I love Portland. I really think it’s my second favorite city (after New York City, of course, but it’s hard to compete with the city where I was born). I don’t think I could ever move there, because it’s too far away from my family. But maybe I could just spend my summers there so I wouldn’t have to run in this insane heat.
The running was great (55 degrees on Friday!), of course, but overall I had an amazing trip. Perhaps later this week, I’ll *gasp* put up a post that isn’t really about running and jot down some of my thoughts. I’m not promising anything, though.
Weight Check: 168.8 pounds, down 1.2 from last week. I also did an unofficial weigh-in right before I left for Portland and was at 169.1, so I lost 0.3 while I was gone. Lots of walking and a little bit of dancing (!) made up for plenty of beer. I did end up drinking a can of soda (usually Coke) with my lunch each day due to the combination of not great sleep and the fact that my body never quite made it all the way to Pacific Time, so I needed a little bit of caffeine to make sure I made it past the end of the day in the Eastern time zone.
I’m still about 5 pounds heavier than I’d like, but I do feel like I’ve made it through a rough stretch without too much damage. Things should settle down a bit, and with that, hopefully my weight will go back down.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 6 miles easy | 6.01 |
| Tuesday | Lactate Threshold, 2 mile warm up, 5 x 5 minutes at Threshold pace with 1 minute easy in between, 2 mile cool down | 7.01 |
| Thursday | 7 miles easy | 7.01 |
| Friday | 6 miles easy | 6.01 |
| Sunday | 5 miles easy | 5.01 |
Total: 31.05 miles
Wow, I managed to break 30 miles in a travel week where my longest runs were 7 miles.
I definitely need to rely on my notes for any details of the first two runs before I left for Portland.
On Monday, the weather wasn’t quite as nice as Sunday, but still tolerable, especially for July. (I thought 70 degrees and humid was a break from the heat. After seeing the weather in Portland later in the week, I look at that observation and laugh.) My legs felt a little iffy on the first mile, then they were fine the rest of the way. I kept the effort easy until the last quarter mile or so.
Tuesday, the heat and humidity were back after a couple of relatively nice days. This was a tough workout at any temperature or humidity. My legs felt OK for the most part, just a little tired at the end. The last interval was my fastest interval, which is nice. I actually finished the last interval at exactly 5.0 miles. I don’t think I could do that again if I tried. The 2nd mile of my cool down may have been a little faster than it should have been, but I have to admit that I had started thinking about how my next run would be in Portland, and that motivated me to run a little faster.
Thursday was glorious. Portland Running! (At least that’s how it shows up in Garmin Connect, except without the exclamation point.) The weather was beautiful, even if it was overcast, because it was 57 degrees, or 15 degrees cooler than Tuesday. Also, my legs felt fine. This was one of those runs where I was supposed to speed up a bit on the last mile, and I did, quite a bit more than I expected.
Friday was also a pretty solid run, and really, the only difference was that the sun was out, and and I only had to run 6 miles, but again with a speed up on the last mile. My legs still felt fine, and my pace was fairly consistent. When I sped up on the last mile, it wasn’t quite as fast as Thursday, but it was still a good run overall.
And on Sunday, I just tried to savor my run. I knew it was my last run under really nice conditions until maybe mid-September if I’m lucky, or longer if I’m not. I still took it easy, and my legs may have been a little tired at first, since I walked around quite a bit on Saturday, but it was a truly easy run, and I enjoyed it.
This week, I’m sort of back to normal, although I did get a rare Monday rest day. I’m writing this after my Tuesday run. (Spoiler: It was hot and humid and miserable.) I’ve got a hill workout on Wednesday, and a 13 mile long run (which I will, of course, turn into 13.1 miles). Also, it’s going to be really freaking hot. I miss Portland already.