Crazy Dog Lady and Blueberry Muffins

I am the crazy dog lady this week. I am watching my friend’s two dogs for a little bit so right now I am in charge of feeding, exercising, playing with, and whatever else dogs need for three dogs! I don’t know how you people with more than three dogs do it; I give you a lot of credit because it sure takes a lot of work. Thankfully they all get along so we all hang out together and I don’t have to do crazy things like go for three separate runs each day.

To make this week even crazier, I’ve been sick. I caught some sort of cold/flu thing so yesterday I decided to make some blueberry muffins (I read somewhere that blueberries help when you are sick but who knows if that’s actually true or not). I used this recipe that I’ve been using for a while now and I will never go back! They come out so good, and they actually have muffin tops, when my muffins actually come out with muffin tops that go over the edges I get way too excited.

They are super easy to make too! Here’s the recipe (I did link it but it’s so much easier when you only have to have one web page open at a time :-P).

 Ingredients:

-          1 ½ Cups all purpose flour (I used organic)

-          ¾ cups sugar

-          ½  teaspoon salt

-          2 teaspoons baking powder

-          1/3 cup vegetable oil

-          1 egg

-          1/3 cup milk (I used almond milk because I was at my parent’s and they’re weird and only drink almond milk ;-P)

-          1 cup fresh blueberries (I like to heat them up before putting them in the batter because I love it when blueberry muffins are purple/blue inside, you don’t have to though)

      

      Topping ( I cut the topping recipe in half because I’ve found that unless you like your muffins covered in topping, it always makes too much and I end up throwing a lot out, so this is the topping recipe I linked, just cut in half)

-          ¼ cup sugar

-          1/6  cup flour

-          2 tablespoons butter cubed

-          ¾ teaspoons ground cinnamon

What to do:

-          Preheat oven to 400 degrees, get muffin tins ready.

-          Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Put vegetable oil in a 1 cup measuring cup; add egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix all at once to flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top and sprinkle with crumb topping.

-          Bake for 20-25 minutes

-          To make crumb topping: mix together sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon with a fork until it resembles a crumb topping.

The finished product!

Go have a great day and make some blueberry muffins! (You don’t have to use the recipe I used :))

Do you like blueberries?

            My brother is the only one in my family who doesn’t enjoy them. Too bad for him, he sure is missing out!

Bolder Boulder 10k 2015

I had a lot of fun at the Bolder Boulder 10k this year and thankfully the weather was perfect. I was a little worried that it was going to rain because of all the rain we’ve had recently but it held out for us and it turned out to be a great race.

I got up early to get ready for the race; Hershey wasn’t having anything to do with getting up that early so he stayed in bed. I know his eyes look scary, it was dark, 

 I’ve always been kind of worried about eating before a race, sometimes I go without eating but this year I decided to eat a Cliff bar before the race. I’m not sure if it helped at all, my stomach bothered me a little bit in the beginning of the race so I may have to experiment with a different pre-race food in the future.

For those you who have never run this race, it is a pretty big deal. Thousands of people run it every year and there are always crazy costumes. One of my friends saw someone dressed as the abominable snowman and said he was exhausted by mile two. The way the Bolder Boulder is organized is by qualified and unqualified waves. The qualified waves start earlier, starting with AA and so on. I was in the qualified wave EA with a 7:11 start time.

During the race I felt surprisingly good. I hadn’t been training nearly as much as I should have been so I was a little worried that I would push myself too hard. However, I listened to my body and pushed myself just enough I feel.  I ended up with a time of 53:21. I just wanted to break my time last year which was around 54 so I was quite happy with my time.

Here’s my mile splits:

Mile 1: 7:49 Mile 2: 8:21 Mile 3: 8:48 Mile 4: 8:50 Mile 5: 8:38 Mile 6: 9:08

I had some friends cheering me on around the 7k point so that helped out a lot. It gave me the extra push that I needed.

All in all, it was a great race with great weather and I can’t wait to run it again next year!

The race ends in a stadium, this was after the race, watching everyone finish. 

Have an awesome Tuesday!

What do you eat before a race if anything?

What's your best 10k time?

Rain and a 10k

It’s been raining a ton here and I hate it. A little rain is fun and exciting but after a while it just gets kind of depressing. Ever since we did the 5k in the rain a couple of weeks ago Hershey has decided he wants nothing to do with this weather. He’d rather stay inside and be lazy and only go outside when absolutely necessary (aka potty breaks).

I do have a 10k coming up though. Tomorrow I’m going to be running the Bolder Boulder. I do this race almost every year and love it every time! The atmosphere of the race is great, so many spectators cheering you on and keeping you motivated. Last year I did my first marathon only a week before the race. I thought it was crazy to do a 10k so soon after but I ended up getting a PR that day so I think it actually helped. This year I’m hoping to get a PR again but I’ve been kind of lazy with training so we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes. I’ll try my best to take lots of pictures during, before and after the race.

I have a whiteboard hanging in my living room and this is a little doodle I did when I was bored. Can you tell who/what it is? I guess I kinda gave it away...

Have an amazing rest of your day! 

Exploring Buddy and Random Stuff

One of the awesome things about having a dog is that you have an exploring buddy. If I didn’t have Hershey, I wouldn’t be motivated to go explore new trails because I’d be afraid to go alone. It’s so fun just taking an hour or two with him to go for a walk, not caring where we are going, but knowing that we will have fun. This past week we explored this trail not too far from our apartment. It was really cool, there was no one on it and Hershey and I had fun walking on a path we don’t take much. That is until Hershey found a dead snake and thought that it smelled so amazing that he wanted to roll in it. Thankfully I caught him before he delighted in that pleasure. Rolling in dead things is something I will never understand about dogs.

The path looked amazing on our way back. Can you tell it rained that day?

This was Hershey after he found the dead snake, proud of his discovery, but upset that he had to be put back on leash because of it.

Some other random things that I thought would be fun to share;

An awesome snack paired with an awesome show, the best way to end the night. (Can you guess the show?)

I finished the bag and Hershey finished the crumbs. We make a good team.

Fetch, you’re doing it wrong Hershey. 

Have an amazing Monday. Go for a run, walk the dog, do anything that makes you smile!

Canine Classic 5k

Last Sunday Hershey and I ran the Canine Classic 5k. It was pouring out when we got there and it kept raining throughout the race but we still had a fun. I didn't get the time I was hoping for but with all the rain and mud on the course I was happy to even break 30 minutes. We ended up with a time of 28:01.4. Not even close to my best 5k time but I still got first in my age group (there were only 12 people in my age group) I guess most people my age don’t want to run a 5k in the rain on a Sunday morning.

Hershey wasn't too sure about a race in the rain. We waited in the car before the race started. 

We left right after the race and went over to my parents place and ate waffles and Hershey passed out on the couch.

I wish I could say more about this race but to be honest, I don’t remember that much of it. Most of the race I was just thinking about how much I wanted to be done.  The course would have been great if it hadn't been for the mud. Here’s to better weather next year.

Have a great Sunday!

Florida and Biking with the Hersh Man(that’s his nick name if you were wondering)

We are in Florida! Unfortunately the pup couldn't come...

A couple days ago Hershey and I went on a long bike ride, about 10 miles. I wanted to try out his new bike trailer that I got him. He runs along the bike for a good portion of the run but I’m trying to teach him to ride for a little bit. He’s getting older and I don’t want him to hurt himself running that long, he really wanted to run it all though. Anyone have any advice for training dogs to ride in one of these? Right now he will ride for about a minute and then whine to get out. Maybe I just have to get him really tiered first…

Once he gets good at riding I’m hoping to go on some really long bike rides with him. Pulling that trailer up hills is hard work but cross training is good for races. :)

On a side note, I got my parent’s cat this bed and I could watch her sleep in it all day, she just looks so peaceful!

Have an amazing rest of your day!

Some Dog Training Stuff

I wanted to write a little about dog training and some of the methods I've found work best for me.

When I was in elementary school, every morning before my dad dropped me off I would watch this show that I found called It’s Me or The Dog. This show introduced me to the training techniques that I now use with Hershey. The trainer in that show, Victoria Stillwell, uses positive reinforcement methods. I just love the fact that I can get my dog to not only do what I ask, but also enjoy doing what I ask of him.

I never have and never will use choke, prong, or electric collars on him because, in my opinion those don’t always work and if there’s a safer way to train my dog to do the things those devices claim to train then why wouldn't I choose the safer option? Positive training allows you to get to the root of the behavior problems. I could talk all day about how much I love positive reinforcement training but since I’m not professional trainer I’ll leave it there for now.

Some tools that I do use are a clicker and a no pull harness.

First the clicker; the clicker is used to mark the desirable action or behavior that you want to train your dog to do. There are a lot of studies out there that show a click is more effective than just saying good dog or good boy. Although there’s nothing wrong with saying those things, I’ve found the clicker to be faster when training Hershey. For example, I wanted to teach Hershey to play dead. In my version, I first tell Hershey to “put em’ up” then he puts his front paws in the air. Next I say “bang bang” and he falls to the ground.

A demonstration of this trick, sorry for the blurriness, I took it on my phone:

When I first started teaching him this trick I didn't think the clicker was all that important. However I ran into a problem. Since the trick really has two tricks combined into one, Hershey was putting both together in his head. Instead of waiting for my queue to fall down “dead” he would put his paws up in the air and fall down right away. Using the clicker I was able to separate each action or trick by marking them. He then learned that he had to wait until I said “bang bang” to fall down.  

As for the no pull harness, there are a ton of options to choose from when it comes to no pull harnesses. I use this one. I don’t use it all the time because Hershey usually knows not to pull but I do use it when running, when I don’t want to worry about him pulling, and when I’m trying to work with him on other behaviors. It just gives me a little more control. Right now, for example, I’m working with Hershey on his leash reactivity; he likes to lunge and bark at other dogs when we are passing because he gets super excited and wants to play. Using the harness gives me more control to catch the action before it happens and train him what I’d like him to do when passing other dogs. 

Also, if you’re looking for a good book about training your dog I’d really recommend this one and this one by Victoria Stillwell. This isn't sponsored; I just really love her books and methods. 

And lastly, a pic of Hershey doing one of my favorite tricks, high five;

Have a great day!