Rest Day and dog report

I ran 3 miles with Ellen this morning. I am hoping to not entirely lose my running form during the tour. With the day off, my legs feel pretty good and I am ready to go tomorrow. Just 99.11 miles.

Dogs

It seems like a high percentage of people have a dog. Most of the time the dogs are indoors, but when you ride by multiple times they are out some of the time. From a bikers point of few there are three types of dogs. The first type either ignores you or doesn't leave their yard and just watches you go by. The second type likes to run along with you along the road, but does not try to run in front of the bike or to move closer than about 1 meter on the side. The third type comes right at you and may run in front of the bike but always chases and seems to really want to take a bite out of your leg.

The first type is of course no problem and there are several such dogs on my routes (at the end of Hays, at the house opposite the 5 horses and burrow, and past Chads at the farm with the two horses).

The second type are fun to have around. There are 3 places with such dogs on my routes. The first is at Drake's construction. There is a large German Shepard and a larger tan dog. They like to run along and mostly ahead on the right side in the grass. There is a wooden fence separating Drake's construction from their house just beyond. They have cut a hole in the bottom of the fence so that the dogs can go through. The last three times that I have been by it has been quite funny since the tan dog has a large cone attached to his neck extending out over his head (I assume it is to keep him from licking some wound). When he gets to the opening in the fence his cone just crashes into it. He then thrashes around trying to force his way through and he finally gets through, but it takes him several attempts. Last year there was a different German Shepard that lived there and he was really fun because instead of running ahead before I got there, he would wait for me at an earlier point and then we would both take off at full speed. He would usually get a little ahead (since he could accelerate faster than me) and I would catch up to him as he went through the fence and then we would finish together at the end of the yard at full speed. I have clocked him at 32 mph.

The second dog of type 2 is a medium sized dog and he runs out from his yard and follows just behind to the right or left. Last year he could regularly go 24 mph, but over the winter he gained a bit of weight and he has only gotten up to 16-18 this year so far.

The third dog of type 2 used to be type 3 earlier this year (on the left just before Lerna road at the farmhouse that has a sign that says "Farm machinery crossing"). I have found that sometimes you can get them trained to behave. I used to squirt gaterade in his face to keep him from getting so close that he could bite, but now I just talk to him and tell him that he is running well and he just runs along side, but keeps about a meter away.

I face a type 3 dog almost every day (at the house with the swimming pool in the back and two horses). There are actually three dogs at the house. Only one is type three. He will run in front of me if he sees me coming, but I can get by him, without losing much speed, by squirting gatorade at him. I find it best to approach fast and I often get the jump on him so that he is playing catchup. After I get past, he chases and will run right next to me as if he wants to bite. I squirt gatorade right in his face and instead of slowing a bit like other dogs he speeds up and looks like he wants to cut in front of me. So far I have always been able to increase the pace enough (24 mph or so) so that he can't cut me off. The situation is complicated by the fact that there is a corner just before the house and another corner just after the house. Slowing down to make the final corner sometimes allows him to catch up to me when I have previously lost him. I am trying to get him trained to be a type 2 dog, but he may just like the gatorade in his face and I'll have to try some other tactic.