Eat Sleep Run

Our trip to Portland was awesome! Full of very little sight seeing and much eating* and nap taking. My kind of vacation. I also happened to bump into a sorority sister I haven't seen since college. It was a quasi planned bump. Soon after I posted my traveling plans Katie informed me that she not only lives in Portland but also happened to be signed up for the Pints to Pasta 10K. CRAZY!!!

So we caught up after the race over a cup of Ruby at the McMenamins Edgefield Brewery. That's right. We did the Pints to Pasta and then back to Pints race.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Race day started way too early as usual. We were out the door and headed to the bus stop (via Starbucks) by 6:00 am. I don't typically eat before runs and my nerves weren't interested in starting. But I've struggled some with fueling in the past and decided to force down some oatmeal anyway.

I caught one of the first shuttles to the start and had almost an hour to sit around and wait. This was good and bad. On one hand it was a tad lonely. On the other hand it gave me time to stretch and go to the bathroom twice.

The line took 20 minutes the second time through and managed to double in length while I waited. This line, in and of itself, was okay. Runners, after all, can't seem to get enough of the Port-O-Potties. What didn't work was putting half the Port-O-Potties right next to the start line. This meant that half the crowd was headed the wrong direction when the gun went off. Once I made my way through the peeers** the rest of the run was pretty uneventful.

Pints to Pasta brags that it was voted Best 10K in the Northwest for the past 6 years. Well, I can tell you why. The first mile to mile and half are downhill and the rest of it is flat. If you checked out my Personal Bests section you already know this translated to a 55:36 finish time. A few solid minutes less than my old PR and goal time of 59:00. I even felt GOOD at the end. Check it out (in the race photo I didn't purchase).

Truthfully, the course was so easy I kind of feel like I cheated. Thanks to the opening downhill I finished the first 3 miles in 26:16. I can't actually run that fast. But a few minutes of math geekery tells me I still would have finished under 57:00 if I ran the whole thing at the mile 4 to 6.2 pace. So I'm feeling pretty freakin' good about it.

Now time to work on that stubborn 5K time...

*In summary:

Park Kitchen - Nice vibe, disappointing service and food that's trying a bit too hard.

Nel Centro - Perhaps the best Italian I've had.

Cool Moon Ice Cream - Awesome. Particularly the chocolate orange sorbet.

**Yes. Peeers. As in "those who pee."

Pints to Pasta 10K

It's 11:00 pm Monday night, and we're back from Portland. I'm telling myself to go to bed and get some rest before rejoining the real world (i.e. work) tomorrow morning. Oh sadness.

A more comprehensive Portland post will follow at a later date. For now I will leave you with a spoiler. Check out the right side of the page...

I'm a travelin' machine

I'm struggling with how I should start this post and debating between several openers:

1. Oh the roller coaster ride that is my hip... Remember how I was doing pretty well, all things considered? Well, that was like the climb before the free fall.

2. Instead of blogging, I really should be...packing! That's right. We're off to Portland this weekend! Just because.

3. My September calendar's got racin' fever! I'll be kicking it off this Sunday with the Pints to Pasta 10K.

Followed by the Oyster Urban Adventure on 9/26 as a proud member of team "Fitz Fitzgerald and the Babettes."

And I'm still trying to rope a friend into a 5K the following Saturday. (Wups...I guess that's October...2nd to be specific.) Maybe this one in Golden, CO? Followed by a little Coors lab? Anyone? Anyone out there want to run this with me?

4. This post looks like it's shaping up into a Three Things Thursday. Except for now I have four so I'll just move on to...

5. I recently reconfigured my workout schedule to include an enormous number of rest days. So as to compensate for item number 1. This means my training to racing ratio is extremely low. This week especially in order to gear up for Sunday. I really should set a goal of finishing uninjured, but the truth is I would like to finish under 59:00 min. Sitting on the couch is actually driving me crazy because I feel like I'm just getting slower with each passing day.

6. I went to a TeamChallenge fundraising workshop tonight. From the way everyone talks I feel like the experienced runner of the group, which is so totally opposite of what I expected. I haven't actually run with the group yet, but I'm tentatively planning on walking a large portion of the group runs. Using them more for rest and relationship building than training.

If you have yet to read about why I joined TeamChallenge you can do so here. And you're always welcome to donate here.

A toast to Albuquerque

I'm actually doing quite well, all things considered.

When we last touched base I was struggling with a finicky hip and cancelling my Thursday and Friday runs. I was pretty upset about this until I was struck with what can only be described as an ingenious idea. What not run Saturday?? And that's what I did. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Friday evening we flew into Albuquerque for a wedding. My dad's parents (that would make them my grandparents) lived in Albuquerque while they were still alive. This meant that as a child I participated in many a road trip down south. At the time gas prices were somewhere around $0.80/gallon. Don't ask me why this, of all memories, was frozen into my elementary-school-aged brain. I bring it up only because I find it rather ironic that keeping an eye on the NYMEX gasoline price is now one of my professional responsibilities.

Aside from the inside of gas station bathrooms, my grandparents' retirement home and a Catholic church or two, I didn't really see much of Albuquerque until this past weekend. As it turns out, I wasn't missing much. Albuquerque ended up being a lot of stucco, a few cactuses and a lot of drinking.

A group of our friends were already waiting outside when our taxi pulled up to the hotel Friday night. We took about 10 minutes to check in and headed straight to the bar. I did a pretty good job minimizing my alcohol consumption, but didn't make it to bed until after 2:00 am. I wouldn't say I was hungover when my alarm sounded at 7:00 am Saturday morning, but I did feel "like I drank the night before." Which I suppose means tired and dehydrated. Couple that with an extra 4900 ft of elevation and the idea of running didn't sound quite as ingenious.

But I sucked it up and hit the pavement. The flat pavement. Woohoo! I was pleasantly surprised to find that all my hill training more than offset both the altitude and my dehydration. I finished the 5.08 miles at a 9:40 pace!

Saturday and Sunday were rest days while we partook in the wedding festivities. This one is of me and the bride at the rehearsal dinner.

And this is the best picture I got of Jason and I. (He kept laughing to himself in order to smile more naturally and blowing my hair into my face.)

The trip was a blast, but those two extra days of "rest" left me even more dehydrated. My hilly, Monday run under the California sun was a lot tougher. But after 3.5 miles at a 9:43 pace my hip was still hanging tough. Which brings me to...

I'm actually doing quite well, all things considered.

Oh how I ache...

...let me count the ways.

One - My right hip flared up again. Argh! It was feeling a little sore before yoga on Tuesday, but I somehow managed to skirt through class without any further damage. Unfortunately, Wednesday's class wasn't as successful. I decided to skip my 2 mile run today in an effort to recover, and I'm okay with that.

But here's the thing. I'm going out of town for the weekend and have been feeling a bit stressed about some work, laundry etc. that needs to get done before that. I came home this afternoon, started whining to Jason about my To Do list, injuries, some other silly miscellenous mumbo jumbo and ended up in tears. Jason promptly addressed the water works by telling* me I wasn't allowed to run the scheduled 5 miles (or any for that matter) tomorrow morning if my hip hurts at all. Which it will. So looks like I will get NO running in this weekend. And this bums me out BIG TIME. I plan on taking my gear with me but doubt I will have time to get out and about.

*I do make my own decisions. In this instance, however, I must admit that Jason is right. Mom too...hate it when that happens.

Two - I woke up this morning with a sharp pain on the right side of my chest. I haven't experienced this before and have no idea what it is. I do, however, find the fact that's it's only on my right side rather curious. Perhaps I strained it while compensating for Ache #1? We use our muscles in such surprising ways sometimes. For example - what activity do you suppose aggravates my hip the most? Wrong. It's sneezing.

Three - I just hit my knee with my laptop. Hard. Can a girl catch a break??

Time to relax with a raspberry lemon drop and my Google reader.