Sunday, April 26, 2009

After work

My first week of work was great! I love it. The people are great, the work is interesting, the office bldg and the area is cool, the hours are great, the commute is a breeze, everything. It's awesome! I'm so glad it worked out so well. The early mornings have been tough, but it's great getting off work at 3:30 and walking or bussing home and feeling like I've already accomplished so much, and still having the whole afternoon ahead of me.

I ran after work three of the four days of my first week. Plenty of time for the workouts and a leisurely dinner and then to bed early. I know my evenings will be busier as my tri training gets going, but I think it will work out well. I'm an afternoon runner by nature I think so it's perfect.

After a spectacularly productive week as an employed person, I had an equally productive weekend. The weekends used to just be another day, but now it is time to get out and LIVE! haha. Seriously folks, I'm jacked. :) Here's the stats from a week of after work and weekend! workouts. Then some pictures.

Monday: off (busy getting ready to start work Tues)
Watched and loved all the Boston Marathon coverage and stuff! Tracked my peeps: Chris, Ryan, Natalie, Jen, Francis, J Money, Steve, and Kara Goucher. Congratulations to everyone who ran!! I would love to do it again, it's so amazing. Great job you guys. :)

Tuesday: run
5.5 miles/48:16/8:47 average pace
Waterfront solo

Wednesday: off

Thursday: run
8.0 miles/1:02:41/7:50 average pace
Forest Park solo

Friday: run
4.0 miles/32:26/8:06
Waterfront with Zach

Saturday: run
10.5 miles/1:36:31/9:12 average pace
Hagg Lake

This run started off weird... you can either run around the lake via along a winding singletrack trail OR you can run along the shoulder of the very lightly traveled road. We thought at first we'd check out the trail. It was awful. I know some of you live for this stuff but it's not my thing. Maybe for a short run it would be fun, but yikes. It was up and down, sharp corners, big mud sections, rutted, rocky, branchy, ugh. A mile of this run/hiking took 11:29 and I was over it. We cut up to the road and ran the rest on the shoulder, which turned out to be quite nice. The hills were still really tough! The first several miles were all pretty slow, 9:10-9:20, but the last few miles I got the pace down, finishing the last couple at a sub-8 pace. My average for the last 9.5 miles (leaving out the trail mile) was 8:57. It was a killer run, I can't wait to do it again! There were also tons of cyclists (mtn and road) and we'll definitely be riding out there. In fact, we're doing an Olympic Tri out here in July so I would love to train on the course.

Sunday: bike
26 ish miles/2:30 or so
Forest Park mountain bike ride

It's about 3 miles up to Forest Park from our apartment, and it's quite a climb. Then the trail in Forest Park climbs gradually and then is rolling. The hills were hard for me, especially after yesterday's run, but overall it wasn't that bad. We took it pretty easy and enjoyed the scenery. We went 10 miles up the Leif Erickson trail for a total of 20 in the forest. On the way home we stopped off at a magnificent french bakery (St Honore, for you locals) for some amazing brunch and coffee. Soooooo good. A dip in the hot tub topped it off of course. :)



total miles for the week: 28

Photo time!

Trail portion of Hagg:

Road





Sharks stay alive in series!
Forest Park Ride:




And this is for my mom- the gratuitous First Day! photo:

Thanks for all the support on the new job everyone! I sincerely appreciate it. :) Hope everyone has good financial fortune for being so kind to me. This has all got to turn around someday, so hang in there all my unemployed and underemployed brethren! I'm sure in a few weeks I'll be back to complaining about work but I'm loving it at the moment, so please bear with me.

I'm getting ready to start up a little Ironman training action in a couple of weeks... I'm kind of loving doing my own thing lately and not stressing, so I'm not really too excited. It is a very long training plan so I definitely have tons of time, but I need to get my plan set and in action asap. I have a lot of work to do and a lot of questions. I think at some point this blog might turn very Ironman-y.

Go Sharks

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved the pictures and thanks for the shout out. wish we were closer to see the first day stuff in person but.

Love you and good luck to you and Zach in Eugene next week. We will be waiting for the call.

Mom And Dad in Montana.

Amy said...

That's great work is going so well. Yay! AND looks like a great week of runs, too.

Love the "first day of work" photo :)

miss petite america said...

love the pictures, especially your first day of work photo!

glad things are going so well! :)

Ewen said...

Your mum should be happy - your outfit matches your blog ;)

Glad you've had an enjoyable working week (and training week!). As a fellow afternoon runner, you have got the perfect hours. Don't give up on the trail runs - there are much better and more fun trails than that!

kristen said...

Sounds like an awesome workout week - an work week. Ha! Your a great dresser. Very cute outfit.

Kim said...

you look adorable in your work attire! :) so glad you had a great first week at work, and your runs sound great! trail running is F-U-N!

Susan said...

Aww I love the first day of work picture! My mom would appreciate it too!

I'm definitely an afternoon runner who is trying to turn herself into a morning runner...although I'm jealous of your hours! Glad the first week went off without a hitch!

Cindy said...

i love your work outfit!
man, i ran the hagg lake trail for the mud run and i thought it was brutal. like the 'trail' was just a rut in the mud. not my cup of tea either. i should try the road--that sounds more fun.

ShirleyPerly said...

So glad to hear your first week of work went well! If it wasn't for the heat later in the day, I'd prefer to run in the evenings too. Great job on those runs and look forward to hearing about your IM training soon!

Alisa said...

LOve the "first day" photo. My parents probably would have liked one too =).

Glad you are happy with your schedule, commute and job =).

Can't wait to hear about the ironman-y stuff. I have a few sprint tris and tri-for-funs in mind for the summer and then an olympic tri on the calendar tentatively for Sept!

Anonymous said...

you look so cute for your 1st day of work :) glad you had a great st week and you got lots of work out in as well. You've got such beautiful scenery :)

Amy - the gazelle said...

Love the pics - sorry you didn't love the Hagg Lake trail as much as I did - it's a pretty place, though, even on the roads! :)

Sounds like a great week!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

So glad to hear eveything is going well, especially work! It was so much fun tracking everyone in Boston.

There are definitely some great hockey series this round. I went to High School with Brian Boucher the backup goalie for the Sharks!

Steve Stenzel said...

YAY!! I LOVE the "first day photo!!" Good luck!!

Jeez, your run times are always GREAT! And nice photos too!!

Petraruns said...

I'm so thrilled for you that work is so good you deserve this. And don't tell yourself that you'll start bitching about it - you might, but you might not. It sounds like the hours fit in perfectly with your life.. Will be very interested to hear about the ironman training. Feeling tired just thinking about it.

Unknown said...

Awe, the trails would be my favorite part! Nothing will make you a stronger runner than running trails.

Great to hear work is going so well.

SavvyFitChica said...

I'm so happy that your first week was a success! You look trendy and professional in your first-day pic! I'm sure "mom" is proud.

Way to tackle your first week back to work and a productive week of workouts at the same time. Your schedule sounds pretty perfect for your training needs coming up.

I have to admit, I think I would have liked the trail way better than the road- ha ha.

Kelsalynn

J said...

I love the first day of work picture! My mom always makes me take those type pictures!! At my last internship I worked from from 7-330pm and it was amazing! I loved getting done with work and feeling like I had tons of time and daylight to get stuff done!! so glad things worked out for you!

Aron said...

yay so glad the job is going good!! looks like running is going very well too :) great job on the week and love the pics as always! see you in a few days!

Sarah said...

Yeah, yeah, yeah for the great new job!!!!!!!!!!! I'm just so happy for you - and I like your first day outfit :)

Lotusphx said...

Wow - this one might have more comments than the big announcement post :) I think it's b/c of the "First Day" photo!! I am so glad you had a great week of work, running, and general happiness... BTW I totally think it's the Shark's year!!

Chloe said...

That is awesome that the new job is going well! CONGRATS! And thanks for the pictures! It's so great to see where everyone else runs!

Amy said...

Oh Hagg Lake, how I've missed thee. LOVED seeing the pictures... it reminds me of September! Sounds like you had an awesome first week of work, yahoo! Loved the first day of work pic too. So cute.

Arcane said...

congratulations on Thanks for the shout out. I'm glad you're enjoying your job so far.

Ewen said...

Shalane Flanagan is spending time in Portland, so you'll have another peep besides Kara Goucher to look out for!

Donald said...

Good luck with the new job. And RIP Sharks. They might need to blow up and start over.

Nitmos said...

The stake has ripped through the Sharks, I guess. I hope my Wings can take the Ducks out now!

Marathon Maritza said...

Yeah, your runs are going great, beautiful pics of Portland, blah blah blah.

Let's get down to business...

First day outfit: A+!

Omg, I love it!!! I know that green cardigan did incredible things for your eye color. Also, the bag, the BAG!!!! Beautiful in and of itself, but I love how the metallic off-sets the white and black. And then you topped it off with big beads of another color...it pops, baby!!!!! Working girl on the loose, watch out!!!!!

Momma is surely proud. I know I am. XOXO and lots of ♥♥♥

KK said...

I love your first day of work photo-that's a tradition in my family too. You look super cute.

Those Hagg Lake pix almost induced vomiting (The hills, of course). It is sooo hilly there, I could see why you were over the trail portion. I could barely handle the road portion. You looked strong though.

Great runs and I'm so happy you are loving the job. You sooo deserve this!

Beth said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed your first week of work! And the running seems to be going well too.

Mir said...

So glad you are enjoying the new job!! The 3:30 quittin' time sounds lovely.