Mid-May Trail Run at Mount St Helens

Some Spring Stuffs

Silver Star trail run

Looking east towards the Dark Divide

Dog Mountain hike with Dr. B

Dog looking at St Helens

SUNSHINE!

Otto Miller Rd

Logie Trail descent. 

My better half climbing Otto Miller on a rainy, crappy day. Did I say crappy, I meant AWESOME.

Remember that one time it was sunny? Training at Hagg Lake.

En route to the Mosier Twin Tunnels

Climbing to Rowena after a Cherry of a Ride.

Descending 7 Mile Hill with friends... and scary dogs on the loose.

Pepperoni Pizza I love you so much. @ Double Mountain

Today's long slow run was not terrible!

April Goings On

The plan is to snowshoe to Barrett Spur. Bwah hahahhahah!

Dollar Lake burn zone

Barrett Spur from the road.

Looking through the trees at Barrett Spur, somewhere near Dollar Lake. We got off course and cliffed out on a strenuous snow slope nearing 2pm. We'll be back in a couple months when hiking to Barrett Spur is not clinically insane.

If It Looks Like A Sancerre And Smells Like A Sancerre, It Must Be A Beginner Wine Class

Champagne and a Manhattan to celebrate.

I completed the first level of the Court of Master Sommeliers this month! To be fair, it was relatively easy considering I'd done the WSET Advanced Level in October, but for anyone considering taking the plunge it's still a lot of information. The pass rate is fairly high, but if you want to do well it's a good idea to follow the outline and some sort of wine atlas ahead of time. I took the 2-day intensive class, and let me tell you, it was whirlwind. And as much I love blind tasting and felt pretty solid with my identifications, doing it first thing in the morning is interesting to say the least. Fortunately, our Somms were funny and engaging and really put everyone at ease. Anyway, I'm excited to begin the journey to the Certified Somm level which I plan on taking when it comes to Seattle this autumn, and hopefully beyond to Advanced. But for now, I'm putting aside serious wine studies and focusing on the start of spring and marathon training season.

Mount Ellinor, Olympics

Yes, that is my rear end downclimbing the slope. Steeper than it looks.

Tamanwas Falls and A Whole Lotta Ice

Thrilled to take my husband hiking for the first time in a very long time, but dismayed to discover thick sheets of ice over what was supposed to be an easy trail. I gave Dr B my microspikes, which rendered him impervious, and then tried not to plunge off a cliff in my trailrunners or break my coccyx on the ice. Once home, we toasted to proper gear for both us next time if we're to continue this "couples" hiking thing.

Sidelined

Somehow I trained all last year and managed to avoid a single injury, but 2014 has started out inauspiciously. Saturday's run was glorious, and I don't use that word lightly. The sun was out, my mileage was decent - I had a completely dorky surge of well-being. Sunday knocked me down a notch.

Going over the Hawthorne Bridge yesterday I discovered that, no, you can't always just run through the pain. My knee cap started nagging at me around mile five, until eventually a nasty spasm caused my leg to buckle. I limp-walked furiously the last mile back to my car and drove straight to Portland Running Co. to replace my Brooks. I previously suspected my trouble was biking too hard, but I think instead it was pounding down MacLeahy Trail and back up Cornell in trailrunners that probably did me in. A kneecap that only hurts when I run and only after certain distances sounds just like "runner's knee" from what I've read online. So now I'm on a stretch, ice, rest regimen, and it SUCKS. My only consolation is that my actual marathon training program doesn't officially start until March, so there's theoretically time to fix this. I ordinarily wouldn't complain online, but since this is something that a lot of people seem to experience, I thought I'd put it out there and see if anyone has any advice.

Oh yeah, and I'm also cutting back on coffee for health reasons, so that's just peachy. No coffee, no running and the mountains are snowed in, so basically...

Winter Biking Scenes