Weekend Trail Run and Boarding

I've been up to a lot since Friday... Last reported I had some grandiose plans to do a bunch of stuff that afternoon and guess what? I blew it all off! Actually I started feeling tired and crappy and ended up falling asleep in the middle of the day. I never do this, not for lack of want, but because I physically can't make myself fall asleep in the middle of the day. I was in a total funk until mid-afternoon Saturday (after blowing off the morning bikram). But then I kicked shit into high gear:

Saturday evening - vinyasa yoga. This was actually a tough class despite the instructor spending 10 minutes singing to us.

Sunday - woke up BEFORE 7 a.m. (this is epic) to go on my first trail run with Trail Factor. It kicked arse - we set out to go 14.5 miles and ended up going 13 because we missed a turn/loop. This was fine with me. Our trail was muddy and had lots of hills and man it was tough. The first part had a huge increase of elevation and for me was crazy hard. I had on my HRM and watched it increase quickly to the mid-180s. Way high! Luckily my running partner Jessi gave me a breather without making me feel like the out of shape lardass I felt like. That was pretty much the last stop (aside from a potty break) on the whole route. After the big climb things evened out, or felt like they did, for the rest of the run.
Miles = 13 Time = 2:15 Avg Pace = 10:22

I feel good about this pace considering the nature of the course - my Garmin said there was about ~6,500 ft elevation increase (of course not the mention the downhills). The Garmin did not record my total avg HR correctly and I'm too lazy to do the math per mile (which it did capture). It looks like after the big hill (180 bpms) I settled into a nice 160/170 average.

I am irrationally proud of myself for doing this - hence the self-timed portraits of my mud slathered legs. It felt sooo good by 10:30 a.m. to have completed so much in the day. The run was also gorgeous. We are so lucky to have Forest Park in Portland - it feels completely remote but it is right in the city. There was a nice low fog that cast a really neat glow through the trees as the sun tried to come out brighter. Lots of little streams and fun bridges to cross, and bright green ferns draped everywhere. I cannot wait until spring, but even so, it is gorgeous in February too. I am looking forward to getting together on more of their runs and just hope I can keep up. I'm not going to lie - the people out on this run were not f'ing around - average body fat was I'm guessing 2% and one of the dudes that ran was in the Olympic trials. Luckily I didn't wear anything too flowery or matchy-matchy to set myself apart from these hardcore athletes. This run was relatively tame compared to some of the trails they tackle, so I'm lucky to be able to ease in. I know in the future it will get dicey and hopefully I won't be left in the dust! I guess I just need to keep training...

More Sunday! Yeah, so after I scrubbed the dirt from my legs I ate and then hit the road with my HTB (husband to be) to check out some potential wedding venues in the gorge. After a long drive (and maybe a nap by me) we got to the mountain to do some night skiing/snowboarding. I am not an experienced boarder (or skiier for that matter), so each time I go is like a lesson. I was crying by the time I reached the bottom of the bunny hill, knowing that my legs were pretty kicked in from the morning run. I managed to continue for about 90 minutes but seriously I was dying. My legs were screaming and I fell twice pretty hard - once on my knees and then my ass. The ground was pretty much pure ice with a tiny bit of powder on top. OUCH.

Monday.... Woke up feeling like a pile of rocks, but overall it wasn't too bad. My upper body was sore from the yoga on Saturday, my legs were wrecked from the run and snowboarding and everything was generally beat up. I ended up going to bikram last night, however, to stretch it all out. I hadn't been in so long and it felt much hotter than normal. Is that possible? My mat was at the opening of a hot air duct that was blowing on me the whole time. Sweet! I managed to get through it, sweating like a banchee, and even hit some of the standing leg balance poses for longer than I can remember doing before. I signed up for their intro package which is unlimited for a month for $29, so you bet your ass I'll be going back as much as possible. I'm already planning to go tomorrow, but might also go tonight just for the hell of it.

Goals. I need to get my act together on goals - last week's recap (average) and this week's plan. I am going to Utah to ski on Thursday a.m. so my week is really cut short. I have a ton of work to do and might not get to update here as much. I'm hoping our chalet has wireless so I can keep abreast of all late-breaking blogger information as it occurs. I'm not sure how much I'll run between today and when I leave. I might do spin, maybe more yoga, maybe some push ups....we'll just have to see!

I leave you with a photo montage of this weekend's activities:

I forgot to mention we went to a Blazers game on Saturday night. It was fun! Here is Greg Oden - a true beast of a man:


And this is Ronnie #2. A few months ago Jen and I ran into him at a bar in Portland and totally jersey-chased him and some other Jazz teammates and Portland playas. It was embarrassing but fun and they bought us several shots. (While our significant others watched from across the room. And by watched I mean didn't pay any attention and talked about the stock market.) (Another sidenote - this night ended in one of the worst upchucking catastrophes since high school. I will never take fruity flavored shots again, nor partake in the Henry's $3 happy hour cheeseburger.)

Mom, I want to be a Blazer dancer when I grow up!


...And my legs after Sunday's trail run:



On the mountain later on Sunday:


Hope you all had a great weekend too! Congrats to everyone on their half races - I loved reading all of the reports.