Jackie O' Run

2.99 miles, 21:15, 7:04 pace, no HR info, 7:17, 7:22, 6:32

I'm spending the weekend in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. On tap today is a combination of three festivals in and around the New Orleans French Market: 1) Seafood Festival, 2) Creole Tomato Festival, and 3) Cajun Zydeco Festival. But before we head out of the door, I wanted to go for a short run this morning.
My sister-in-law is moving back to Baton Rouge and was in town scouting out apartments. She brought her dog, Jackie O', a Jack Russell Terrier. Jackie O' came in second place in a recent human/dog one mile race, and apparently the human was the anchor in that partnership. In other words, Jackie O' is reputed to be very fast.

Dear reader(s), you know I can not pass up a challenge, so I accompanied Jackie O' for a run today. I intended to ease into it like I normally do -- maybe an 8:30 first mile, and top out at around 7:30-7:45. But Jackie O' didn't get the memo.

She raced off to a 7:17 first mile before we slowed up to a 7:22 second mile while winding through the neighborhood trails (and making at least one bad turn). She led me during the first two miles, providing a gentle tug on the leash which was enough to make it a bit difficult to swing my arms. That's no big deal at slower speeds, but you really need your arm swings as balance when you're going faster.

She looked strong, so I decided to drop the hammer for mile three to see what I was dealing with. My route encompased an optional bail-out if Jackie O' appeared fatigued. It was dog-unfriendly weather (78 degrees, 82% humidity) and I didn't want to give her heat stroke. I kicked out the last mile at 6:32, and she ended up trailing me a bit. But I never had to pull her. I wonder what her top speed is, and if she could outrun me in a mile. I suspect so.

The human handled this run well, and I could have kicked out another 6:30 mile without collapsing if called upon to do so. I'm pretty sure I'm going to spend the next few weeks doing lots of speed work in lieu of more mileage. It helps with my Achilles recovery and it will hopefully help me to redeem my 5K performance at the Heights 5K. So this workout suited me well. I'll know if I'm onto a good strategy when I run my next 5K on July 4.

-----
TDLY (This day last year) - Rest. No Blog Entry.