I remember when they called it National Running day. While it was a work day, and a long one at that, I still wanted to get in at least a few miles. Getting some In N Out for dinner helped spur me to get off my butt and run. I wound up getting 3 miles on the treadmill. It was also a good night since the Warriors beat the Cavs in Game 3 of the Finals.
I’ve not been doing a ton of running since the Big Sur Marathon. I’ve still had weird foot pain/soreness after I run. Sometimes it is sore even after just a long day on my feet. I’m just too stubborn to call a doc and schedule to be seen. Ah well, we’ll see how it goes.
Here’s a pic of me from the Austin Half Marathon many moons ago.
A bit late but I figured I should get my 2nd to last week of training in before the actual Big Sur Marathon.
I was pretty much recovered from my GI illness and was able to get some okay runs in. I know that I’m supposed to be tapering so I didn’t really push myself too hard but I wanted to at least get some decent mileage in. I also tried to hold back a little in terms of pushing the speed (not that I’m fast to begin with).
Tuesday – 3.75 miles
Thursday – 4.25 miles
Friday – 6.25 miles (treadmill)
Saturday -3.5 miles
Sunday – rest
Total – 17.75 miles
Week 16
Tuesday – 3.5 miles
I’ve been experiencing some tenderness in my left distal calf. It doesn’t seem to bother much after I get about 0.5 mile into my run but I can feel it when I am done with my run. I’ve only done one run in week 16 because I don’t want to exacerbate my calf. I will probably do a very short shakeout run on Saturday before the race.
I’m still working on my Japan posts but here’s a sneak peek:
It’s been awhile since my last post and that is because I’ve been on vacation. My wife and I had planned a trip to Japan during Cherry Blossom season and so we traveled halfway around the world and visited the beautiful country for a few weeks. I realized after booking the trip that the timing of the trip would interfere with my training for the Big Sur Marathon, but it’s Japan! I had also read an article on Runner’s World about how a marathoner stopped being so stringent and strict about sticking to the training plan especially when on vacation. They went on to say that their overall race times didn’t suffer and they were less stressed because they didn’t constantly worry about missing certain workouts.
Of course I had good intentions of doing some runs while on my trip to Japan. I packed a few sets of running clothes and also planned on doing some laundry while over there. Just prior to leaving, I managed to get in a very short run during week 12. This turned out to my only run of week 12.
3/28 – 2 miles
Once we arrived in Japan, we did the normal touristy thing and did a TON of walking. My wife’s phone provided us with an indication that we were walking anywhere from 5-10 miles per day. A lot of this involved going up and down stairs so I count that as my workouts of the day. I still did want to at least get some actual running in and managed to get a treadmill run done at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. The neat thing about the gym/pool at the hotel is that it is located on the 47th floor. If you’ve seen the movie Lost in Translation, you’ll know the pool. The treadmills sit on one side of the building with full-length windows overlooking the city. It’s a fantastic view. Here’s a link to some views (pictures are not allowed in the gym): pictures.
4/4 – 4.25 miles
I figured that I’d get in a few runs (maybe 2) in Kyoto and call it a day for runs on vacation. Of course the night before my first planned in Kyoto, I woke up at midnight with chills, fever, and diarrhea. This went on to afflict me the rest of the trip and so now running was to be had. I barely ate anything for 2 days while sick and was overall sick. We returned to the States this past week and after getting on some medications I’m doing better, though not 100%. While at work, my co-worker pointed out that I only have 2 more weeks until the Big Sur Marathon. I know that I’m in my taper but since I barely have done any running for for almost 2 weeks I decided to jump back into it.
Thursday – 4 miles
Saturday – 6 miles
Sunday – 4.44 miles
Total – 14.44 miles
While not an ideal total for 2 weeks from race day, I’ll accept it. Like I said, I’m still not 100% and my GI is still having some re-structuring issues. Hopefully it irons itself out over this next week. Overall I’m still happy with where I am and still look forward to the race. I’m not dreading it yet.
Day 2 started a bit slow. Since we were out late, we slept in. I woke up first and decided that I should get in some miles before starting the day. It was July 1st and I like to run on the first of each month to set the tone for the month in running. Rather than attempting an outdoor run (also because I didn’t bring my running belt nor my GPS watch), I elected to do a treadmill run. I haven’t run on a treadmill in many years.
The hotel had a very nice fitness room (available 24/7 with your hotel key card). There was a combination of treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bike, weight machines and free weights. I hopped on a LifeFitness Treadmill, which was pretty cool because each one had a screen that showed your progress but also doubled as a TV. The hotel provided free headphones that you could plug in so you had sound. At first I started my run with no headphones and just watching TV without sound. After about 1 mile I hopped off and got me some headphones. I forget how hard it is to run on a treadmill sometime. I started with a 5 minute warmup at a speed between 4-5 mi/hr. I then upped my speed to 6 mi/hr and ventured into the 6.5 mi/hr range to try to average out to 10 min/mile pace (6 mi/hr for the entire run). My run effort level was higher because I had been drinking and eating a ton the day before. I ended up putting in a little over 4 miles at an overall just under 10:15 min/mile pace.
After I was all cleaned up, we headed on out in search of brunch. One place that I wanted to try was Tasty n Sons. We bought another TriMet day pass and hopped on a bus. We took it 20 minutes north of city center (east of the river) into the Boise neighborhood. By the time we arrived (around 11 am), the place was packed and the line of people waiting for a table spilled out the door. We put our names down and had some coffee while we waited. An opening at the small bar (it sat 7 total) allowed us to get a table a little earlier than normal (we still waited about 50 minutes). We split one of their Chocolate Potato Doughnuts, which was fairly light. I had the Fried Egg and Cheddar Biscuit with Fried Chicken. A big reason we went to this restaurant was that my wife wanted to try Shakshuka (baked eggs n tomato stew with merguez sausage), which came with some grilled bread slices. Shakshuka is a dish of North African origin and now is popular in many Middle Eastern countries. It was rather tasty and I’d definitely have it again given a chance. I had a bourbon cocktail since I already had my coffee and hey I was on vacation! We chatted briefly with the bartender and got some ideas on places to check out.
After lunch we walked around the Boise neighborhood some but jumped back onto the bus to visit the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Old Town Chinatown. I’ve noticed that in almost every city in the US, the Chinatown region is also where a lot of the homeless people live and Portland is no exception. The Chinese Garden was an interesting experience. We learned that there is a sister Chinese Garden in China. There was some other interesting stuff that I learned but have since forgot, I’ll just leave you with some pictures of the place.
From the garden we walked up back towards the Pearl District for a snack. Back in 2012 when we visited, we made the obligatory stop at Voodoo Donuts. My friend Tim, who has lived in Portland for a few years now, said that we needed to check out Blue Star Donuts because it was much better than Voodoo. I will say that Blue Star has some more innovative and intriguing combinations of flavors. We tried two different flavors: 1) Blueberry Bourbon & Basil Donut and 2) I can’t remember
We finished just in time to walk back to our hotel, The Nines, for happy hour at the rooftop restaurant Departure, helmed by Top Chef Alum Gregory Gourdet. One of my good friends from San Diego was a college roommate with Gregory and she said he used to cook her awesome food. Happy Hour is on a few rooftop balconies that overlook the city.
View from rooftop happy hour
We ordered some cocktails as well as some snack foods (Departure Wings and Vegetarian Maki Roll of the Day). The Departure Wings were fabulous and even though my wife doesn’t normally eat wings, she loved these. They were basically like popsicle sticks of tender chicken in a crisp outer shell.
Vegetarian Maki Roll
Departure Wings
After taking a break in our hotel room we headed off to find some dinner. Another place that we both wanted to try served chicken rice. So off we went to Nong’s Khao Man Gai off of E Burnside just across Burnside Bridge via Bus. I guess Khao Man Gai roughly translates to chicken and rice. The dish is deceptively simple yet yields some good flavors. It was a nice little meal to cap off our Friday.
Khao Man Gai
Guess I did have enough to separate out Day 2 from Day 3 and 4.
StewsCat 