It’s only Wednesday, and already this week has been one of monumental change and progress. At least two new things have happened in my life, and I’m very excited about both of them.
Thing 1: I moved. Specifically, I moved out of my parent’s house in Southwest Portland, and into an apartment in Southeast Portland, where I now live with Laura and my puppy. This is exciting, but also disorienting, because now I need to find all new running routes. Kind of. I wasn’t really doing much running from home before anyway, but I could if I wanted to. Now I have no idea where to go, or any general idea of how far I’m going around here. For my run today I looked up running routes near Reed College and found about one billion on mapmyrun.com.
This is it, in case you care. It was okay, but mostly sidewalks. I’m sure you all know this, but sidewalks are really bad to run on if you’re worried about shin splints and things like that. Sidewalk concrete is actually harder than road concrete. I think one of those things might actually be called pavement. I don’t really know. I do know that I’m worried about shin splints, and this area is basically one giant sidewalk – as opposed to SW, where there are no sidewalks and you usually have to run halfway in the road and it’s super safe. Anyway, if anyone who reads this knows of the best ever running routes in this area (around Reed), please tell me.
I also live about a mile away from a 24 Hour Fitness now, so if I want to I can run there and then workout and then run home. Which would be cool if I ever did any workout there besides run on the treadmill. But if I’m already running I’d probably prefer to keep running outside. But maybe not, I’m really into destination running, it makes my life feel more purposeful.
Thing 2: Laura and I were recently lucky enough to get a hold of the INSANITY workout DVD set that you’ve probably heard about from the infomercials. Don’t worry, we didn’t even have to make three easy payments of $39.95 because Laura’s borrowing it from a friend.
I realized that if I truly wanted to have the UHB (ultimate hard body), I was going to have to do something besides just run a lot. Clearly the solution to this is to workout in front of the television at home with personal trainer Shaun T. “It’s probably the hardest workout ever put on DVD.” That’s a direct quote from the video on the website. Also you supposedly get to workout in a pool of your own sweat! I’m not sure we had an entire pool of it, but after two days of Insanity, I can assure you that a certain level of sweat is most definitely involved. The workouts they have you do are so insane that even the people that are paid to workout with Shaun T. for the video can’t keep up with everything. Which might just be so we don’t feel as bad when we’re gasping for breath and collapsed on the ground as a result of a workout DVD, but that’s fine with me. It did make me feel better. But not as good as I’m going to feel in 58 more days when I have an INSANE body!
Miles run this week: 7
Miles run in 2010: 336
3 Comments
In that area, I used to like to run up to the top of Mt. Tabor and back. It’s like a destination run that made me feel like a badass because of the extreme slope at the Mt. itself. It’s sidewalks mostly, but anyone with a/an UHB should be able to run across broken glass and/or molten lava without care and/or/a shoe(s).
Also, down to the waterfront, a Steel-Hawthorne loop, then back to your starting place is a good and enjoyable distance. Or down to the waterfront, along the Springwater to the Sellwood, then back to start would also be nice.
Yeah I’ve been wanting to do the Springwater from here, I just need to figure out where the entrances are.
Broken glass and molten lava are no problem, it’s just the whole sidewalk issue I can’t deal with.
There are two easy ways to get onto the Springwater and one harder to spot.
1. Run down to near the Portland Opera House. You know, where all that construction for the Big Pipe project is. It’s hard to spot, but if you head South from there, staying to the river side of the elevated highway, you’ll see the primary gate.
2. Run to the Sellwood Bridge. Instead of getting on the bridge, head slightly right down the steep hill. The trail goes right under the bridge, so make a right.
3. (Difficult). Run along the river side of Milwaukie until you hit a small parking area just South of the 99E overpass that may or may not have a sign saying Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. Follow that trail about half a mile and you’ll hit the Springwater about halfway between entrances 1 and 2.
That’s all sidewalk, so try stretching your shins out really well first. I was doing that stretch wrong for years until a doctor told me to stop bending my ankle to the side. The knee should maintain a line with the foot and toes. Stretch hard and hold it! IDK if that’ll help you, but it did wonders for me.
Okay have fun!