I reported the time from my stopwatch app, which is five seconds faster than Nebalee's app and I don't know why. Not that this is a sanctioned race, so it doesn't really matter.

What matters is that Copper and I did it. There were times when I was sure it wasn't going to happen, and we did a ton more walking than running in this 5k, but we did it. We have another virtual race scheduled for October 6th, and I'm looking at one for the end of October before we hang up our running shoes for the winter. Copper may not be able to earn ribbons in riding competitions, but he can earn his 5k metals, and we'll proudly display them next to anything Skeeter and Pearl earn.