I finally attached my walkie dog to my bike. I'm ready to break my neck  

The question is - how fast to increase Ami's exercise. When we got him 7 months ago, he had been in the shelter for a month, had walks with volunteers and daily time out of his kennel in fenced in area about 800 sf. Before that, and the reason he was seized, he was on 5 ft tether to post, in full sun, neglected, little hair, poor nutrition, and no exercise. When we adopted him, I was pretty fragile, exercise-wise so we were a good match - started with 1/2 mile at a time, now we do up to 4 miles at once, usually 3-3.5 on one walk and 2 ish on the second. He also gets some run around time in the back yard most days (if too swampy and rainy, its a no-go). But, he has never, as far as I know, had any sustained running/trotting. Our walks, at best are 3.5 mph maybe and occasionaly spurt of up to 4mph (I have very short legs  and that's the best I can do - I've done some brief running with him but had to stop as it aggravated the stenosis in my back).

Back in the day, I would bike 10-15 miles at a time. Other than "listen to my dog" as hubby says, any guidelines on time and distance for starting and rate of increase?

Our mornings will be only in high 40's low 50's for at least the next month so temperature is not yet a huge concern.

I'm just starting to run with Dizzy and right now we do 2 miles at a time at a trotting/loping pace for him. We take a short break midway through for squirrel hunting, and then run the rest. I notice him starting to lag the last quarter mile or so. I would guess, roughly, about a 10-11 minute mile. I would say start out at whatever pace he wants to go, which I'm guessing will be fast! He will run himself out pretty quickly at first though, so try and pick a short loop so you can head home easily when he gets tired. Dizzy didn't know the meaning of pace at first. He would just run as fast as he possible could, dragging me along and wear out fast. Now we go a decent pace, but he still tires fast.

wpskier222 wrote:

I'm just starting to run with Dizzy and right now we do 2 miles at a time at a trotting/loping pace for him. We take a short break midway through for squirrel hunting, and then run the rest. I notice him starting to lag the last quarter mile or so. I would guess, roughly, about a 10-11 minute mile. I would say start out at whatever pace he wants to go, which I'm guessing will be fast! He will run himself out pretty quickly at first though, so try and pick a short loop so you can head home easily when he gets tired. Dizzy didn't know the meaning of pace at first. He would just run as fast as he possible could, dragging me along and wear out fast. Now we go a decent pace, but he still tires fast.

So, in the first 5 minutes, he'll try to kill me   Then he'll be pooped and saunter along at a manageable pace 'til I have to walk the bike home? I can manage that.

Thanks, Jen.

Yep! Pretty much! LOL