Month: May 2005

New shoes new shoes!

exercise

Bought some new shoes last night, from the Portland Running Company. I mean, they’re the same model as my old shoes, Brooks Adrenaline GTS 5, in the same style and color, but they’re brand-new and don’t have around 400 miles on them like my old ones. Plus I’ve bought enough shoes at PRC to earn a free set of socks. I’m working my way up the list to a free pair of shoes…

Supposedly you’re supposed to change shoes every 300-500 miles, and if I do the math, I think I’m at the midpoint with my old ones, so it was time. I wanted to go the whole “try on a bunch and run in them while the staff watches you and helps fit you based on their knowledge” route, but I can do that later when I replace my pair of Nike Structure Triax. I really like the Brooks’, they’ve got enough support and lots of room in the toes (I have wide feet) so I’ll stick with them for now.

Looks like I’ve missed all the good races for May, which is a bummer. But, looking ahead, I will definitely make the Mt. Tabor Challenge, and in July, of course, is the Nike Run Hit Wonder. Nike has only posted the details of the New York race, a 5-mile course through Central Park on July 20, and this year it looks like the headliner is Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (rowr!) Since I’m planning a trip to New York anyway, and since the date of the trip has not been set, perhaps I’ll plan the timing around running that race. I could do the RHW in NY and Portland… although the Portland race is 4 days after. Could be fun to try, though.

Get out and move

General

Ran my 3.5 miles last night. Mostly I wanted to get out and move and be in the sun, since yesterday was a perfect spring day, sunny and warm. The kind of day that puts smiles on Portlander’s faces after a long cold rainy fall and winter.

I did, in fact, time myself on my run, however I didn’t push myself too hard and simply maintained a good pace. I’m happy with my time but am not going to record it for my future reference. It was just a good decent run.

Brrr

exercise

Brrr. Woke up at 4:30 AM and decided it was too cold to go running this morning.

Went back to bed.

I’ll run after work.

Jean Lafitte

General

Everybody has a favorite pirate.

Mine is Jean Lafitte.

OK, technically, not a pirate; more of a smuggler or fence. He operated several shops in New Orleans, including Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which is now a bar and the oldest building in North America being used as a bar (which has to qualify for the most-convoluted superlative ever).

Lafitte and his brother also supplied arms and ships from their fleet of “merchant ships” to aid Andy Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans against the British, during the War of 1812 (note: the Battle of New Orleans took place in 1815, even though the Treaty of Ghent had been signed the year previous to end the war) and recieved a presidential pardon for his efforts.

And he probably had a crazy French accent, too.

Smacky, at play

Smacky

Smacky was being pretty goofy yesterday morning. He made me laugh several times. I got some good pictures (but I’m saving those for next weeks’ Friday Night Cat Blogging).

But I do have one story. Smacky was watching the birds outside, standing up in front of my screen door (like this) and I was standing about 10 feet back with a toy catnip mouse. I thought it’d be funny to toss it at him and see if he reacted.

The mouse hit the screen just above his head and apparently he wasn’t expecting it at all because he startled and ran around the living room like a devil robotic terminator cat was after him.

Too funny. I didn’t mean to startle him. I thought cats were more perceptive than that.

He was doing a pretty good job of jumping all over the place chashing bugs, however. I had to pick up my CDs from the CD rack only twice. But now they’re all alphabetized by artist. Again.

Running schedule for the week

exercise

Running schedule for the week:

  • Monday: 3.5 miles
  • Tuesday: 4 miles (Speed day – faster pickup 1x per mile)
  • Wednesday: Rest day
  • Thursday: 2.5 miles
  • Friday: 5.5 miles (Run to work!)
  • Saturday: 3 miles
  • Sunday: Rest day

Total of 18.5 miles.

Images

General

Went for a long walk this afternoon, trying to burn off some of the delicious food I ate the night before (mmmm… ginger stir-fry with chicken and papaya salad… mmmm, black velvet cake…)

Walked from my neighborhood down through the Hawthorne area and across the Steel Bridge into downtown. Only got caught by the rain once, while I was on the Esplanade; I hid under an overhang until the rain passed.

Took a lot of pictures. Did a lot of thinking. Most of it positive.

Like before, sometimes I’m surprised by the apparent contradiction I see in some signs, like this one; doesn’t “creative” clash with “office space”? Really, the only creative office space I can think of is the movie.

But sometimes I just like the way certain colors look together, like the spot of green against the orange-ish brown of a building. Or the bright yellow plastic lining this construction site.

At any rate, it’s fun to go looking for images. If I look for them, I always find them.

Quick Note

exercise

Quick note of my running time this morning. As per usual, my half-mile splits:

  1. 4:31.63
  2. 4:51.36
  3. 5:05.21
  4. 5:19.70
  5. 4:15.22

After my long run yesterday, I wasn’t looking to break any land speed records, but even so, I did very well. Total time 24:03.12, so a mile pace of 9:37.2. Yay!