It ain't Chinese algebra!

AM: 10 miles around the park in my Five Fingers.  It had been a while which was was both good and bad.  Bad because my legs weren't used to it and started to ache a bit around mile 8.  Although I guess that isn't really a bad thing...just means I need to do it more.  Because it had been a while, mentally it was a lot of fun.  It had gotten pretty boring a few weeks ago.  Lets face it--laps around a grass field for 70-72 minutes isn't too exciting.

VFF (155)

PM: 6 miles with Ryan in the stroller.

Lunar (511)

13 miles around Tigard HS and Home Depot.  I'm realizing after today (as well as last MWF runs) that it's pretty easy to add the 3 extra miles most mornings.  This used to be a 10 mile loop but without cutting into sleep too bad, I'm able to get a few extra miles on this course.  I broke in a new pair of shoes today.  I bought them ages ago--I think when I was living in Cedar City and working for Hillsports (March 2008?).  Good to finally put them to use.

Speedstar (13)

8 miles after work.  I ran through the parks of Tualatin and Tigard in my five fingers.  It wasn't good...  I could tell that after 5 miles my feet weren't enjoying the ride and by the time I hit 8 miles I had to call it quits (2 miles shy of my daily goal).  I took off my shoes and saw the major blood blister that had developed on the bottom of my right big toe.  It hurts something fierce.  Pretty frustrating.

VFF (163)

The blister I developed yesterday wasn't too bad this morning.  I ran just over 13 miles on the Tigard HS/Home Depot loop.  Overall my body feels kind of trashed right now.  I'm almost temped to throw in the towel the next couple days and get feeling better.  I've been fighting a bug the past couple days and sleep has been cut into the past couple days with work and sick kid.  That's life...

These shoes felt better on their second run than they did on their first.  That's a good sign.

Moto (25)

We're camping this weekend on the Oregon coast near Florence. That means running in a new area which is something I love. I couldn't sleep past 6 so I got out of the tent and laced them up. I found a number of trails that were excellent for running and it seemed I had the entire forest to myself. Next thing I knew, 12 miles had passed & it was time to get back to camp. It's going to be a fun weekend!

Boston (540)

Today was my final run near Florence, OR before returning home tonight.  I didn't eat the best yesterday (who does when they camp?) and I slept like junk last night so the run began with low expectations.  I ran basically the same course as yesterday with an extra portion around the lake and throughout the campsite loops to add some miles at the end.  I felt really good despite the weekend of camping food and sleeping bag "sleep."  I don't know how some people camp the night before a race and then still perform well.  I wanted to hit 18 miles but would have settled for 15 given the situation.  When I returned to camp after 15 miles, I saw that people were still stumbling out of their tents.  Turns out I had time for 5 more miles and I'm glad I finished off my run rather than hang out around the fire and be done for the day.  Pretty good week considering...

Lunar (531)

AM: 10 miles around the park in my five fingers.  I forgot my ipod and it made for a very boring 10 miles.  Live and learn...  I'm working in eastern Oregon the next couple days so I should be able to run some doubles today and tomorrow.

VFF (173)

PM: There were 20 mph winds in Pendleton upon my arrival and I didn't want to fight against that, so I jumped on the hotel treadmil for 12 miles.  I felt great throughout the run and averaged 7:29/mile while running at a 2% incline.  We'll see how I feel in the morning...

Speedstar (25)

AM: 13 miles in Pendleton.  I ran down the hill from the hotel and then headed east to the indian reservation (sort of).  Who knows...I followed the highway, passing a sign saying Entering Umatilla Indian Reservation, until it became a dead end.  That was 30 minutes and then I ran back-and-forth on the deserted highway 4 time to add on some miles before returning to the hotel.  It actually turned out to be a pretty good course, one that I'll run again.

Moto (38)

PM: 10 miles.  I ran to the HS track because I wanted to see what kind of pace I was running tonight after the miles from yesterday and this morning.  As always, the pace was right at 7:00/mile (I ran 3 miles in 7:02, 7:04, 6:55).  For whatever reason my body likes that pace and locks in regardless.  Back to the hotel and up the big hill once again.  One more time tomorrow morning and then I can avoid it for another 3 weeks.

Speedstar (35)

10 miles in Pendleton along the riverpath.  Heading home today.

AM: 6 miles around the park in five fingers.  Felt good.  Tonight I'll either run with Ryan for a few miles or drive to Salem and run in the cross country race @ Bush Park.  We'll see how the day plays out

PM: I drove to Salem after work to participate in the Bush Park xc race.  It was hot (85 and humid) and I felt trashed as soon as I arrived but I was looking at this race as simply some speed work for the week so no biggie.  There wasn't much time for a warm up but I managed a quick 2 miles before grabbing my spikes and heading for the start.  I had wanted to race in five fingers again but they were still damp from when I cleaned them after running in them this morning.

The course was different from a couple weeks ago and nearly 50% of the race was on asphalt so needless to say, wearing spikes wasn't a wise choice.  I ran in the lead for 2.5 miles and then was passed by a senior from Western Oregon University.  Tried to hang on to second place but was passed again in the final 100 meters.  So 3rd place for me and nearly the exact same time from a couple weeks ago.  I cooled down for 2 more miles and then tried to find some dinner.  Big Town Hero (Subway-like) was closed and we were quickly running out of options.  We eventually settled for a hot dog and pizza slice from Costco.  Dinner of champions, right there.

Now it's 9:30 and we've just arrived home.  In retrospect, I wish I hadn't made the effort of racing.  With the so-so performance and then garbage dinner, I feel like I came out in the negative; 1 step forward and 2 steps back.  So it goes sometimes...

Boston (544)

12 miles this morning on the Tigard HS loop.  Surprisingly, my legs and stomach felt really good this morning.  I was a little tired, but no worse than a normal Friday morning.  The plan is to run 20 miles tomorrow which will make for my first 100 mile week.  Probably my last 100 as well. :)

Lunar (543)

22 miles this morning.  I ran a combination of 3 different routes; hospital loop, desperate housewives and Ryan's loop.  I started with the hospital loop and right away I knew my Garmin was going to have issues.  I should have registered 1 mile as I passed K-Mart but it didn't beep until I'd crossed the freeway and was near Famous Dave's.  That should have been a clue to run off of time and not my Garmin's distance.  Anyway, I finished the loop and was in dire need of a bathroom as I approached Starbucks and Fred Meyer at 5 miles.  After taking care of business I continued up Boones Ferry, onto Ibach and then the rest of D.H loop.

I made my to the Commons around 8:00 am and was a little disappointed I hadn't jumped in the Crawfish 5K after seeing all the participants lined up to start the race.  I looped around the art walk twice, ate some Hammer Gel and then finished off the morning on Ryan's loop.

The plan was to run 20, thus giving me my first 100 mile week.  I decided to run 1 mile extra just to make sure it was legit, but after getting home and mapping out the course on the computer, I see I ran 22 miles total.  My Garmin is worthless here with all the trees.  Absolutely worthless.  I guess if 21 miles is good, 22 is better, right?  I felt pretty good throughout and hope to recover this weekend.  All in all, I'm pretty pumped to finally reach 100 miles in one week.  I've tried for it on 3 separate weeks (June 2009, July 2009 and July 2010) but have never gotten over the hump (90, 91, 93).  I don't think I'll make it a habit--it's a lot of running and therefore time away from family and more important things.  But it's cool to achieve a goal and we'll see if the miles pay off come October.

Cumulus (463)

13 miles this morning. I ran to Tualatin HS and then 50 minutes around the xc course and track. Had to make a couple bathroom stops but otherwise, I felt pretty good.

Boston (557)

Nothing today.  It's my first ZERO in a long time.  Bummer.  I was up way too late last night and just couldn't get out of bed this morning. 

In addition, the top of my right foot feels similar to how it did in July 2009 when I developed a stress fracture and had to give up running for 2 months.  It feels better tonight than last night so hopefully it will be back to normal by tomorrow and I can get back to running.  I always seem to try and stretch out the miles on my shoes and then it comes back to bite me in the end.  566 miles on my Boston's and now they're in the trash so I'm not tempted to use them again.

I'm thinking it's a stress fracture, or at least the beginning stages of one. It feels the exact same as last year and hasn't made much improvement in the past couple days. I'm eating calcium and vitamin D pills like candy (not really, but daily anyway) and will RICE for the rest of the week. Hopefully that helps and I can salvage the Portland marathon. If not, it was a great 2010! :)

My foot started to feel better Thursday night.  Friday morning it was back to feeling messed up but then again last night it felt fine.  Go figure?  I'm no Dr so I'm clueless about what it may be.  All I know is that if felt very similar to last year when I took 2 months off from running to let me foot heal.

Anyway, it felt okay when I woke up so I thought I'd try running in the park in my five fingers on the soft ground.  It didn't feel great, but it didn't hurt worse either.  Now that I'm done my foot feels totally normal.

I guess we'll see how it feels on Sunday/Monday and go from there.  I'm okay with missing 4 days of running this week if I'm still able to run Portland.  Keeping my fingers crossed...

My foot didn't feel great (nor did it feel bad) yesterday or this morning but by the time I got off work, it was feeling fine.  I decided to test it out with 5 easy miles by myself and then 5 more with Ryan.  No complaints

Cumulus (473)

AM: 9 miles at the park in five fingers.  The weather is starting to cool off and making for some crisp mornings.

PM: Quick trip to Pendleton--just one night.  I ran 9 miles on the hotel treadmill while watching the new ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "Jordan Rides the Bus." Pretty interesting...

12 miles in Pendleton.  Ran on the highway to the Umatilla Indian Reservation and back & forth on the dead end four times, then back to the hotel.

12 miles around the Tigard HS loop.

10 miles at the park in five fingers. This was the best my foot has felt in 2 weeks. I think 'it' is in the past, whatever 'it' is/was.

Woops.

I've wanted to run 20 miles of the Portland marathon course and today was the only weekend that worked between now and race day.  I normally don't like to drive somewhere to run (it just seems like a waste of time when I can start a run from my front door) but I made an exception today--it's only a 20 minute drive to downtown so not a big deal.  The 'woops' came when I arrived and I had forgot my watch.  I didn't want to drive home and then return (no need to start the morning with 60 minutes of driving) so I ran watch-less for the first time in a long time.  I parked in front of Dr. Parent's office on the waterfront, near mile 4 of the marathon course.

From there I ran the course....to the finish.  I added a bit around mile 9 of the actual course (the turn around on Front St).  I wasn't sure where the exact turnaround was so I continued on to the nearest intersection so I could map my route correctly once I got on a computer.

Anyway, it was good to get an idea of the course.  The hill up St. Johns Bridge was a little longer than I expected, but not as steep either.  The downhill is pretty good (mile 21?) by the Adidas headquarters followed by a slight uphill on Interstate Ave.  Overall I liked the course.  I like how you leave the city and then return which provides a visual of the final destination.  We'll see if I feel the same on October 10th!

The 2nd 'woops' is for the overall distance.  I figured it would be close to 20 miles, maybe a bit more, but not 23.  Actual distance was 23.3 miles but seeing how I like whole numbers, I'll blog it as 23.  Needless to say, I was pretty thirsty when I finished.  I hadn't drank anything during the run and the only thing I'd eaten, other than a banana as I was driving into the city, was a pack of Jelly Belly Sport Beans.  Wish I new total time and pace...

14 miles this morning on the Desperate Housewives and HS XC course loop.  Feeling pretty good.

Lunar (557)

AM: 10 miles in my five fingers.  I mixed things up by running into Tigard as well as Tualatin.

PM: 10 miles after work.  Lunch wasn't sitting well so it wasn't a pretty sight.  No more California Pizza Kitchen for lunch...

Cumulus (483)