Stepping up my running

Last night I met Jen for a run again. I made the unfortunate mistake of not running at all between Sunday and last night and this run felt particularly blah. We did a similar loop to Sunday's but slightly shorter so it rounded out to 4 miles. Jen's Garmin watch said our time per mile was slower than Sunday too...boo! Well, I'm still inspired to run more anyway. My friend Gibson has long bugged me about setting running goals for myself and for a long time I resisted, insisting that I just run when I feel like it and that my primary goal was exercise so that I can eat ice cream and pizza and not feel like a blob. Well, lately I'm feeling a lot more inspired by all the foodie/health/fitness bloggers I follow, and by Jen running two half marathons within like 3 weeks of each other. I want in on this. So I am thinking of training for a long run, like maybe a half marathon. First up though, I registered for an 8K trail race on May 1st. Jen is running it too. I'm psyched :)
When I decided to run with Jen last night I was initially undecided about what to do about Clyde (as usual!). I took him for a quick walk around the neighborhood and then debated about whether to attempt the doggie stroller again, put him back in the crate, or *GASP* leave him home UNATTENDED! I bet you can't guess which I decided to do... You guessed it, I left him out of the crate with pretty much free roam of the house. I did close all the upstairs doors and the doors to our downstairs office, but otherwise, he was free to roam. Greg and I have been toying with the idea of trying this for a while now as it's been like a month or more since his last indoor accident. Well, I was gone a little over and hour and I'm proud to say that my baby did GREAT! No accidents and nothing chewed. I'll be trying this again in the future. I was so excited I immediately called Greg to share the news :)
Dinner was left over stuffed peppers and Kashi 7 grain rice (made with mexican spices) with a side of steamed broccoli.