Chilling out

That seems to be what most people are doing in Portland. I've never seen so many drifters in my life. When I went to a pretty tasty Mexican place Friday night for dinner, the cook looked my my clothes and asked me if I worked today. Well, yep, it's Friday, I'm not quite sure why I wouldn't have worked...

That does not detract from how wonderful the weather is here and how much I am enjoying the running. The temperature is in the 60s, and I feel...alive.

I got up early on Friday, capitalizing on the unseasonably cool weather to do a good workout. I decided on a p-word run, 10 at 6:00, 10 at 5:45, 10 at around 5:00. I was feeling kind of sluggish, but somehow wound up having my most even workout of this type. Usually I am way ahead of pace, hitting 5:30 for the first mile, but I was right about 6:00 this time, and maybe only 20 seconds ahead of pace for 10 minutes. I was exactly on pace for the 5:40 10 minutes, then came through my last 10 minute half miles at 2:31, 5:02, 7:34, and I think I kicked it in to get two miles in the 10 minutes.

The first flight to Portland, to Chicago, was pleasant, with a one-year-old fellow who barely made an offending sound. The second flight, however, at almost four hours, was dominated by a baby who did not share the other's disposition. She cried more than half of the time, and that, coupled with the dehydrating recycled air, left me feeling like a disaster when I arrived. I went for a 50 minute run, mainly around the Willamette River and several laps of a flat grassy park, but was not feeling great, and not terribly thrilled with the prospect of running.

My attitude changed after almost 10 hours of sleep. I got up and headed to Washington Park, on Bryan's recommendation. It was lightly drizzling, but it didn't bother me at all. After a few dead end trails, I started heading up Kingston Street, a long climb with a dirt path on the shoulder. I came to the Wildwood Trail and took it for a while, then turned around and got to enjoy the hill I had climbed earlier. I hoping to get another good night of sleep tonight and doing my first long run in weeks tomorrow morning.