Run Like Hell---Portland!! RR

The day dawned warm with scattered clouds.  At 5:30 it was 68 degrees, with a light off-shore breeze of about 7 Mph.  With the humidity at about 54% this would be a great day for a run.  That is, it would have been if the race was Run Like Hell HILO.  But this was Portland, this was the end of October, and this was definitely NOT Hawaii.

t-minus 17 hours

Getting ready.  Picked up most of the "adult" beverages on Thursday.  We have secured enough tent to cover the driveway provided it isn't blowing too much.  We're expecting the end of a typhoon to blow through tomorrow.  So we may be indoors for the party.  I am drinking a ton of water today, and have my stuff mostly laid out.  I won't lie and say I'm not a bit nervous, 'cause I am.  But, by this time tomorrow, I will have finished my first Pikermi.  So, until then, send me energy, I think I will need it.

Tearing out flooring hurts

Saturday, the Mrs. decided it was time for our 11 year old carpet and "hard woods" to leave the house... yea me.  I spent the whole bloody day stooped over tearing out carpet and busting "engineered hardwood floors" out of the main floor.  Why?  Well, the carpet got done in by a carpet cleaning accident about 10 years ago, and never recovered.  Did you know that if you have a stain-treated carpet you are only supposed to clean it with HOT water?  Yeah, me either.

Shamrock Run 2011--Only 30000 Runners

Get your spots while they last!  They opened registration today for the March 13 event.  So they have the usual suspects again this year, but with all new starts to the runs.  And the finish line is a few blocks from the start line, presumably to prevent finishers from being trampled by starters as we make our way to the free beer.  Also, new long-sleeved tech shirts from Adidas for your troubles.  This is a huge fund raiser for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, so it's all good.

Wow, fighting colds is tiring

So we are about 11 days to my first Pikermi.  I am actually getting kinda jazzed about it.  I am, however, fighting the start of a cold.  How do I know this?  My throat has that lovely scratchy feel, and I am Tired.  I didn't even here the alarm go off this morning, and I woke up just in time to get in the shower and get to work.  Not really the auspicious start to the day I was hoping for.  There are several reasons that I am getting excited for the 24th to get here, and it just isn't about me.

Saturday in the Rain w/ picts

Saturday was a lovely rainy day.  And how did I spend my morning?  Why, in a long slow run of course!  Oh, and I have pictures of my favorite back road.  I had thought about bringing a camera last weekend when I got to the start of the backroad that I run nearly every weekend.  And, I did this weekend.

7 Things about Me

I never ever do this type of thing, but in an effort to be a better 'net citizen, I will play, just this once.  This comes to me via ERG as she felt I needed to share.

 Here's the rules:

1. Thanks and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award to other bloggers.

 I will already NOT comply on number 3 as I don't read that many blogs, and the ones I do are already listed in other blogger's entries.

Now then, on to the second part...

Break-up Song (or, Parting is such sweet sorrow)

It was with some regret that I managed to transfer over to here most of the blog-postings that I had made at the "other site".  I only brought over the ones that weren't completely site-specific.  I also managed to delete the photos from the account.  Thus I end my brief tour there.  It was fun, and I met some interesting and fun folks, some are followers here, some I may never see again.  It happens.  The part that is the most saddening is that this was all brought about by the "other site" trying to help their users with a big upgrade.  Alas, I may never hear from CatChowder1 or TexasRunningFool, or fill in another Friday blank for mnchick34 again.  But this is the path I must needs take.  In a little while, I will begin the "remove friend" process along with notes to each person as to why, in case they haven't been following along.  It seems the only polite thing to do.  I figure once I do that, the only reason to use the RWOL account will be for info from RW directly.

Tuesday's Gone with the wind

And it took my 5 miler with it.  We have a couple of sick kidlettes at home, and that led to a less than ideal sleep cycle for Monday night.  I do so love waking up every couple of hours to fetch water or motrin, or whatever.  So instead of a solid 6 hours of sleep, I got most of that in four chunks.  Then, when I woke up, MY throat was sore, and I figured I could use the extra sleep, so, no run on Tuesday.  Which is OK, as that will push my long run out to Sunday, which is fine since the Pikermi will be in three Sundays from now.  I feel like I am ready to do the distance, but not set any land-speed records.

Ten Mile Saturday

I think that I will bring a camera with me next Saturday on my (hopefully) 12 mile run.  As I cleared mile 1 and started into the farmland that is part of my regular route, I thought that this would make a great photo, and there are some other spots that would make for some interesting pictures of my morning runs.  The rolling hills that make up a little over 1 mile of my runs.  Saturday was a beautiful, but slightly humid day for a run.  I got out the door a little after 8 and it was just about 50 degrees and about 80% humidity, with an overcast sky that was mostly just "high fog" more than real clouds.  This was going to be my longest run since my ankle started acting up, and I was going to try for the first time the PowerBar brand energy gels.  I have four of the same flavor, so I was hoping for the best with that part of the day's experiments. 

My trip to the gym

Did in my plan to run this morning.  I went to the Y to do an ActivTrax baseline assessment and I got there early enough that I could do a little cardio to get warmed up, and to make up for the 1/2 mile a bagged on during yesterday's morning run.  Well, I hopped onto the elliptical machine, grabbed one of the programs and bumped the resistance to 5.  They say when running you should hold a stride count of 180 per minute or so, so that was what I went for.  The first few minutes I managed 160, then as things warmed up I pushed to 170.  At the half-way point, I only had 15 minutes plus a 5 cool-down to work with, I was able to hit 180.  I held it there for the remaining 7:30 and my legs were pretty gassed when I was done.  Final stats in the 15 minutes was 1.6 miles, so that makes up for my half mile shortage nicely.  But I still wanted to run this morning.