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!
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