Monday, September 29, 2008

LTD

It was a great weekend to be outside and we did plenty of that. My two training runs went well and then Sunday we got out for a mountain bike ride. I know fall weather (aka rain) is coming so I'm soaking up the sun while I can.

Friday

5.0 miles/45:38/9:08 average pace

Easy solo run

Saturday

15.0 miles/2:14:03/8:56 average pace

So, this run was unexpectedly an ass-kicker. We ran an out and back along Terwilliger Blvd through southern Portland to Lake Oswego. There's an asphalt path separate from the road for most of the way. In some cases, you can't even see or hear the road and are running through a forest. For a couple miles, though, it is just sidewalk through a busy part of town which was kind of annoying (concrete was hard on the legs, stopping for intersections was a pain, etc). The one thing that was consistent for the entire distance: HILLS. Omg. I know I am kind of a wimp when it comes to hills but this run was tough. It was rolling the entire way, so there was no relief when we reached the turnaround. In fact, at that point we faced about 3 miles of uphill. I wanted to barf. We ran slowly, like 9:30s, for a lot of miles with some faster splits when we had more down than up. As we neared the end we knew we had two miles of basically downhill to the car, so we pushed hard. I didn't think there was any way we'd finish the run with under 9:00 average pace, but the last two miles did it: 7:50 and 7:33. Zach was a huge help as always, pushing me along and not letting me complain too much. This was his longest run ever so big props to him.

total miles for the week: 39








Sunday, we took our new mountain bikes out to get dirty. I found a pretty mild trail, the Klickitat Rail Trail, to test my mtn. biking skills. Zach has done this before, but I've only ever really been mountain biking a couple of times back in Montana several years ago. We drove a little over an hour east of Portland to a little town in Washington just across the Columbia from Hood River. We ended up doing 11.2 miles total in about an hour and a half and had a blast. I think I'm ready to try some tougher trails because the few tricky sections were my favorite parts. Here's a few pictures. The second one is really interesting- we didn't know what it was at the time, but found out that those platforms are used by tribal fisherman who get exclusive access to this salmon-rich river. It was very cool.







After the ride, we loaded up the bikes and drove over to Hood River. It's a super cute little town with a few outdoor shops and several breweries. We had a beer at a little pub and talked to the bartender for a while. It's a very friendly town. I had a Full Sail (one of the breweries in town) LTD Lager- LTD for "living the dream" :) Cheers.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Definitely some beautiful country to do all things outdoors. I guess you are going to become a great hill runner one way or the other living in Portland. It will make those races that much better.

Aron said...

wow all the pics are so pretty!!

i have a friend who grew up in oregon so we have had full sail beer before, we might even have some in the fridge. he likes to bring over the local oregon beer whenever he comes.

great job on week 2!! you guys are doing awesome. i wish i had someone to train with right now! having zach will be awesome for both of you.

ncrunner12 said...

Amazing pics, and what a great weekend. It looks really beautiful out there, and sounds like you're making the most of your new state. Looks like a lot of fun.

Petraruns said...

And aren't you just LTD? That is all gorgeous out there and it's wonderful seeing you take advantage of it all - very inspiring!

Marathon Maritza said...

Preeeeeetty!

Nice job on the run, you kick ass!!!!

N.D. said...

Great job staying active and rocking the long run!!! It looks really pretty! I'm jealous too that you have a training partner!

21stCenturyMom said...

What a beautiful place. Your pictures remind me of when we went to visit my brother and when rafting on the Klackamas River. Good times.

Anonymous said...

Your pictures are so nice. You have some beautiful areas for biking and running. Great job on the runs. Hope all is going well on the job front.

Steve Stenzel said...

Nice runs! And great photos!!

Ewen said...

Great photos again Jen. I've been to Hood River, and had a beer in that pub up on the hill :) I also have a T-shirt from the Lake Oswego 10k!

Nice work with the run - managing to keep Zach honest while not barfing.