Soooooo..the ol' foot has been bothering me for a while, but in true form, I pushed down the pain and dealt with it. It got worse. I remembered a foot injury that I had many years ago that got so bad, it took me out of ANY activity for months. It sucked. I decided not to repeat history and ahem, go to the doctor. Long story short, I was told no running or hiking for weeks. Weeks. I told the doctor that being inactive was NOT an option. That I had a girl at home who needs exercise. Lots of exercise. His advice was to find someone else to walk her, and for me? I could cycle or swim. Grreeat.
Then I got this idea...
A couple of people asked if I could just bike
with Hazel, to which I immediately replied, "she would kill me". One pull to chase a rabbit or a bird, and I would be a goner. Or so I thought..I started toying with the idea and took my bike out. I "introduced" her to it just to see if she had an fear towards it. Then I leashed her up with her harness and took a very slow spin around the block, feet on the ground. She did well. There was a little bit of excitement here and there, but I thought I could work with it.
I made the decision to got to our old abandoned dirt road and give this new venture a try. This video was within the first few minutes of our run..
Whaddya think?
I was soooooo impressed and happy with my girl!! We ended up doing this twice over the weekend..the first time was a longer run, and we left later than I would have liked. I purposefully wanted to go well after sunrise so that we could avoid all the critters that come out and about during that time. I carefully paid attention to any signals from her, however, due to my own carelessness, we ended up having to backtrack a little.
I realized that when I took my phone out of my carrier to shoot this video, my car key fell out of my phone carrier. Oops. I looked for it all the way back but didn't see it. So we rode back to my car just to make sure I didn't leave it inside. Nope. Sooooo, off we went again to backtrack our ride. Thankfully I found it! Hazel was OUT for the rest of the day, and I had worried that I over did it with her....until she was rarin' to go again.
I have to say, things DO happen for a reason. I used to be an avid mountain biker and liked to race in duathalons. I "hung up my bike" when I got pregnant and haven't been on it since! I always used my exercise time spending it with my pups, and felt selfish doing something active without them. Biking with Hazel has reignited that fire. I want to get back out on the trails! Unfortunately, it is too dangerous to do that with her, so maybe one day mama will sneak away. ;)
In the mean time, I am thrilled that we found an activity to keep us active and connected until we can hit the trails again. I didn't think it was possible, but Hazel keeps proving otherwise. She's turning into such a great pup. I am one proud mama!
