This is Dash when we first met him a week ago. He'd been left in a house for 3 months, with no exercise and little attention apart from regular feeding. As a result he is more than a few pounds over his fighting weight.
This is an approximated pictorial representation of me, post-Christmas, having made the most of not going out. Like Dash I've got work to do in order to get back to my optimum streamlined profile, so we've decided to start a Rocky style fitness programme. My goal is the Manchester 10k Great Run on May 15th. I'm 55 on the 14th May and I'd like to run the race in 55 mins or less. I ran it for the first time last year and did it in 64 mins even though most of my preparation and half the race was affected by a calf muscle injury.
Dash is a terrific training companion, despite the full set of spare tyres that he's carrying. We ran together for the first time yesterday, on a beautiful sunny and frosty morning. I ran 2 miles and by the end my chest and throat were burning and my legs were turning to jelly. The good news was that my calf muscles held up, and I had broken through the inertia barrier and exercised seriously for the first time since the clocks went back. Dash probably covered about 6 miles, given that he would charge ahead and then come back to check up on me and then charge off again and so on. We even stopped halfway through for a bit of tennis ball chasing (I ran on the spot). I creaked my way through the rest of the day, exhausted but satisfied. Dash went out for 2 more long walks and seemed a little bit tired by the evening.
He's going to look pretty damned good in a month or so. As for me, if I'm half a stone lighter by May I'll be happy.
And now the very latest news - our 16 year old son has decided to run the 10k with me, so I've got even more incentive to shape up.
I'll keep you posted.
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