Big bike tour of cities south

We just can't seem to get away from this guy! ;)

Sean joined us for yet another adventure this week - this time a bike ride.

Looking for a good bike route, Brad and I discovered this City of Portland site that lists all kinds of great rides - with maps and very detailed turn-by-turn directions. We picked this one.

We met at 7 a.m. Sunday at Sean's Sellwood house, which happened to be just a couple blocks off the course. We hopped on and headed south to Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Gladstone, Oregon City, West Linn, Lake Oswego and up Terwilliger Boulevard to downtown Portland.

We crested Terwilliger and took a little break at The Chart House to soak in the view:

Then all the way back to the river:

We completed the loop with a jaunt on the Springwater Corridor and right back to Sean's house. Then some serious refueling at Mike's Drive-In:

Just over 30.5 miles nice and early, few cars and lots of clouds to keep us cool!

And I'm very impressed by the routes from the City of Portland - great directions! I'll be using those again :)

Ohhh... I almost forgot. We kicked off the weekend with a bike ride, too:

Brad had ridden to work in Wilsonville, and I rode over at the end of the day to meet for Jamba. Free coupons from a race! :) Ended up being 22 miles.

Back to my running roots

When I first started running, I used The Beginning Runner's Handbook, recommended by Aunt Kari:

The philosophy is that muscles get stronger faster than the body's skeletal, tendon and ligament system. If you simply start running, you can push harder than you should, leading to injury. With a run/walk approach, the body parts get strong together, keeping you more healthy.

In the past months, I've run few miles because of a nagging Achilles injury from February. I did the Canby Dahlia Run 10K last weekend and really didn't have much trouble with my tendon. It hurt a bit during but hasn't been worse since. So I decided to go back to my roots and start from the very beginning.

So Tuesday, I got up early and did Day 1 of the training program: Run 1 minute, Walk 2 minutes - 12 times.

Boy, did it feel amazing to be out there! And I didn't experience any pain.

Saturday was Day 2 - Run 1, Walk 2 - 9 times. I did it on the treadmill while watching Say Yes to the Dress on our new TV setup. It was very nice!

Unfortunately, my foot was already a little tender, and it hurt pretty much the whole time :(  I hoped it would warm up and feel better, but that never happened..

Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

I'm still hoping that if I ease back into running, maybe I can get my tendon happy again. We'll see :)

Sean's a winner!

Sean, Mom, Dad and Eryn joined us Thursday night for the monthly Road Runner Sports Discovery Run, a running scavenger hunt around Tualatin. We go nearly every month, but it was a first for the others.

At the raffle after, one of Sean's tickets was called, and he won a free Jamba and $25 to Famous Dave's BBQ! Going to collect his prize (grey shirt):

Despite the multitude of tickets in our group, Sean was the only winner.

But we did enjoy our free root beer floats!

Brad, Sean and I stuck together, covering just under 4 miles in the hour. Many of the locations were closer this time, so we didn't have as far to go. We actually finished with quite a bit of time to spare, only skipping the couple of stops that were all the way over by Bridgeport Village and beyond.

Our 11:38 average pace is deceptive. It's more of an interval workout with running fast between stops, then waiting to do the little tasks at each spot, or going inside the business or waiting at stoplights.

Our group:

And look what showed up today on Road Runner's Facebook page:

Isn't that awesome?? The Road Runner photog snapped it while I was snapping us!

I think a good time was had by all :)

Sunday Parkways - by bike

This past weekend was the monthly Sunday Parkways, when a portion of a Portland neighborhood is shut down to cars, and bikes and pedestrians take over - all for free. It's such a fun day, and we try not to miss.

This month was a 7-mile loop around Southeast Portland. We mapped it out and decided to bike the ~14 miles from home.

Our route took us through Multnomah Village, down Barbur, through Johns Landing, downtown, across the Hawthorn Bridge and out to 16th and Taylor. There was a lot going on at Colonel Summers Park:

We got a later start than planned, so we didn't have time to actually bike the 7-mile Parkways loop. But we checked out the activities, people watched and snagged some milk samples before heading back to a family event at Ma and Pa's house.

The route home took us up Terwilliger, up Capitol Highway and back through Multnomah Village. We really enjoyed exploring and seeing new-to-us neighborhoods. And in 30 miles, we only made one wrong turn - one that was easily corrected.

We made it!

I clocked 31.65 miles in under 3 hours:

It was so empowering to know we could get all over town on our own power! Where shall we explore next?? :)

Sweaty fun with friends

It was another kickboxing night for us last night, our second of the week - and this time Sean came with us!

I love bringing friends to sweat with me at Fierce Fitness, and Sean did great at his first time! Hopefully he'll come back with me sometime.

After, we went out for some grub and to catch up, sitting outside on a hot night. What a fun evening :)

So who's next?? First class is free! I'll go any time if you want to try it out :)

Canby Dahlia Run (8/23/14)

Last weekend was our second-annual Canby Dahlia Run with the McKees and the Mortiers. We all grew up together and last year ended up running the half together. We all signed up again when early-bird registration came out. 

This time, Eryn Thorne went from being a cheerer to being a runner. And Eryn McKee, sidelined last year by an injury, also joined the runner ranks.

We channeled pre-race nerves into lots of pre-race pictures:

Tera, Jake, Eryn and Tiffany (sisters and a husband):

Mom:

The McKee women:

Dad, Mom and a stranger in blue:

Almost time to go:

Because of a nagging Achilles injury, I dropped from the half to the 10K and just went out there, untrained, to enjoy the beautiful course. It was so nice to run again after months off. It's a rural course, and with small numbers, I experienced lots of solitude - one of the best parts of running.

All done!

I finished in 58:47, a 9:37 average:

Soon came Eryn, cruising down the hill. Downhill finishes are so fun - although the hard right turn at the bottom was a little tricky:

Then Dad:

Yay, Mom - nice job on the PR!

Way to go, Eryn - her first 10K!!!

Tera, Jake and Tiffany did the half (so jealous!). 

Tera killed it - coming in 4 minutes under her goal and hitting a huge PR! At 1:41:13, Tera took ninth place for women and third in her age/gender division!!

Next up was Jake - also a big PR!

And Tiffany - ANOTHER big PR!

Very well done, everyone! What a great day for a great race - we will be back :)

No. 36

Still working through my list of THS library castoffs...

Seasons of Death by M.K. Wren was about a private investigator solving a decades-old murder in a small Idaho town. The detective is from Oregon, so there were lots of Northwest references - always fun.

The book was published in the early 80s. I'm enjoying reading older books where the characters don't have access to the technology we have these days. No cell phones. No Internet. It's interesting - a simpler time :)

Dropping to the 10K

Tomorrow I will attempt the near-impossible: I'm going to run a 10K cold.

I did the Canby Dahlia Run last year and loved the course. So when registration came up at a big discount, I signed up to race again this year.

The problem is that my Achilles is not better (I injured it in early February!), and I have not been running. I've done less than 9 miles this whole month. 

I'm not nearly as depressed about my running as I was at the beginning because I've found other things to do that keep me strong (kickboxing, biking, hiking). But I still miss it lots and am jealous of friends running Hood to Coast today and training for the Portland Marathon and such. I'm also sad because I don't know if I'll ever really be able to run again :(

Plus, I agreed to help Eryn train and run Portland a year from now, so I have to get better!

When I go to packet pickup this afternoon, I plan to tell them that I'm dropping from the half to the 10K. Then tomorrow, I will go slow, take walk breaks and try to enjoy my run as much as possible. No goal other than to finish and have fun being a runner again.

We have high-deductible insurance right now, but with open enrollment coming, we're switching to a lower-deductible plan. Then I'm going to my sister's podiatrist and get this thing scanned and see if there's something else I can do to fix it. I can hardly wait!!

:)