Portland Fit Week 6 & Meals on Wheels Bike Ride

There are times when to go go go and do do do is not exactly what one should really be doing.

Friday was the trip with Lacey down to Corvallis and to say it was an emotional trip would be an understatement.

Saturday morning was Week 6 of the Portland Fit program that we joined and it was a 8 mile run. Also on Saturday at 10:00 was a 18 mile bike ride that Bill was helping promote for the Meals on Wheels program.

There are times when we are slightly nuts, and because of this we decided that instead of doing our group Portland Fit run, we would just run the Springwater Trail early Saturday morning so that we would be able to do the bike ride afterwards.

We were up and out the door at 6:00 to drive into Gresham. Our plan was to run the trail as they have regular mileage markers and we would be able to easily determine how far we needed to go.

The plan was a little off as it appeared that many of the mileage tags had been removed from the trail so it was hit and miss to determine our exact mileage. If you haven't been on Springwater before, it is fairly flat and goes on for 20 miles from downtown Portland to Boring. Lots of the trail is in desolate area's so Bill kept kept by my side just to be safe. We finished our run and headed for the car, to our chocolate milk and nut butter & jelly sandwiches. A marathon runner that I met at work said that chocolate milk has all of the good things for an after run drink that Gatorade has and tastes better. As weird as it sounds, it really appears to be true.

After our 8 mile run we headed home to shower and change from our running gear into our biking gear and off to Sandy we drove.

Have I mentioned that we might be a little crazy at times?

The bike ride was hosted by the Momentum Bike shop in Sandy and was a benefit ride for Sandy's Meals on Wheel's program.

We decided it would be fun to get the tandem out for this ride. Hmmmm while it wasn't a mistake, we haven't been on the tandem in months and had forgotten that it takes a bit of coordination to work together. The first thing that we remembered is that the back seat is a tad bumpy, and I'm not afraid to let it be known.

The ride overall was a nice ride and if we had not just finished a 8 mile run perhaps it would have been a great ride. The first ten miles weren't bad, the next five miles were a little harder and those last three miles were not pleasant.

There were treats and a raffle after the ride and we won a set of road tires and a lock.

Overall I'd have to say that it was an exhausting day and we are both very glad today is Sunday and it's a rest day with nothing more planned except to drive up and deliver some flowers to my Mom for Mothers Day.

Lacey's One Year Check up

April 30th was the one year anniversary for Lacey's Pacemaker surgery and she goes to OSU for a check up every six months. May 8th was that check up.

We went down to Corvallis looking forward to another good check up as Lacey has been doing great.

The results were quite what we were planning on. Her student Jamie did the exam and then brought in Dr Bulmer as our regular Dr was unavailable.

Dr. Bulmer let us listen to her heart and said Lacey has a "musical" value leak. It was amazing to listen to as it did indeed sound musical.

There are a few more items going on with her heart that didn't appear in November when she had her last check up. Lacey is now on some heart medication and we are in the wait and see mode to determine how everything will go. It's very amazing after looking at her ECG & EKG and seeing all kinds of stuff that wasn't there to actually look at Lacey standing around wagging her tail and smiling you would never know that anything was wrong.

While the trip wasn't what we expected....Lacey is happy and doing well and what more can we ask than that?

Portland Fit Week 5

All I can say this week is that we actually ran 7 miles up into Forest Park and back, and We both ran 99% of the way. This is a huge commitment but so far we are on track.

Portland Fit Week 3

Week 3....All I can say this week is that 5 miles is a lot farther than 3 miles. Our run was good this week. We both now have MP3 players so that we can listen to music. After much discussion Bill has finally agreed that he does not have to run the entire way with me, which is a very good thing for both of us...
Our treat after the run was finding a new coffee shop. We stumbled upon one in the Pearl District: Barista. It was an interesting place and they were purists. No white chocolate, no french vanilla or even hazelnut and not whip cream. It made it very difficult to do a taste test because a dark chocolate vanilla mocha without whip doesn't taste a thing like a white chocolate mocha with french vanilla and whip. I survived. Bill survived too, but it's not to difficult to get a latte' he just had to do without his sugar free vanilla and deal with real vanilla.

Unfortunately today it's 86 and we are scheduled to run 30 minutes. I suspect it's going to be a very very long 30 minutes in this heat, but all we can do is try.

Portland Fit Week 2

Well we have survived the second run with our Portland Fit group.

Last week, Bill did much better than I as he could actually move without moaning and groaning those first couple of days after our three mile run (which was mostly walking). I thought my body was done for. I couldn't climb the stairs at work on Monday because I still hurt so bad. As the week progressed we both felt better. It was a 20 minute run on Monday (followed by yoga) and 25 minute run on Tuesday and then rest on Wednesday and a 20 minute run on Thursday.

Saturday morning was scheduled as a 4 mile run. We accomplished that with a minimum of walking and felt pretty good. One of the Medical Advice Staff gave us some great suggestions for nutrition and stretching right after our run and here it is Monday and we both feel great!

Looking forward to this week to see how it goes.

Portland Fit Week 1

Bill's goal for the year is to run a half marathon by his birthday or at least by the end of the year, and I volunteered to support him by being his workout partner.

I won a free membership to Portland Fit which is a group that trains you to run the Portland Marathon and then my company offered a 50% discount for employee's and their families. How could we resist joining?

The group gets together every Saturday morning for a run starting in NW Portland.

Yesterday was the orientation and the first 3 mile run to determine what group you would be in.

The opening speaker for the orientation session said the only difference between a walker and a runner is that the walker knows when he or she is going to be walking. We heard lots of motivational items that yes we can do this.

Neither of us have run in several years, and I can tell you that running 3 miles when you haven't done that in several years is quite a challenge.

We did complete the first run and there was some walking involved but we have made the first step towards reaching that goal.

Today is the morning after, my legs feel like jelly and I am dreading next Saturday because we will be running 4 miles instead of only 3.

A Day At The Mountain

2008 ended with a bang, about 24 inches of snow on the ground in Sandy and we had about 18 inches here. There were multiple Christmases due to weather delays and just when we thought 2009 would start on a quiet note, we spend about two hours on New Years Day evening trying to stop our garage from flooding, then my Mom’s well pump went out the pump house needs to be replace, her hot water heater broke and flooded her utility room, both of our work situations are a bit stressful so to try and have a stress free day we headed to the Mountain to ski in the morning and for Bill to work a shift as a Ski Host at Timberline in the afternoon.

We had a wonderful time skiing and then I went up to the lodge and had the best ever hot chocolate and read an interesting book called “The Shack” while Bill spent the afternoon as ski host.

Towards the end of his shift I wandered over to the “Bruno” chairlift where he was stationed to get a few pictures and my timing was perfect. A three year old little girl fell asleep on the chairlift with her ski instructor. When the they got off Bill carried the skis and the ski instructor carried the little girl back to her parents. What a sweet way to end a
incredibly relaxing day.