A special houseguest

Meet Jamie.  Not sure what his racing name is, but he's one super retired houndie!  How retired?  Well, in dog years, he is 91 years old...13 years on this planet.  I wish I knew more about him because he's a pretty interesting guy and very spry and playful for his age.

In Ottawa, we have a mailing list for greyhound owners to 'greysit' if the owner goes out of town or needs some help.  His 'mom' posted last week and we volunteered but got very few details.  We knew he wouldn't eat our cats and that he liked kids.  Beyond that, I guess we really didn't need to know anything.  So, he's kind of a mystery dog.
The one thing about greyhounds is that they are used to each other - assuming they raced from 18 months to 4 or so years old, they spent every day of their lives with up to 70 hounds in a kennel.  So, they know their kind and generally tend to be more at ease within their breed than with others.  (Disclaimer: general statement, there are exceptions, of course).

When Jamie was dropped off, his owner was late to catch her flight.  She was here maybe 2 mins.  Keep in mind, we don't know her and never spoke but the greyhound community is so strong that owners will always help other owners.  It's really about helping these dogs when it comes down to it.

We introduced our dogs to Jamie outside in the fenced yard and the three of them quickly got their introductions done.  They accepted each other instantly and came inside.

For a 13 year old guy, he is really light on his feet, trots along nicely, but can only walk about 10 mins....his back legs and hips are just 'old'.  But he plays with any stuffy, sleeps on our boys' beds, and can be a bit of a clown.  Keep in mind this dog doesn't know us from anyone, BUT, he is visibly comforted by having other greyhounds around and will follow and learn from them around the house.  How cool is that?


This past week of training was decent, having swam 3x, biked 3 and ran 2.  My plan called for an easy week, bit of a regeneration of sorts.  Long ride was only 3 hours today, thankfully given the 10 C (50F) temperature and 50 km/h (30 mph) wind gusts.  I found riding with the wind comfortable, but the minute I was against it, I got cold.  Shows what an increase in windspeed will do to you on a bike.  I got 2.5 hours in had to turn back early because of the gusts.  At one point, I was leaning sideways into the wind and when you are on a road with cars passing at 50 mph, it got dangerous.  If the wind died suddenly, you had to be really prepared to shift your weight, otherwise the bike swerved into the lane --> not good!  The touch of rain that was hitting me when I was already cold wasn't pleasant either, so I figured I'd cut it 30 mins short.  No big deal, but I hate 'quitting'.

I posted a couple weeks ago about getting a Big Green Egg.  Well, it just landed and we've already done steaks and pizza on it and tomorrow we're planning to smoke a turkey.  The food has been delicious so far!  My only worry / concern is that I'm going to love 2000 calorie ribs a little too much!

In looking at my September training totals, I'm both happy and disappointed.  The first half of the month was devoted to recovery from my hip injury an is 1000 times better than August, but disappointed in that IMFL is 34 days away.  While I know I missed out on some serious building in August, I think I have enough done already to get me across the finish line.  They say the race doesn't start until the last 10 k of the marathon and sitting from where I am today, I can believe every word of that.  I think I can get the first 20 km of the run done relatively comfortably --> it's the last 22 that are going to be gut wrenchers (I mean leg trashers).  Time will tell, I suppose!

September Totals:

Swim - 23.0 km
Bike - 842 km
Run - 107 km

Thanks for reading!