Coyote Encounter

During my 9-miler today I encountered a coyote up close.  What I found interesting about this was that the instincts of two totally different animals wound up being EXACTLY the same.  

I was about 3-miles into the run, heading up a very remote part of the trail which is about 8-9 feet wide at this point.  As I ran up the 4% grade on the right half of the trail I saw what looked like a medium sized dog coming down the trail right towards me - he was coming down the left side of the trail (his right)  I think we noticed each other at almost the same time.  An instant later I clearly recognized this "dog" as a coyote.

Immediately we both slowed down to about 3/4 of our original paces.  We made eye contact which then lasted for the entire encounter - even w/ the ups and downs of the trail, the potholes etc, neither one of us ever took our eyes off the other.  I instinctively moved towards the right getting to the outer most part of the trail.  The coyote did the same - he also kept his 3/4 pace but moved as far to his right as possible.  As we passed each other the distance between us could not have been more than 4 feet.  Even as we passed, we maintained eye contact until we were about 10 - 12 feet clear of each other and then at almost the exact same time we turned our heads forward and picked up our paces.  Very interesting and very cool.  Now, this was part of an out and back for me - and I was really hoping he wasn't going to go gather up a bunch of his buddies, as running into a pack of those boys on the return trip would certainly have made for a different type of encounter!

In regards to the actual running - I did do a Thursday run this week giving me 6-days for the first time.  The mileage for the week totaled 45 which is a new record for me.  Other than that, the only other thing of note is that I've been picking up the pace a bit on several of my easy runs the past 10 days or so.  I've just been feeling really good.  I've got the off day from running tomorrow and I'm going to make sure that Tuesday's easy day is VERY easy because I have a MONSTER of a workout scheduled for Wednesday.  (more on that tomorrow)

Training:

9/18:  weightlifting (upper-A, abs light legs) stretching 

          and rolling.  

          5-miles @ 7:30  HR - 147

9/19:  AM  4-miles @ 7:43

          PM 5-miles @ 6:52  HR - 154

9/20:  weightlifting (upper-B, abs, core)  stretching and rolling.

6-miles @ 7:05  HR - 152

9/21:  9-miles @ 7:12  HR - 154