What ever it takes!

Was really excited to get out and explore running in Portland,  I got a running guide from the hotel front desk which showed running trails mostly along the river front so at 6:00 am I set out in to the unknown.  Followed the trail and then it just ended, I had to run up to a main road and then it lead me back to the trail,  this happened a few times and I was pretty disapointed in the river trail.  at about 2.5 miles I got sick of it and was in a pretty industrial part of town and decided to head back, at about 3 miles in I noticed a guy coming up behind me pretty fast so I slowed down to wait for him.  He was going about 6:20 pace when he caught me and I think a little suprised that I was able to keep up with him.  I asked him if he knew where the heck he was going and he said yes, so I asked if I could follow, he said "sure" after about 1/2 a mile I think he really started having second thoughts about going so fast to catch me, I could tell the 6:30 pace was killing him, but I was really enjoying myself, found out his name was Alex and he worked in town for Nike.  I was glad I had my Nike Frees on today :)  He should me a trail across the river and the trail was actually much nicer on the other side.  Perfect running weather today, cool, misty.  around 45 degrees out.  

Probably will try the same route with variation tomorrow.

Well, I woke up planning on running outside but it was really rainy and cold looking, and for some reason when I was packing for this trip I thought West Coast = California, noone told me it's rainy in Portland!!  So I headed to the hotel gym, that was a mistake, most miserable 7 miles ever, hot, muggy, and I'm sure I ended up being just as wet as if I would have just gone outside.  Lesson learned,  tomorrow outside rain or shine, well I doubt it will be shine at 5:00am so rain or dry I guess.

7 miles in 47:50   6:50 avg pace

5:00 am.  Well I stayed true to my word and went outside this morning,  luckily it was perfect running weather, a bit cool just standing around but perfect once I got moving.  Today's "plan" was an 8 mile run w/6 miles @ 5:50 pace.   So I set out down the river trail and crossed the bridge that my Monday's friend Alex showed me back on the other side of the river and back across the bridge to the hotel.  I was hoping it was a 3 mile loop it ended up only being 2.6.  So I took the first loop easy averaged 7:05 I think is what my Garmin said then I took off trying to keep a 5:50 pace, it was actually pretty easy with a good tail wind I probably averaged 5:45 the first mile, then across the bridge there was a probably 10 mph headwind which slowed me down to about 6:10 pace, plus going up and over bridge ramps kept slowing my pace down.  Anyway I did that loop twice, plus a little further up the trail to end at an even 8 to make my tempo run 5.4 miles total in much slower than the goal pace, probably closer to 6:10.  I was pretty disappointed that I had such a hard time keeping my pace up on for the most part an ideal flat course at sea level.  I just wasn't totally all there today.   This would be an absolute perfect 5K course if I could figure out an extra .5 miles.  

9 miles in 59:20 total.  6:35 avg pace.  Garmin's website is down so i can't get accurate tempo run times at the moment.

I doubt I will get out again, conference ends today so I will be working late to tear down and then I have a 7:30 am flight out tomorrow.  Pretty good trip here to Portland,  It's not quite as neat of a town as I had imagined for some reason, but there are a ton of pretty fast runners out early on the trail.

4:30 am. 5 quick yet easy 5 miles on the hotel treadmill before my early flight out.  Sitting in the PDX Crown room now eating bagles and banana muffins.  Glad to be going home.

 5 miles in 33:50.  6:48 avg pace.

5:30 am.  Trying to get back to a home schedule, again.  I sure don't have the motivation to get going that I did this time last year, once I get going I'm fine but for some reason the thought of that first mile every morning is pretty tough, I've never really had such a hard time getting out of bed.  Anyway, made it to the gym, told myself that a nice easy run would be fine and just get through it.  But like I said once I get going it's not so bad.  I did the first 4.7 miles in 31:00 and then the treadmill reset on me which always makes me angry.  I went to another treadmill and tried to pickup where I had been interrupted at about 6:20 pace, about 1/2 mile into it I decided to see if I could run an 18 minute 5K so I started bumping it up, first mile in about 6:15, second mile in 5:45, third in 5:37 and then .1 in :33.  So I did it in 18:10, not to bad, I'm sure if I would have decided earlier that I was running a 5K that I could have done the first mile in 6:00 pretty easy.  

I'm contemplating running a 5K turkey trot for Thanksgiving but haven't decided which one, I wish I was in a little better 5K shape but I think I could push out a 17:30 in race conditions.  I've never "raced" a 5K so I think it would be good to go see what I'm made of.

On a different note, I hung Christmas lights on the house last night.  Arguably the most dangerous winter sport in the world.  But since it's suppose to snow next week and I'm in Paris for 2 weeks after Thanksgiving I figured I should get a jump on it on the last good weather day.  Glad to say I survived yet another year of light hanging.

6:00 am.  Very enjoyable run this morning with Ryan.  Met at Maverik for our "normal" route but since it had rained last night we decided to try and find a new winter route, meaning no mud.  Headed down past Legacy center out to Utah Lake and then instead of running the trail back used back roads.  Perfect morning, perfect temperature.  I was actually over dressed, the wind this morning threw me off in my apparel decision, but it was actually very warmish.

14.07 miles in 1:36:??  Garmin said 6:51/mile avg.  Very happy with today's run compared to how awful last week went.