Nice weekend.

This was a long awaited family weekend. Friday I worked all day (to pay back for taking off Thursday – I don’t have vacation days left for now) and later in the evening went for Rolfing. This dude definitely knows what he is doing – he would find and work more on all those little nagging pains without me ever mentioning them (obviously I have more overuse injuries than chronic compartment syndrome). I had no pain under right rib cage all day, only slight soreness, like if it were a bruise inside there.

On Saturday, been left completely to myself for the morning run (anybody who I ever get to run with happened to be busy), I started early and headed for Gorge trails. I decided to do hill repeats where we did them last time, on PCT section. Since I don’t have a parking permit for the Forest Service, I had to start from the road. The repeats called for 50 min, but I only timed the same part as a month ago for easier reference, and then jogged an extra 5 min. First hill took 46 min. There was a slight drizzle, but nothing serious. I got down and ate an organic bar, and on the second hill repeat the pain that haunted me whole week came back. Was it food with hard work combo? Anyway, I continued to make it in 46:30. Oh, yeah, on the first down I bumped into Ronda and Stacey, who were doing 60 min repeats by schedule. After second downhill I left my pack where it was (this group thought me it is safe to leave packs behind on trail and do repeats with only one bottle, what is much better) and headed on PCT opposite direction for a 5 mile out-and-back. It’s nice to know your trails; I had mapped out my route while driving in a car to have a certain mileage done in a certain time. The pain softened a bit by my return, I picked the rest of my stuff and followed trails to Nick Eaten/Gorton loop with a small out-back on Herman creek. Nick Eaton is a nasty climb of 1860 feet in 2M, and I had never done it faster than 45 min – and it’s a hike from start to finish. Sometimes it is so steep, it is scary to raise your head and look up, so I just look right in front of my feet and hassle. This time it was 47 min, what considering how far in a run I was made me quite happy. Another short stop – and down by Gorton trail all the way to the parked car. Total time 6:20 for 29 miles and over 7,000 feet gain(20 min account for 4 stops of 5 min), 3 bottles of water, 1 bottle of Perpetium, 1 bottle of Crank fuel, 2 organic bars (note to self – need to carry more water in summer). The weather, by the way, lightened up and with sun it got pretty warm.

As soon as I came home, took a shower and grabbed a bite to eat – we were out to our camping trip. We drove about 2.5 hrs, north of Dalles, and set a tent by the creek. It wasn’t dark yet, but we decided to spent a quality time together instead of going after more exercise. We cooked sheesh-kebab and boiled tea and read books and sang stupid patriotic old songs. Then at night my body let me know – when it said no meat, it meant no meat. I tossed and turned in misery and only got to sleep for about 3 hrs, even though my “bed” was comfortable…but then again, what was I hoping for, that all would go away by itself?

I woke up early, though not early enough, and despite still not feeling very well, went for the morning run. It was more of a shuffle, honestly, and after hitting a herd of cows (one been very mean and with big horns, that I had to wait 10 min to go away for) I called it a day and returned half-done of what I planned. Oleg went for his run after me, while I searched for meds in local camp store (nothing but Ibuprofen, but that eased pain somewhat thankfully). After his run Oleg played catch (baseball) with Stephen while I submerged myself in a book. That was wonderful! The rain started to roll around, we quickly packed and headed back, without stop for rock-climbing this time (wet rock is not nice). Half way in we caught nice break in weather and took out for a hike on Eagle creek trail in Columbia Gorge. All in all we did 10 mile hike, slow incline one way and easy after turn-around. Funny, but I felt more tired walking that running – new muscle use? More time on feet? My shins and feet hurt.

It was a wonderful weekend, albeit I could go without pain. Hope you all had a good time too. Lets go on to another week:)