Track

Went to the track near my house tonight. I have not done interval work in a while. 6 x 400 at about 1:15. 1.5 warm up and 1.5 cool down. I can just run to the track for my warm up and back home for the cool down. Very simple. That makes it nice.

Marine Drive

23 Mile tempo ride with a few above tempo pushes out on Marine drive. Only had to fight the cross wind a bit on the return. Nice night for a ride, cool, breezy, just right for a mid week ride. The sun was starting to go down, partly cloudy, pretty sky. Nothing like a ride to clear the head. Good clean fun. Now where has that beer gone to.

later.

Trail run.

Busy day at work. But I still kept it to 8.5 hours. I had packed up my running gear before work. After work I changed and head over to forest park for a run on Wildwood. I did the section from Lower Mc Cleay Park. They had done some trail maintenance on the the Lower Mc Cleay trail that leads to Wildwood, smoothed out and some fresh cedar split rail fence. It had rained yesterday and and the trail was damp no dust and the cedar smelled great. I proceeded onto Wildwood; I have not run this section of Wildwood trail in a while. It was a nice tempo run, 8 miles. The forest was green and damp and the fresh rain had heightened the evergreen aroma from the trees. It was cool, clean and fresh. It is great to have this so close to the city. The really nice thing is with my schedule I can leave work and have a run in before 5 pm grab some dinner and I still have a whole evening in front of me. Life is good.

Post Canyon Mtn. Biking

Headed out to Hood River area to Mtn. Bike at post canyon with Ben and Mike. I have not been on the Mtn. Bike in a couple of weeks. There was some good climbing, technical single track and a big play area of ramps and jumps. I actually attempted some the ramps and bridges. Went well and good times. I really only crashed once, kind of endo'ed, could not get my second foot out but was able to put my other foot down before the bike went over the top of me. Ben and Mike got a good chuckle as did I. As a friend of mine says about their experience with Mtn. Biking, "my fitness level far exceeds my technical skill" and so it goes with me. Got in a couple hours of riding. The descent back to the car was a blast you can really bomb that stuff. The best part of going to Hood river to Mtn. Bike is the essential post ride trip to one of the breweries for liquid refreshment. We headed over to Double Mountain for some tasty Pilsner and and Pizza. A fine way to spend a nice August Sunday, certainly beats church. Although the outdoors is my cathedral.

later

Massage

One of the prescription for my shoulder issue is massage therapy. I did my first session last Friday. Nice!!!. My health insurance has a pretty liberal alternative medicine policy. I can pretty much get a massage every week with a co-pay. I had a full body massage with concentration on my shoulder and rotator cuff. It was heaven. I have some pretty good knots in my shoulders. It will take a few visits to work those out. I have another appt. next week. This is going to be good medicine.

78 Miles and damn hot !!

Rode 78 miles today. Rode to Seth's house and then we took off for a warm up to Council Crest then down and over to Joel's. From there we went out to the Stark Street Bridge to get to the Gorge Highway. Instead of heading to the Falls or up Larch Seth suggested a route out towards Bull Run and up over to Sandy. He was not kidding about up. Lots of good climbing (glad I warmed up on Council Crest :P). When we hit Sandy it was really heating up about 98. We had replenished liquids in Springdale and again in Sandy including a small Coke slurpee, mmmm sugar and caffeine. From Sandy it was a cruise into town. The sun was sapping us but no more climbing and we spun it into town. I have not ridden that distance in some time, but seemed to handle it well. Recovered with a cool shower and a protein smoothie with banana, OJ, and fresh blueberries from my yard.

There are a lot of idiot drivers. The three of us are respectful cyclist stay over to the right, signal, stop at traffic signals and signs. We had one guy drive way to close to us for no reason as he passed by us. Another person yelled at us from his convertible as we rode single file in a bike lane. Another driver swerved over very close to me for no apparent reason. And they wonder why there is tension between cyclist and drivers. Get a clue people, try sitting where I am from time to time you might think twice about it being good sport to intimidate cyclist. Someones going to get hurt.

Bike Commuting

So the boy has had the car the last couple of days so I was left with no option but to Bike commute. I really like it but at the hour I get up I often have just enough time to let the dog out and feed him, drink some Orange Juice, hop in the car. At least that is what I tell myself. I usually get in one or two days of bike commuting. It really is perfect weather for it no need for any extra layers in the morning and I get a sweat in on the way home; guaranteed 40 minutes (that is round trip 20 each way, 15 if I push it) of exercise with a bit of a climb on the way home usually ridden hard. I need to do it more. I just really need to get up ten minutes earlier. Even rode over to the pub on my bike the other night as well. With gas prices it only makes sense.

Here is to the Bike.

beers found and AC

Well I had beers but opted for the local watering hole, Concordia. they have AC and a good selection of beer. I will run tomorrow, probably after dark when it has cooled down.

100 F

I should go run but it is damn hot out. The kid has the car so I can't head to Forest Park. Guess it will be beers on the patio.

Swimming on hold!!!

Apparently I have overworked one of the muscles in my rotator cuff, the teres minor.












The physical therapist says it is not uncommon for a new swimmer. The muscle is not used a lot in daily life, but in swimming it gets used. I don't have tendinitis, it is not strained, or torn. Just tender and sore. Funny that it shows up now because I am pretty much done with full tri's for the season and was already dialing down the swimming. I noticed discomfort doing some regular activities at work and in my last swim lesson. My coach watched my stroke and thinks he sees the problem so after a month or so rest we will work on my stroke form. In the mean time I just need to give swimming a break and do some exercises to strengthen that area, and get some massage therapy. I will check back in with the physical therapist in three weeks. So it is running and cycling for now.

todays excercise: 20 mile ride on Spring Water Corridor. Nice ride, warm out, a bit of a head wind coming down along the Willamette.

I need to start logging some running miles to prepare for the Portland Tri. Which I will be doing as a relay. I will do the run part. I also have a 10 k on the 7th of September. The marathon still looms as a goal.

later

Cascade Lakes Relay 7/31/09- 8/1/08

Shanghaied to Bachelor
216.6 Miles
2 Vans
12 Runners
28:40:27 hours
Sixth place out of sixty teams.

Lindsay's boss, Tom, invited me to join their running relay team. They had been rejected by Hood to Coast and found the Cascade Lakes Relay. It was CLR inaugural year; 216.6 miles starting at Diamond Lake and finishing in Bend. Beautiful scenery and challenging course. I have seen much of this course through visits to the Diamond Lake and Crater Lake area plus a portion of the course follows a good portion of the bike course of Pac Crest.

We headed out on Thursday. Tom picked me up,met up at Jim's house loaded the van and went to pick up Sharon and then off to Salem to pick up Dan. Well by this time it was early afternoon and we were hungry and i wanted a beer or three. Convened at Red Robin and loaded up on food and beverage and then settled in for the drive to Diamond Lake. Uneventful ride. Sharon had put together some compilation CD's. While listening to 80's CD we found out I could name the bands/singer with in a few seconds of the intro starting. I am not sure if I am proud of that or embarrassed, their were a couple of tough ones in there.

Arrive at Diamond lake and find our cabins meet most of the rest of the crew some had flown into Redmond and then drove down 97 to the lake. We had people from Texas, Georgia, Illinois, and Seattle and the Portland crowd. Loaded up on Pasta at a feed, drank beer and settled in to our respective sleeping spaces. One late arrival showed in the middle of the night.

Arise fairly early and Fran led breakfast preparation with many other hands chipping in. Pancakes, eggs, fruit, juice and sausage. Lots of food. have to load it is going to be a long day and and night and day. Our team starts at 11:30 am. The starts are staggered in a way so that most teams will be arriving close together at the finish some of the later teams will eventually pass some of the early teams.

So Van 1 starts us off. I am in Van 2. We watch the start and are off to kill time until our van takes over later in the afternoon/evening. Van 1 does a very respectable job with the first 6 legs of the race. Van 2 chills finds some gas and a little restaurant for food and nourishment. Sharon seems to be quite dissatisfied with the level of energy in the Van 2. I think we are just conserving energy, waiting, biding our time; it is going to be a long night.

It is early evening when we, van 2 take over. We are off. We are headed out on Silver lake highway. A beautiful stretch of eastern Oregon two lane highway, winds its way from Hwy. 97 to Silver Lake. I have the third leg in our van. I take over about 7 or 7;30 pm. Sun is starting to go down, I have my ipod on and start off pounding the pavement. My leg is 8.7 miles, hilly, nothing extreme but I climb for the first half of the run and then descend through rollers on the second half. I am all alone very little traffic, very nice scenery. The asphalt winds through meadows, ponderosa pine stands, and crosses streams. A great run, solitude, music and beautiful eastern Oregon. I would run or ride on this road again. I have actually road on the first 25 miles before. Did an out and back from Hwy. 97 junction and back with Jen, Lindsay, Jon, Sue, and Malia a little over a year ago. My leg started at mile 26 and ended around mile 35. I was able to run it at a 7:20 min/mi pace, if memory serves.

The rest of our crew runs in the dark as the sun sets and disappears for the night. We finish somewhere around 11 or twelve and hand off to Van 1. We have maintained pace well, having a good time in the van much to Sharon's delight. All tired, we head out to find food and the sleeping area in Lapine. We find a 24 truck stop, eat some breakfast, oatmeal seemed to be very popular that night along with eggs and plenty of Peach soda, the soda was awesome, we ended up ordering a pitcher of the stuff. We drive to the sleeping area where we figure out we have just over an hour to sleep. We all decide not to mess with sleeping bags and just sleep in the car seats of the van. Sleep may not be quite the right word but I do get some rest and a few winks in.

2:00 am the alarms in the van start going off. necessary pee breaks are taken and we take off for the next van exchange, about an hour east of Lapine. On the way there we are driving against runners as they head toward Lapine. It is pitch black and you can see reflective vests, flashlights and head lamps bobbing in the night. It is in the upper thirties, a little chilly. We meet up with the other van and our first runner takes off into the darkness. He has a killer hill to climb, should keep him warm though. Our second runner also takes off in the darkness. When my turn comes around it is just starting to get light. This leg is going to be great, pretty much gentle down hill. Another good run. The ipod is giving great tunes, I have it on shuffle. I run 6.6 miles at 6:49 min/mi pace. Felt good but I really pushed it and hope I have not burned myself up for the last run, yet to come.

Our last three runners do a great job and we hand off to the van 1 west of Lapine heading for Cascade Lakes Highway and the climb to Bachelor. Van 2 is pretty tired, Sharon thinks we are boring. We pull off into a camp ground and three of us spread out sleeping bags and get some much needed rest. The rest chill in the van and talk and rest. I think I had two maybe three hours of sleep, woke up a couple of times, it will have to suffice. When I finally get up, I go for a light short run and do some stretching and start rummaging for food, cliff bars, bananas, an orange or two, Gatorade. I actually feel fueled up but am still tired. Luckily Sharon has some caffeine capsules (coffee in a pill) works well. We visit relax and then decide to head out to the next transition.

Okay, Van 1 hands off to us. They are done. Time for us to take it home. We are left with climbing up to Mt bachelor and descending into Bend. The first leg is a climb for our runner but not too bad although Dennis is have troubles with his achilles and calf. He muscles through, although I hear he is still a bit gimpy. Our second runner takes over and he has a climb about 4.5 miles of the steepest climb up to Bachelor coming from the west. he does very well with it and hands off to me this leg is rated as very hard. It is 5.5 miles of steep descent with a brief but steep climb at the end and then the last 0.5 is pretty steep downhill again. I think the caffeine helped. My legs are pretty fried and I am trying to flow with the downhill with out pounding. My quads are feeling it and feel it for a few days after. The weird part was when we hit a length of flat it felt like I was climbing my legs are tired. Then just before the end we have to climb again. It is steep, the sun is out in full force, my legs feel like meat. Just keep climbing. then i crest and you can see the next exchange. I pretty much let it go and ran balls out nothing will be left in the tank or legs.

Sharon takes over for me and has probably the most traumatic experience of the whole relay. Some of the runners on another team we have been racing with alot of the night run in thongs and they were not women and not pretty. More ass then I have seen in some time and not the kind I am wanting to view. Anyway Sharon gets passed by a guy in a yellow thong and it looks like he has nothing but his race number on. So she spends a fair amount of the run following a very white ass.

We are almost there, the last tree runners bring it home and we finish together in Bend. Kudos to a great group of runners. One of which was Jim and Fran's son. Who logged the fastest splits on a individual leg and up until this event had never ran 8 miles at one time, one of his legs was 8.6. He was awesome and should be checking in with his cross country coach at High School.

The event ended with plenty of beer and a BBQ lunch at the finish. We told war stories, laughed and had a good time. Shortly we were off to Sunriver to get to our houses. Showered and somewhat refreshed. We noshed on snacks and sipped beer and grew very tired. Off to bed; we are talking about a recovery run the next day.

Sunday morning, legs tired, a bit sore, we rally for a little recovery run along the Deschutes River. We regroup at the main house and make breakfast and pack up to head out. Drive home is uneventful and restful.

good times, good challenge. I'd do it again.

Running again

After a rest from the relay last weekend. I got back out on the road today legs are feeling good. 6 miles on Leif Ericson, yeah I know it is Leif but first time I have run it this year. Good tempo run.

Cocktails anyone?!!

For the past two months I have been infusing Bourbon with Cherries, Ginger, and Clove. I also infused Vodka with Lemon, Lime, Orange, Grapefruit, and Vanilla Bean. Tonight I strained and macerated the two infusions through a chinois. The Bourbon infusion smells of well... bourbon, sweet and tart cherries with a hint spice (sort of like bitters). The Vodka infusion is exotic, ripe fruit, sweet vanilla and hot alcohol vapors. The mixture of citrus makes it difficult to pin down one aroma and the vanilla really came through in the last couple of weeks.

The Cherry Ginger infused Bourbon is basically Manhattan ready; all I will need to do is mix the infused bourbon with some straight bourbon in a cocktail shaker and voila one tasty cocktail. I reserved out some of the Bourbon soaked cherries for garnish. The Vodka infusion will make for some tasty "Citrus Drops". I am thinking a little simple syrup, a bit of straight vodka with the infusion in a cocktail shaker should make for a nice Saturday or Sunday evening patio cocktail.

Now I need to get the shaker, sounds like a party. Give me a holler, lets have a drink and enjoy the summer.