Puggy Update

I've been severely absent in the bloggy world lately, but I don't feel too bad about it.  I'm still reading blogs, but it's soooooo annoying to comment from my phone, so don't be surprised if I tweet you instead of commenting.  Bad internet friend=jerbear.

But my best excuse for my absence is this little girl.

OLLIE GIRL!

aka Ollie Lee (Kyle seems to think she needs my middle name, despite it's redundancy).

We've been together for about a week and a half now, and I must say it's love.  Within 20 minutes of meeting her 3 weeks ago, we bonded.  She sat on my lap and didn't want me to pet any of the other pups on the residence.  The whole week leading up to getting her, emails flew regarding her name.  Everything I suggested, Kyle axed.  I was regrettably settling on Penelope/Penny/Pen because that's what I always expected to name my first female (notice I said first, as there will be many, many more I'm sure).  But she just didn't look like a Penny.

One afternoon after Kyle was shooting down ALL MY NAMES, I went in to my co-workers office and she had all my name suggestions brought up in an email next to two pictures of her.  We went down the list and eliminated all the ones that didn't "fit."  I commented that I wish she was a boy, because I think Olivander would be great (oh hai, huge 'arry pottah nerd heah!) and that should looked like an Ollie, to which she exclaimed "OMG SHE DOES!" So then I toyed with naming her Olivia, and Ollie for short, but then I remembered SHE'S A DOG, SHE CAN HAVE A SILLY NAME. *

Our first night was a little rough as she was so stinkin' loud.  Like panting uncontrollably, and doing this weird coughing/choking/gagging thing.  I was ready to preform CPR and/or the Heimlich roughly 75 times.  She also wouldn't sleep away from us, so guess who got to snooze in the guest bedroom?  That'd be the non-snoring family member--me.

The next morning we ran to Pet Smart to pick up some food and things for her, and when we came home she was crying so hard at the door I panicked.  Thinking I'd never be able to leave this dog again, ZOMG!  Luckily, she learned pretty quickly that we weren't LEAVING leaving her, and she didn't have any more separation anxiety.

She doesn't chew on things, she doesn't pee or poo in the apartment, she sheds like a banshee, but she's just the sweetest girl ever.

She likes to sit on my lap while I'm in class, and likes to lay on the floor next to me while I'm studying. She loves looooooves going on walks (which is good because she has a couple of lbs. to lose) and loves to SPRINT down the hallway after we get the mail.  Seriously... it's hilarious... I'll try to video it soon.

She hates the flash on my phone, and the lighting in my apartment sucks, so the photos have been sparse.  She adores watermelon (the only people food we've given her as pugs have sensitive stomachs).

She follows me around and has a smile that lights up the room.  When snuggling with Kyle she has to keep her eyes on me the whole time, just so I know that I'm still #1 (or so I'm telling myself).  She loves Kyle like crazy, and I've heard her drop the L word a number of times.  Smitten.

Just love her to bunches and I'm so glad that we found each other.  She needed a good home, and I needed a good pug to spoil.  I think we both lucked out tremendously.

*Since naming her, I've also realized that Winnie would've been good/cute too.  Geez Louise naming is hard, remind me not to have children.**

**Oh!  Speaking of, I actually dipped in to my FUTURE BEBAH'S NAMES as part of the brainstorming, just in case there was a gem in there.  Not so spoiler alert: there wasn't.

Oh Hey, Remember Me?

I’m a big planner. Sometimes figuring out my race “plan” is more fun than actually executing it. This spring, I had already decided that I would cut back the running mileage for this summer. Based on the hades like temps for the spring, I was a little concerned as to what the summer was going to bring. Plus, summer classes are from 6-10:15pm two nights a week for June and then July, in which we’re smooshing one whole semester’s worth of information into four weeks (and then again for July). Uff. 

And then I got a pug. 

 ZOMG I LOVE HER SHE’S AMAZING SHE’S THE GLITTER FARTS TO MY SPARKLE BUTT.

All of these components further solidified my plan to cut back the running miles. 20-30/week? Sure. Sounds good to me. Have I hit that the last couple of weeks? Uh… not even close. To fill the gap (don’t ask where I’m finding a gap in my time) I decided to add in some biking! YAY! I can bike in the sweltering heat! It actually feels kinda good (compared to running that is). 

I found a 50 mile ride the end of June, and a lovely friend who’s willing to accompany me on said ride. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a great biker, and he’ll calm my little newbie brain. And another lovely friend will be accompanying me on a 60 mile ride/race in July! YAYZIES! But again… haven’t been riding much some early May when I had that weird calf cramping. SOOO YEAH! Time to get going.  (Update since drafting this:  PDR with Aaron last Friday night with 30.3 miles with a MONSTER upset stomach.  If I can be in that much pain for 30 miles, I can surely do 50!)

And there may be a TBD century ride in August.

After I leave this summer refreshed and jealous of everyone’s shiny new summer time PRs, I will be off and running towards marathon training. I plan to start Pfitz 18/55 (possibly hitting 60…juuuust to see how that works out) on August 3^rd, putting me 18 weeks out from my goal fall race DALLAS MARATHON (previously Dallas White Rock Marathon). I’ll get to see my lovely nephew and meet my gorgggg niece, and run in delightful Dallas “winter” temps. And since I learned this spring that 18 weeks is faaaaaaaaaaaar too long to hold my attention for training, I’ll be doing a 26.2 mile training run in the form of Nike Women’s Marathon with Megan! In case you were curious, my summer, PLUS those first 2 months of marathon training will be seeing some hill work! Which is great because I think running uphill is great for my (shoddy) form!

So that’s my plan. I have some local races written down in my planner, so if I wake up to unusually cool temps, I can head out and jump in, but I’m clearly not in PR shape. Like… not even close. As is evidenced by zero PRs since last August. Womp womp!

But luckily for me I’ve mega PR’d in PUGGY LOVE!