"Cold, Cold . . . dog"

C - 4 miles, 37:30ish

It was not easy to step outside and run this morning.  It's cold and windy out there!  I've run in colder weather, but I haven't done so since last winter and it definitely takes time to adjust to.  Somewhere around the first mile, I realized I was starting to regain feeling in my toes, which is a bizarre experience when you didn't know you'd lost feeling.

The spiffy Lululemon running jacket I got today.  It's totally

out of my $ range, but I got it as a wonderful Christmas gift.

Most running sites recommend dressing slightly "cold," so you won't overheat when you start running.  I prefer to dress "ridiculously warm" because I'd much rather be hot than cold when I run and, frankly, I'm not fast enough to worry about overheating. 

My bigger issue today was a loose dog.  It was probably about a year old and it came trotting up to me.  It seemed friendly and was wagging, but it was also big and muscular.  I love dogs, but I don't trust any dogs that are loose and approach me while I'm running.  When it came near me, I stood still, let it sniff me, and thought of the blog that I just read about a female runner getting bit in the butt by a dog.  This wasn't my first running+dog encounter either.  Once while I was running by fields in Vermont, I was approached by three loose dogs, two of which came up to sniff me.  The experience taught me that if you stand still, dogs will usually get bored and head on their merry way.  

Today my encounter was pretty brief.  A man, who I hope was the dog's owner, started talking to it, and I cautiously got the heck out of there.  Tellingly, my primary thought as I ran away was "how much time did that just add to my run?"