Not your typical Pacific Northwest summer...

Yes I'm alive... it's been a busy 9 days since I last posted but I've been working out and following the blog diligently. Work has been brutal and I've also been busy in the evenings... which takes up a lot of my spare blogging time. But I'm here to post to check in and give some updates.

It's HOT! Dude, it's like Ontario hot (minus the humidity of course) but without air conditioning. I know we only get about 4 weeks of this stuff over a given summer but I vote that it's enough time to put AC in these condos. I can't even get one of those window or floor units because our windows push out, instead of sliding up or sideways. No central air! My mom the magician made me the drapes for my condo that have blackout material behind them. I have had them drawn shut for 3 full days straight, and rocking every fan in my house. I'm in permanent darkness except for the light coming from the main hallway, from having the door propped open to let the HALLWAY AC into my condo. Yes, can you believe it? The main areas of the building have AC but they don't retrofit the condos with central air? Seriously! I digress...

Not sure if Kirk knows, but I've signed up for the Portland Marathon on October 5th. As an aside, I rarely get my heart rate down under 160 so you're not alone. Today Colby and I planned to run 11 miles but didn't get out until 10:15 am. By that time it was already 89F (or 32C). Running with Colby is a love/hate thing. The guy's best marathon time is 3:02. That's a 6:56 min/mile over 26.2 miles. His speed training days had him doing 5:00/6:30 min/mile intervals. He is a FIRM believer in solid speed training with a long, very slow run on the weekends. I can't quite figure out how he doesn't kill himself on our long runs. I'm sure his long runs were in the 7:30 min/mile range, but he swears that the slow runs with me are good for him regardless of how slow we're going.

Anyways, today we headed off and typical of running with Colby it's faster than I'd like to cover 11 miles. We took off and ran the first few flat miles in the 9-9:15 range. It's was disastrous. The heat was unbearable, there was very little shade and the pace was too fast. He has been preparing me for a few days for a 1.5 mile hill on Freemont Avenue. Let me tell you... nothing could have prepared me. First, it was damn steep and I couldn't see the end... we stopped for a few seconds at one stoplight, and again when I had to walk for 10 seconds because I actually didn't think my legs could carry me. I hated him at that moment (actually, for most of the run). If I had been alone, I would have walked a mile of the hill (which was more like one and three quarter miles but who's counting?). He was so cool about it though, pushed me way harder than I would have pushed myself. He actually made me feel like I was a strong runner, because going up that hill I certainly didn't feel like it one bit.

We ended up getting back and cutting the run at 9.3 miles. It was just too hot and I didn't have it in me after the hill from hell. I really wanted to get in 11 miles today but he reminded me that the run we did was better for my training than 11 flat miles any day. Afterwards we went for breakfast and we were driving down this steep, long hill. He pointed to a runner and said "see that guy, you ran this hill today way faster than he is". Holy shit? I didn't even realize we were driving down the same hill (likely a result of the black spots I was seeing on the way up). For some reason, it made me feel much better about cutting the run short.

To close on that, as much as I hurt I know it was good for me and I'll take any chance I can get to run with him. I kept telling him to drop me and he absolutely refused, even when he could have taken off at some ridiculous pace. So tonight, I'm in the love stage of the running relationship. Tomorrow when I wake up and try to get out of bed, likely not so much.

I have so much more to say after 9 days of not posting but I realize I've just killed an entire post talking about weather and ONE run. Hats off to my girls who ran 13.1 miles in the half marathon today. Just standing in that heat for 2+ hours would have been torture, let alone running in it...