Week in Training - January 14 to January 20

This was a week of multiple conveyances - for training and transportation.  A veritable Planes, Trains & Automobiles but without the slap stick comedy.........or Steve Martin.  Let's begin with some stats for the week:

Training: 41 miles of running.  70 miles of road biking.  1 hour of Dailey Method core strength.  6000' of ascent.  11 total hours.

Transportation Types: feet, bicycle, automobile, bus, airplane (Boeing 737), streetcar (Skoda 10T) light-rail (Siemens SD660) and heavy rail (Caltrain EMD F40 / Nippon-Sharyo).

Tri-Met light-rail train and solar panels near the PSU campus.

A trip to Portland, Oregon, where I was giving a snowshoe presentation at REI, was responsible for the doubling of my usual methods of getting from point A to point B.  It was also an opportunity to visit family and friends in my former hometown and savor many of its outstanding purveyors of food and beverage.  Uno Mas, Barista, Stumptown Coffee, Clive Coffee, Water Ave Coffee, Bridgeport Brewery, Kenny & Zuke's, VooDoo Donuts, Lardo and Tails & Trotters.  Call it an +Anthony Bourdain style "Layover".

Monday: 8 mile easy, flat run.  25 mile easy, flat road bike ride.

San Jose to Portland via +Alaska Airlines Timbers themed 737.

Tuesday: travel day - SJC to PDX - no workout.  90 minute snowshoe presentation at the Pearl District REI store.  Coffee at Stumptown and scored a maple-bacon donut at VooDoo.  Lunch at Uno Mas and picked up some pork chops at Tails & Trotters.

Portland, Oregon - my coffee mecca.

Wednesday: hilly 7 mile road run (850' of climb) around Council Crest Park in Portland, OR.  No views on this cold, damp, foggy and cloudy day - burrrrr!  More coffee at Water Ave Coffee and oogled espresso machines and equipment at Clive Coffee.  Dinner at Bridgeport Brewery with Taplister founder +Kerry Finsand and Jenn.  I don't follow big, stadium oriented pro sports but when given the opportunity to see a Portland Trailblazers game count me in......even if they do lose.  Thanks Jenn!

My favorite coffee shop in Portland - Barista. 

Thursday: hilly 8.5 mile road run (1000' of climbing) over to Washington Park and back up Vista Drive.  Again, cold, damp, foggy and.......wait, what's this?  Sun!!  Coffee at Barista, breakfast at Kenny & Zuke's and lunch at Lardo.  Time to fly home - PDX to SJC.

Downtown Portland & Willamette River.

Friday: 10 mile flat road run (@ 7:35 pace) around Moffett Field in sunny California.  Dailey Method core strength class..........first one in over a month.  Time to rip the bandaid off.

The sun makes a rare winter appearance on my last morning in Portland.

Saturday: 45 mile hilly road bike ride (3800' of climbing) up to Skyline Drive.  Skyline was freshly chip-sealed this past Fall and I was hoping a few month of use would clear the excess gravel and smooth the surface.....but no.  Skyline is now bumpier, rougher and still has large gravel in the shoulders and center-line.  No more KOM's on this segment for a while.

January in California - time to water the lawn.

Sunday: First running intervals of 2013.  8 mile flat run on gravel with 5x 1/2 mile intervals at 5:30 pace.  It felt good to get my first speed workout behind me......until the next day when I pulled a small muscle in my lower back while running.  A reminder to slowly increase the number and duration of high intensity workouts this year........and get back to a regular core strength routine.

Want to create your own layover in Portland?  Check out +Google Local Portland for fresh ideas on what to do and where to go.