I have (as usual of late) been pretty lame about writing here. My running hasn’t been all that great either, but I have been getting out there. Today’s run was a pretty boring base run. I hovered right above a 10 min mile pace for the first five miles and then cranked it up for the last mile and a half to get myself under 10. It was tough as that last portion of my base run is mostly up hill. But I cranked it out and made it. I live on the base of a Mount Scott in Portland which is great when it comes to flooding issues (even though I still have to pay for flood insurance), but not so great for running as just about every run starts out going down in elevation and ends in going up. But what am I complaining about, I am used to it…
Prior to today I hadn’t tun for three days after a monster LSD run on Saturday (also following the same up hill at the end pattern) that crushed me! It is the second week in a row that I did a Long Slow Distance run. For this one I ran down to the waterfront just outside of downtown, then met my running partner for a short run on the esplanade, and finished with a run back to my house. The run up from the waterfront has about a 600 foot elevation gain which I get to experience through a series of several hilly stretches. When I was commuting via bike to downtown I figured out a great route that broke up the hills into manageable stretches with some flat areas in between to recover. I use basically the same route when I run downtown as well. After the three main hills I reach Creston Park where I hit a plateau that my house is on. But before the plateau I have to run a couple sets of stairs in the park. When I am feeling extra ambitious I do the steps two at a time. For some reason despite being exhausted I tried the two step at a time stairs. Almost immediately my calf cramped up and I realized I was done. Unfortunately I still had another mile to go. But I decided I’d go get a slice of pizza for inspiration which after a call home to find out if any pizza was wanted there turned into a whole pie (and a ride home form the pizzeria). All together it was nearly 11 miles, the furthest run I have done this year (just eclipsing my 10.5 miler last weekend).
I also did a couple of smaller easier run this week as well. My weekly miles totals are still pretty low, but they are creeping up there. I just need to keep up the battle against the crappy weather and squeeze the runs in in between rehearsals. So far so good.