When Ducks Attack!

Both of my runs today were pretty boring from a purely running standpoint. My legs are feeling pretty good, which I think I can attribute to the amount of running I've been doing this week on the soft trails by my house. For the most part, I try to run on the roads for most of my miles, but every once in a while, it's nice to give myself a break and hit the trails. The only real problem with the trails is that it is overrun with insane birds and fowl. In the springtime, I pretty much stopped going there all together, because the geese were getting way too aggressive when I would run past. They would hiss and flap their wings at me if I got too close. Spring must be when they have their little geese babies because that seemed to be the main cause of their agitation. There's nothing like a crazy goose charging at you if you want to work on your leg turnover. It pretty much does the trick everytime.

Lately, I've noticed that it must be little ducky birthing season, because I've seen a lot of little ducklings wandering around the trails. The duck parents are, for the most part, a lot less aggressive than the geese, so I really was never too worried. Then today, I came upon a mother duck and her ducklings sitting in the middle of the path. She was quacking at me and trying to look as ferocious as a duck could look. So I stopped and figured I would just let them cross the path and when they were safely in the water, I would continue on. I'm for the most part a pretty non-confrontational kind of guy (unlike Mike), so I wasn't in the mood to stir up trouble. I mean this was just a recovery run so it was OK to stop and smell the roses for a bit. So there I sat, patiently waiting for the ducks to clear out. They didn't. They just sat, with the mother duck quacking and flapping her wings at me the whole time. Finally, I realized how silly I must look, standing there afraid to cross the ducks path, so I just plowed ahead.

Right as I got past the mother duck, she went crazy. She flew up on my back and started hitting my head with her wings and feet. Well, they felt like feet. I don't know what it was, and I really didn't care, I just wanted to get out of there. I'm pretty sure I went anaerobic for a few seconds there. When I looked back, I saw a couple of guys fishing on the other side of the lake laughing their butts off. I must say I can't blame them. I would be laughing at my patheticness too. I came away from the incident unscathed, if you don't count my ego.

Did 2 runs today with the first being 10 miles (and 1 duck attack) and then 7 miles in the afternoon with some strides at the end. So far the week has been pretty uneventful, which is just fine with me. It's nice to actually be able to settle into a nice rhythm and not have to continually worry about making up mileage. I will hopefully hit the track tomorrow for some mile repeats, which I haven't done in a long time. It should be fun, in a masochistic sort of way.