Sing in Me Muse...

Sorry for the posting hiatus; the weekend was hectic and not very run-filled, and this week my running blog muse has gone on vacay, leaving me with little in the way of inspiration.

A quick recap of my weekend to explain: Friday we took Tedster in to the vet for a deep dental cleaning. His teeth were kind of a mess when we got him from the rescue organization back in December 2010, but this was a product of his original owners, whoever they were, not caring for him at all. His breath had gotten worse as of late, so we decided to pony up and have the deep cleaning done. They ended up extracting four of his top teeth, which were rotted, in addition to the cleaning, so they gave him some pain meds and we took him home Friday evening. But later that night, his breathing became very shallow and the vet said to bring him back, so we ended up back at the vet that night (it's a 24 hour animal hospital). THey agreed to keep him overnight for observation (no charge). But that meant I had to get up and go get him Saturday morning, which meant no Saturday morning run.

My mother-in-law flew in later that day to visit us and my wife's sister in DC. Unfortunately, she stepped on an uneven piece of sidewalk in DC and (we found out later) fractured her foot in two places. So, she stayed with us Saturday night but we got up and drove her to National airport the next morning so she could catch an early flight back. Thus, Sunday's run was also nixed.

So, as you can tell, the weekend training really didn't happen, unfortunately. But not for lack of trying! I've been more successful this week in getting out the door and some short runs completed. Pretty standard stuff, which also explains the lack of posting. I'm trying to avoid "junk posts" just as you would try to avoid junk miles during training. And while I have plenty of non-running ideas floating in my head, I want to limit them as well since this is supposed to be primarily a running blog.

In closing, I'll try and get some running posts up here shortly. Just as soon as my muse returns from her holiday.

Weekend Training Schedule: July 20-22, 2012

This week's weekend training post is going up a bit early, as I'm taking today off and heading down to Washington for the weekend. This weekend is ArtScape here in Baltimore, wherein ~350K people descend on our neighborhood for the largest free arts festival in the country (I think). Basically, it's three days of art exhibits, performances, food, music, etc. Which is wonderful for the city, but it's terrible for neighborhood residents. We live a block from the festival, and the last few years the whole weekend has been total loss. Roads get blocked off starting the Monday before and going until the Tuesday after; illegal street vendors set up their tents in front of our building and hawk their wares while blocking the sidewalk (a call to BPD usually puts an end to that, yet they return year after year); traffic along our street is jammed for a week, basically; we have to park our car and not move it, otherwise we'll never get a spot. Nevermind the trash and unpleasant people the festival brings in (a small minority of festival-goers, of course, but still it makes things nasty if they decide to hassle you).

So, last year we decided to pack up and get out of town for the weekend to avoid the awfulness. My sister-in-law lives in DC, so we're packing up, taking the dog and spending the weekend down there. I took today off so we can get out before the festival begins at noon.

I was going to run this morning before we left, but just didn't feel like it. I'll get 3 miles in tomorrow, and I've mapped out a nice loop in DC that will take me around Capitol Hill on Sunday morning, which should be lovely. Come Monday, I'll post that route.

In between, we're going to be tourists, of a sort. Having been born in DC and having grown up 90 minutes from the city, I spent a lot of time at the museums, monuments and other attractions in the city as a kid. It's been a good number of years since either of us spent time in the Smithsonians. So, we're going to hit up the tourist circuit in DC. I want to see an exhibit on the history of London at the Folger Shakespeare Library as well and I'd like to pay a visit to the National Archives, which I haven't visited since literally elementary school.

We'll also go to brunch on Sunday at a restaurant in DC with a patio so we can take The Bear. They even have a Pooch Menu, which includes non-alcoholic dog beer in addition to entrees like a raw bone or dog-friendly meatballs in gravy with rice. We'll stick with water and the meatballs...dog beer is a bit much even for this dog person.