Adventure Thursday = Wildwood Wednesday

Full calendars have again forced our Adventure Thursday activity to move to Wednesday. I realized I like "Wildwood Wednesday" better, anyway!

This week's plan was Springville Road to Saltzman Road.

Mom wasn't available to help us shuttle, so we drove two cars to Forest Park and made our own shuttle. We started at last week's exit point: Springville Road.

 Look how sunny it was! A big change from last week's clouds and drizzle.

We hiked about 6 miles on the Wildwood Trail before heading up Saltzman Road to our other car.

We think it's about 7.5 miles in all.

Refueling happened at Native Foods Cafe, but I left my camera in the car. Eryn, Mom and Brad joined us, and yummy food was consumed! :)

Wildwood Wednesday: Part 1

Irish intervals

Should I do my intervals or should I skip them? That was the question I wrestled all day.

My hammies are much less tight than they were yesterday. And I'm feeling fairly rested - so I decided to go for it - in my new kicks!

Today's prescription was 7x400 meters at a 8:13 pace with a 200-meter recovery between. I pushed the last one up a notch. Good thing I have Flash Point to watch on Netflix:

I had just a short time between work and my union meeting, but I got 'er done! (Actually, I squeezed in a quick nap, too!) With warmup and cooldown, 3.55 miles in all... in my green and orange. Happy St. Patrick's Day :)

:)

Nos. 9, 10, 11 & 12

I read two books at once this time, a fiction to entertain my brain and a running book to expand my brain.

As expected, I flew through Joanne Fluke's Carrot Cake Murder:

Brad ordered Daniels' Running Formula and has already started following this program for his upcoming marathon (Vancouver USA in June). He suggested I read it. Brad really loves reading how-to type books, but I have a really hard time with them.

Daniels is very technical with lots of formulas and charts and such. It's not that I don't understand them, but I just get so bogged down processing all that info.

So while I was still slogging through the running book, I picked up my last Fluke: Apple Turnover Murder.

Such an easy, fun, effortless read :)

To be honest, I was still working through Daniels when I picked up No. 12: 

Patricia Houck Sprinkle's Somebody's Dead in Snellville was a fairly standard murder mystery. It was well written, but there were SO many characters. I usually read while falling asleep for an afternoon nap or at night. My tired mind just couldn't keep track of everyone in this hill-billy family.

But I still enjoyed it!

I finally finished the running book this weekend - woohoo!

Waterfront cherry blossom shakeout

Look how I started my Friday!

After work, I went downtown to exchange my race shirt at the Shamrock expo. Last year's injury forced me to skip running with the waterfront cherry blossoms. I took advantage of being in Portland on a 70-degree afternoon and went for an easy pre-race shakeout run.

There they are! 

I ran one lap, just under 3 miles. Perfect!

I made a quick stop at the car to grab my stuff and then walked back down the Eastbank Esplanade to the race expo at the convention center.

In all, 5.67 miles of walking and running on an unseasonably warm afternoon.

:)

Adventure Thursday: Wildwood Part 1

Back on the Adventure-Thursday bandwagon, Dad and I have been hitting Tryon Creek State Park lately. But with the time change and more evening daylight, I suggested with hike the Wildwood Trail in Portland's Forest Park.

Several years ago, Brad, Tim, Laura and I hiked the entire 30-mile trail in four sections. I asked Dad if he wanted to try it and he agreed. We plan to do it in over the next four weeks, finishing just before he has back surgery that will take him out of the game for a while. (But hopefully alleviate lots of pain!)

Scheduling made Wednesday the better option this week, so I picked him up after work and drove to the Newberry Road trailhead - the far west end of the Wildwood Trail:

We easily covered the 8 miles of rolling trail to Springville Road, our exit for the week. We feared it would be really wet, but it just sprinkled the last hour or so. We were damp but not wet. And the temp was great for shorts and long sleeves.

We mostly had the place to ourselves, crossing paths with just eight people in 2.5 hours.

A short hike up the approach trail, and we were done!

Mom couldn't hike with us but volunteered to meet us at Springville and shuttle us back to the start. That was awesome and saved so much time! Thanks, Mom :)

Our reward was dinner at Davidsons - yum!

Brad got in on the action, too. He was having a rough week at work. Grumpy Pants:

Looking forward to next week's hike :)

Look who went walking with me!

Jazmin and I were supposed to go running Thursday afternoon. But when it was time to go, she balked, having just eaten. Instead of skipping our workout, I suggested we walk instead.

The CE2 room was full of students, and when I said, "Anybody want to go with us??", a whole bunch jumped up to go! (If I'm going to be honest, I think they were just trying to get out of work, but I'll still take it!) ;)

We headed down the hill to Cook Park. I picture by the river:

Me, Sabrina, Jazmin, Alonzo, Jon Jon, Adonis, Tovias, Gary, David, Sonice, David

We did a loop around the park and then stopped at the playground. Even 18-year-olds are kids at heart!

On a dare:

After lots of laughs, it was time to head back. 1.85 miles in all.

And then a couple group selfies. We were laughing at how pale I am compared to my Hispanic and Islander friends!

I love these guys and wish we could do this every day!!! :)

Return to speedwork

Injury free and looking for a PR, I'm now in training for May's Hippie Chick Half. I'm desperate to do a sub-2:00 half marathon. I got a lot closer at my last race, but I still have to drop 4 minutes off my time. That's a lot! Hoping this flat course and estrogen-fest will help :)

So I'm officially on a training schedule - with speedwork and everything. The last time I did intervals or tempo runs was the weekend I got injured more than a year ago. I've missed the satisfaction from those intense workouts!

I'm a couple weeks in and just did my second tempo run last night on the 'mill.

It was sunny and crazy-warm outside, but the treadmill is best for speedwork. I opened the garage doors for fresh air, turned on Netflix and got to it.

It was a 35-minute progressive run, holding for a couple minutes at race pace at the top of the pyramid. With warmup and cooldown, I did 4.0 miles in all.

I began by finishing up an episode of The Fall, my newest Netflix obsession. The show ended about the time the running got tough. I switched to the Pitbull station on Pandora and ran hard through a couple songs.

Then back to The Fall for my cooldown.

Intervals next week!

:)