Fat Dogs Can't Run

Upon returning from the 2008 Icycle (report coming soon) yesterday, I hopped on my road bike for a couple of hours of training. Without letting the cat out of the bag on my Icycle performance, I learned that I have a decent base from all my low intensity riding I have done this winter but virturally no top-end except what I had left over from December.

In short, I need to kick it up a notch -

BAM!

On my route, at the top of a nice long hill - natch, there are two big Labs, a black one and a yellow one. They were on me before I knew it and the black one nipped at my shoe before I could get my bottle out and drown him with it. The ensuing confusion bought me enough time to get away.

An hour or so later, I had to return that same way and the hill fom that side tops out with about 200m of flat before you come to the dogs. They saw me coming and started running for me through a field. I started my wind-up. I still had the tricky part of that would come when they intersected me in about 100m. I had to be careful. A full grown Lab can take you out easy. I gripped the drops and ripped through gears while putting all my power down. By the time I met them, I was just hitting my 53x12 and they missed getting in front of me. My all for broke gamble was paying off. I put my head down and kept pulling hard. I looked back under my right arm and saw both of them about 50m back and fading.

As I went over the hill, I sat down and looked back one more time just to be sure. The dogs were standing in the road looking at me ride away.

People shouldn't let their dogs get so fat. Or on the other hand, maybe it's a good thing they do.