Hagg Lake Pre-Run Cancelled

Mom and Dad came up Sunday night so Dad and I could get an early start out to Hagg Lake in the morning for our 15 mile preview run. We were hoping conditions would be close to what they'll be like when we run it next month (muddy). They had 4+ inches of snow at their house when they left on Sunday, but it didn't look like we were going to get any. During the night we got less than an inch, but out in Hillsboro where we were headed, they got more and the commute in the morning was horrendous. We figured it was going to take us at least two hours just to get out there and then obviously the trails would be in quite a different condition. We decided to just skip it and get out to Glendover golf course for a run (very light snow there as you can see from the picture) and be home in time for the kids to wake up to the snow. We did 3 loops - so 6 miles and came home to find Mom and the kids had already built a snowman. My hip was bugging me (from Saturday) but I hit the gym in the evening for my 60 minute bike ride I missed on Sunday and it did ok for me.

First Team Training Day

Pics of Mom and Michael that I can't get up on my TNT homepage (grrrr....).
FIRST DAY OF TEAM TRAINING!! What a wet and cold one! The group met at Portland Running for a shoe clinic and then off to run along the waterfront. I had a feeling we were in for some slip n' slide when I left this morning and slid down my driveway trying to get to the mailbox. It's 32 and raining!! What happened to getting snow??

The run was great, though. I was dressed warm and we were out for only 40 minutes. It was slushy in parts but no injuries. Good thing I re-read the schedule and realized we were on the road today and not the trails. I would have made it about 3 blocks in my stiff trail shoes.

I met some very nice people and I'm so excited to get to know them all better during our next 5 months. This is a huge group - the biggest single team group ever, I believe, in the Oregon Chapter. We will have the opportunity to be the highest fund-raising group as well, so that is our goal during this season!!!

Snowshoeing at Trillium Lake

I was invited by my sister-in-law to join her and her marathon buddies for a snowshoe day at Trillium Lake today. It was too cloudy to see Hood but the weather was pretty good. Teeny bit of rain and lots of snowflakes and we had a great time. We went close to 5 miles and called it a day.

Catching up on the Week

It's been a busy week. Busy and good. Tuesday was supposed to be my 10 mile make-up run. I managed to get to mile 9 before I stopped. My legs were fine, but I had horrible heartburn. Skipped legs on Wednesday but on Thursday I got up early for a 5:30am spin class, which I think I'll start attending regularly twice a week for a little bit.

Yesterday was my first day at the new womens bible study at church. It's Beth Moore's Daniel and I think it is going to be a wonderful experience. I am always SO hungry for the interaction of a bible study and have always had trouble being able to get to the ones put on by the church due to feeling like I need to be home with the kids or give Steve a break with the kids or because with only one car, the timing didn't work out for me to leave Steve and the kids stranded. I've tried to rely on doing them on my own or doing them on-line, but I really crave the input of faithful women who are more mature than me not only in their walk with God but just in their life-walk in general. I really need a mentor for my life and getting more involved at church just seems the right thing for me now that the kids are growing up a bit. The kids' program is really just phenomenal there, too. Jack and Mai have gone sporadically for some time now and more recently they've been attending Promiseland regularly and they LOVE IT.

There were about 30 women so we were split into 2 smaller groups. A couple of ex-pastors wives, most women around my age, women with small kids like me, a runner!, a woman that reminds me of Elizabeth George (of the series A Woman After God's Own Heart), and just a lot of women who seemed so open and friendly!!

GREAT NEWS!! My cousin, Michael, is currently in some type of remission. Still lots of stuff I don't know ... like if the bone marrow transplant is off or why they are starting a new round of chemo today, but it still sounds like GREAT NEWS!!!

So today is an Upper Body workout with Tracy and then off and running on errands and my to-do list. Tomorrow I'm up bright and early for a day in the snow with my SIL and her running friends. We're going snowshoeing at Trillium Lake and I can't wait!! Should be absolutely gorgeous and hopefully I'll get some good pics.

Update on today's workout to follow...

Monday Upper Body

This picture cracks me up! My mom was laughing so hard. Of course, once one grandchild gets a Christmas morning flight, ALL the grandchildren want one! Better her than me.

HS Incline CP
LT: 100/11, TT: 100/12RP

Incline Shoulder Press
LT: 90/17, TT: 90/20RP

LifeFitness Tri Ext
LT: 70/22, TT: 80/14RP

Close Grip Pulldowns
LT: 120/15 TT: 120/17RP

HS Low Rows
LT: 120/7, 100/9 TT: 120/9, 100/13ss

15 Mins on Elliptical

Kiara Tackles the Trails - Trail #6 Triple Falls

Kiara Tackles the Trail ~ Trail # 6 ~ Horsetail-Ponytail-Oneonta Triple Falls

Wow!! My pictures don't come close to showing how beautiful this trail was. This was supposed to be my 10 mile slow run day. This was going to be 6.4 miles out and back and then I would head up again and make up the 3+ miles but it turned out to be a better hiking trail today. I'll do my 10 miler on Wednesday on the treadmill and count this as a very long HIIT (run, jog, hike up, slide down, etc etc). I wasn't sure I would see snow but somewhere after mile 2 we hit it and boy, did Ki have a blast! I guess it ended up worth being dragged across the first bridge (she didn't like the slats) for her. She had so much fun in the snow. She would just dive headfirst into snowbanks to cool down. Then she would throw herself down and just roll and roll. I couldn't get a good picture, I was too busy trying to stay on my feet being attached to her while she was doing all this.

The falls were great. The first one is at the trail head. The second one I got to walk behind, and the third had three falls. I was pretty much by myself after the second bridge and should have gone potty like I wanted to, but decided to try to hold it. At almost 3 miles, I finally missed a step crossing a creek and ended up with wet feet, which it turned out didn't matter, since Ki had me cracking up so bad that I peed my pants.

I'll definitely RUN (not run/hike) this trail again this Summer.

My New Car

Hooray!!! We are finally a two car family!!

TNT Webpage is UP!!!

http://www.active.com/donate/tntor/tntorJArts1

I worked out with Tracy on Wednesday for the first time in 3 weeks, I think! It was nice to have her company...and since I had a spotter I did flat bench press...should have gone heavier.

BB Bench Press
LT: n/a TT: 95/19RP

HS Shoulder Press
LT: 120/14 TT: 120/15RP

Straight Bar Tricep Pushdown
LT: 100/18RP TT: 110/17RP

Fron Wide Grip Pulldowns
LT: 120/13 TT: 120/14RP

Low Cable Rows
LT: 105/6, 90/9 TT: 105/8, 90/10ss

MONDAY 07JAN08

Double Bi Cable Curls
LT: n/a TT: 70/17RP
(8,5,4)

Standing Calf Raises
LT: n/a TT: 75/8ss

Sumo Leg Press
LT: n/a TT: 270/18ss

Leg Press
LT: n/a TT: 450/8, 360/20ss

Abs 4 set of 15 crunches
Elliptical x 10mins

Sunday Run with Dad

Reminder to self...stop drinking booze earlier on Saturday evening if you are going for a run on Sunday. Wow! I felt like CRAP! Had fun on our run, though. We headed up to Powell Butte and did about 5 miles - so I had a total of 11 miles this weekend and it feels like plenty. I'm wearing my new coat in this pic. The flash made the reflectors light up good - it really doesn't look like that on the sleeves. Brrr, it was cold in the wind. I'm thinking maybe our first day back at school tomorrow is going to be a snow day! Dad and I are going to do a test run at Hagg Lake in about 2 or 3 weeks just to get a feel for it. We didn't take Kiara - she seemed like she was sick. She's mostly just been sleeping today, poor baby.

Kiara Tackles the Trail - Trail # 5 Leif Erickson Trail in Forest Park

Kiara Tackles the Trail - Trail # 5 Leif Erickson Trail in Forest Park (are all these pictures starting to look the same or what?)

Had a great time at the TNT meeting today and I officially start training for the Pacific Crest 1/2 Ironman on January 26th. The event is on June 28th in Sunriver.

After the meeting (and poor Ki being stuck in the back of the truck for an hour and a half) we headed to Forest Park and did 6 miles on Leif Erickson. This trail SUCKS because it is uphill. But it's awesome, 'cause the whole way back is DOWNhill!!!! It was pouring buckets this a.m. so I was pleasantly surprised it did not rain on us at all. Definitely some patches of fog and lots of green and moistness, but it was a great run. I had Ki on a gentle leader for the first time and it worked AWESOME! She didn't seem to mind too much...it actually made me able to run faster with her.

Hopefully I'll have another trail report if I get to run with Dad tomorrow.

Friday Upper Body

The kids and I all started new puzzles on the same day. Their's have both been finished and put together again many times over. I've yet to finish my border. Maybe Mom will help me with it tomorrow.

Today looks to be pretty busy. I have to pull Mai out of gymnastics a bit early in order get her home, get the dog loaded into the car and head downtown to the Lucky Lab Pub for a Team in Training meeting to find out if I'm going to train with them for the Pac Crest Triathlon in June. I would love to train with them, but my two concerns are 1) how much I have to raise and 2) whether or not I can train for the 1/2 Ironman in this time frame. I want to raise the $$ obviously - especially with a new blood cancer diagnosis in the family, but I've heard this race is something like $4500, which is A LOT for someone like me who isn't very good at fundraising. I also don't want to just train for a sprint...I want to do the 1/2 ironman, so we'll see what they say.

Ki and I will go straight up to Forest Park since we'll be so close and go for a longish run - I might be doing another run with Dad tomorrow, so I'm not sure how far we'll go. When I get home we need to clean the house a bit for company coming tomorrow and I also promised I would go car shopping before church at 6:30....I'm going to look at Jettas first and see what I think of them. Then I'm hoping we'll all be healthy enough and happy enough to enjoy dinner out together as a family.

THURSDAY 03JAN08
3 mile run on treadmill.

FRIDAY 04JAN08

HS Chest Press
LT: n/a TT: 90/5, 70/6, 70/4 RP

Upright Cable Rows
LT: n/a TT: 100/22RP
(11,6,5)

Overhead Rope Ext
LT: n/a TT: 100/18RP
(9/5/4)

HS Pulldowns
LT: n/a TT: 140/14RP
(7,4,3)

Wide Grip Seated Cable Rows
LT: n/a TT: 120/6, 90/9 ss

15 minutes on elliptical

Wednesday Workout

Mai and her cousin, Kayla on Christmas day.

WEDNESDAY 2JAN08
What a frustrating trip to the gym. I didn't get there until almost 8pm so i figured it wouldn't be crowded but it was busier than I've ever seen it. I couldn't get onto the smith machine or the lying leg press and had to wait around for equipment I didn't even plan on using. I did about 10 min on the elliptical and 5 sets of lunges while waiting around.

Machine Bicep Curls
LT: n/a TT: 70/17RP
(10,4,3)

Seated Calves
LT: n/a TT: 70/6(too heavy), 45/3ss

Seated Leg Curls
LT: n/a TT: 80/26RP
( 12,8,6)

Seated Leg Press
LT: n/a TT: 230/9, 190/22ss

SHELC 2 sets of 20