5th Leg: Woodstock to Holgate Library

Date of run: January 24, 2014
Time of run: 3:00 pm
Temp: 41 degrees F
Conditions: Clear, sunny & windy, 55% humidity, winds 20 mph
Distance: 2.2 miles each way (4.4 miles total)

Shortest run yet! And a route so direct even a directionally-challenged guy like me could find my way:



Beautiful sunny day for a library-to-library run. Only two downsides: Ankle still sore, and whipping winds in partially shaded streets made for a bracing experience for half the run. But no matter: Onward to Holgate Library.

Some interesting sights along this route, including a chiropractor who specializes in "Wii injuries" (actually the reason I first saw my new chiropractor several years ago), a store that sells a table and clothes for one woman, and a bus for hippies (wish I could get a better picture of that bus, it was quite Ken Keseyian):





After a wind-in-your-face, chilly 2.2 miles of running, I arrived at the Holgate Branch library, which looked vaguely familiar. Once inside, I realized why: Architecturally it's the same layout as the Capitol Hill Branch.




One thing I noticed about this library, which was cool, was the international flavor of the videos section: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian...you name it, they've got it:




On to the CD section, and for some reason (who knows?) I chose some CDs from the "B" section: Baths (electronica), Blue Oyster Cult (classic rock), and Boris (experimental Japanese rock). Couldn't decide, so I ran back with all of them. (Not too hard if you carry them like a football.)



On the way back, I noticed that the route between Holgate and Woodstock featured an unusually high number of church-related buildings. "Got religion? We've got you covered! Compassion! Victory! Sorrows!"





Musical side note: That first church sign reminded me of this great Todd Rundgren/Utopia song. Always good for a spiritual pick-me-up:



One last cool sight: In lieu of a front yard, these people planted a basketball court. Me want!


___

As for last week's CD: The Braids 2011 release Native Speaker. Pretty neat stuff. The first thing I found online described the Braids as "shoegaze" but this was certainly quieter, and less guitar-oriented, than what I usually associate with that genre. This music was rather delicate, electronic, and frankly, a bit trance-inducing. Quite nice, actually:

4th Leg: Sellwood-Moreland to Woodstock Library

Date of run: January 17, 2014
Time of run: 2:30 pm
Temp: 41 degrees F
Conditions: Cool and dry, 86% humidity, winds 5 mph
Distance: 2.5 miles each way (5 miles total)

After last week's long and hilly slog, I thought this one would be easy. But not so fast: Sprained my ankle mid-week playing basketball and it was rather painful to break into a run. So in spite of the fairly flat terrain, I had to split running slowly with walking, as I just couldn't push off with my "bad wheel." On the bright side, however, the fact that I could run at all was a huge victory, since the ankle was pretty badly swollen on Wednesday night.

I started this run by parking on the street right next to the Sellwood-Moreland Library, then trotting up 13th toward Bybee, and it was a pretty straight shot from there to the Woodstock Branch.



The trip went fairly uneventfully, running along nice sidewalks almost the whole 2-1/2 miles, and I arrived at the relatively modern-looking, smallish Woodstock Library.



Didn't take long to find the CD racks; they were right near the entrance. (I like this place!) I picked up the first one that caught my eye, Fun's first album Aim & Ignite. I've heard a lot about this band, but (amazingly) have never heard this one. Also snagged the debut album by Montreal shoegaze band, Braids. It was the artwork that got me on this one (hard to see in the pic but the cover looks shiny metallic).



As for last week's album, The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash, by electronica/cut&paste sound artist Jason Forrest (aka DJ Donna Summer), was really (speaking of) fun! Almost all of the album was composed of musical bites of classic rock songs from the 70s, including The Cars, Creedence Clearwater Revival (in the same song!), Styx, Elton John, and my favorite from this album, The Who ("Who Are You"). I think it works pretty well. Click the link and tell me what you think:

Song: "10 Amazing Years"

One last thing that was fun: I ran past a "cereal bar" on the way back. Had to order a bowl and give it a try. Went well with coffee!

Third Leg: Capitol Hill to Sellwood-Moreland Library

Date of run: January 12, 2014
Time of run: 1:00 pm
Temp: 48 degrees F
Conditions: Cloudy with intermittent showers, 90% humidity, winds 10mph
Distance: 5.0 miles each way (10 miles total)

LONG run today. And oh man, I did NOT feel up to the task. It's a bad sign when you're taking an inventory of aches BEFORE you start your run. Mine was a nagging soreness in my right hip, probably due to an ill-advised sprint down a dark street toward last night's Tubes concert venue. Didn't feel anything at the time, but on getting out of bed this morning, something was just a little tweaked.

Well, as I've often found in the past, the best thing to do when facing doubt, or fatigue, is to just start and see what happens. So, I drove to the starting point, the Capitol Hill Library parking lot, and headed down Capitol Highway toward Barbur Boulevard, where I gradually broke into a run, aiming east toward the Sellwood Bridge.



As I started down treacherous Taylors Ferry Road, I decided to try the "shortcut" through the cemetery that I'd heard about but never ventured. Sure enough, after some twists and turns through there, I found myself on the other side, right at the entrance to the west side of the still-under-construction Sellwood Bridge. I don't think it saved much distance, but it certainly was a quieter, prettier, and most importantly, safer way to get there.



As almost the entire first half of the trip was downhill, I was also able to run (slowly) for most of the first five miles, and arrived at the Sellwood-Moreland Library in fairly good time, and in fairly good shape.



Once inside, I headed (for unknown reasons, maybe because it was on the top row and I didn't have to bend my tired body over or crouch) for the F/G section of the Pop Music CD aisle. (No Rock Music section at this branch.) I immediately found several titles that looked interesting, just by the artwork, in this order: Guards, In Guards We Trust, Jason Forrest, The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash, and Finger Eleven, Life Turns Electric. I decided the one I would carry back with me to the car would be Jason Forrest's, based on the great title, as well as the Allmusic review, and the clever play on (visual tribute to?) an old Cars album cover.



CD in pocket, it was time to head back to the car...almost all uphill now, urgh. To be honest, I took my damn time! Jogged a ways, walked a ways, jogged a little bit, stopped to take some pictures of weird local consumer culture along the way, and finally made it back. Here are some pictures of things that crack me up - I can't believe these business can actually sustain a decent existence. Especially Frack Burger. Really?!?



Finally, a word on last week's CD selection, Maximum Balloon: Fantastic! A solo project by producer/member of TV On The Radio, David Sitek collaborated with an album's worth of musicians and singers and came up with a white-boy funky, dancey stew of good time music I'll be returning to again. Here are two samples: Opening track Groove Me, featuring Theophilus London. Feel good stuff:



And one with David Byrne:



So cool to think I wouldn't have known about this fun album if I hadn't taken on this Challenge. Check it out! Good slow running music.

Second leg: Hillsdale to Capitol Hill Library

Date of run: January 5, 2014
Time of run: 2:00 pm
Temp: 37 degrees
Conditions: Dry and sunny, 89% relative humidity, winds 8 mph
Distance: 3.1 miles to, 3.5 miles from (6.6 miles total)

Beautiful day for a run! Nice part to this one is it started downhill. Very easy to break into a trot and get going. The entire run TO was on Capitol Highway, which isn't really a "highway" anymore but just a very busy road, with very few sidewalks, unfortunately. This is the kind of run where I spent most of my time alternating between running on the road, and ducking off into dirt/gravel/whatever just off to the side to let cars go by without forcing them to move over. I also realized that although the run started downhill, most of the trek to Capitol Hill was uphill, so by the time I got there I was pretty drenched in sweat. (Three layers: technical shirt, warm long sleeve shirt over that, short sleeved jacket over that.) Note for next run: One less layer!!

Then I started CD browsing. It didn't take too long to find an intriguing prospect: An album called Maximum Balloon, by David Sitek, producer/member of cool band TV On The Radio. I've listened to their albums and always found them interesting, but wasn't aware of this solo effort. The review looks good; I'll report back next week on how it sounds.

Sweaty hat and gloves now zipped up in jacket pocket, and CD safely tucked in large back pocket of my shorts, I headed out for the run back to Hillsdale, this time taking an alternate route that was a little longer, but in addition to being a different route (for mental interest), I hoped it would have more sidewalks. Alas, such was not the case. At least the majority of this run was downhill.



Happy to report, almost no soreness or nagging injuries on this day. Just tired, probably due to staying up late with the family over the holidays, and overindulging in sweets and starch. Not to mention increasing my mileage at a pace greater than 10%/week, which meant I had to run slowly to be careful not to pull anything. I had one of those humbling moments where a guy, approximately my age, went loping past me with huge strides, but at 6 miles I had NOTHING in the tank to try to keep up so I let him go by without a struggle. (I mean, just moving at all was a struggle by that point!)

So, 6.6 miles completed, no aches, pains or pulls, a quick stop at Starbucks for coffee and ready for next week's longer run to the Sellwood-Moreland Library. At five miles each way, with quite a bit of elevation gain, this could be one of the toughest runs of the whole project, especially considering my current fitness (not that great yet, to be honest).

Looking forward to the flatter layout of east Portland!