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March, 2009:

Brew Review (#2) – Amnesia Brewery

Mar 31st, 2009
by gazelle.
17 comments

I am a terrible brewpub reviewer, because I can only remember the names of three of the four beers we had, and Amnesia doesn’t have a website, so I can’t look it up.

Maybe next time I’ll take notes!

I love Amnesia – it’s a nice, laid back place. It’s great in the summer as they have outdoor seating (and it’s great if you have a dog, as you can sit outside with your dog, too).

The only think I don’t like is the food options – or lack thereof. Which is really just my issue. Most people would be able to eat something there. I don’t often feel like a picky eater, but I definitely do there! They have a wide variety of sausages (I don’t eat pork), a burger (I don’t eat beef) and even some veggie options (I don’t eat veggies burgers or sausages when eating out, due the prominence of mushrooms in veggie options). So – I never eat at Amnesia – however if you don’t have my food issues, you should be fine. They have an outdoor grill (in the outdoor covered seating area) and it always smells fantastic, making me think that maybe a sausage would be okay, just this once!

But – on to the beers (maybe I’ll start taking pictures, too).

On the first go ’round, the architect ordered a Dusty Trail Pale Ale & I ordered one of their seasonal taps. I remember liking the name of the beer, and I remember that it, too, was a work that rhymed with “Ale” so that I felt silly saying all the “ale” sounding words when I ordered the two beers.

Now – full disclosure – I am not a big fan of the hops, although I am beginning to like the hoppy beers a little bit more. I also tend to like more medium-bodied beers, such as Ambers & Reds & Browns (my all-time favorite, Imperial Reds). My seasonal Ale (Rail? Frail? Tail? Scale?) was like a Pale IPA, so to me it tasted like a weak hoppy beer. The architect’s pale ale was a weak non-hoppy beer, so we traded.

In all fairness, he liked his (Male? Haybale? Killer Whale?) quite a bit.

When I went up for seconds, I ordered one of each of their IPAs: the Copasetic, which I read somewhere was the best IPA in Portland and the Desolation, which is my favorite IPA in all the land.

I tried the Copacetic, and it was good, but I really have a hard time believing that it was honestly better than the Desolation. I know I just got finished saying that I am not a fan of the hoppy IPAs, and these are definitely hoppy IPAs, but for some reason, I just love that Desolation IPA.

The architect really enjoyed the Copacetic more, but was unwilling to come down definitively in favor of it being the best IPA in Portland.

After we finished our two beers each ($16 before tip), we headed home for pizza & movie watching. I can’t tell you the name of the movie we watched, because it is embarrassing, but I do have to say it was also very, very bad. Like I felt dumber for having seen it. Bad. Even though I may have liked the book (which is also embarrassing), the movie – definitely not. It wasn’t even so bad that it was good. Just bad.

Next up on the brew review tour – Bridgeport! (4/10)

How did it get to be Monday again?

Mar 30th, 2009
by gazelle.
14 comments

It’s weird – this Monday thing just keeps happening!  I don’t understand.

After the long run on Saturday, I was very productive for the rest of the day. I showered. And then I did……hmmmm….nothing? I was going to make some food for the wine party, but I didn’t. So I bought cheese & crackers, because who doesn’t love cheese & crackers? Crazy people, that’s who!

The wine party was pretty damn awesome. Thanks again to Emily for hosting us – your place is pretty amazing! There was wine. And food. And wine, I think. We had our tasting contest.

Rating the Wines

Rating the Wines

Jen & Zach totally kicked all our asses with their wine.

Jen for the Win!

Jen for the Win!

The rules were: bring 2 [identical] bottles of red under $10, the person who brought the highest rated bottle of wine got to keep all the duplicate bottles.  I’m not sure how that worked out  – I think the duplicate bottles ended up getting donated back to the party!

The $10 Wines

The $10 Wines

There was, as of course you’d expect at any classy wine party, a push-up challenge.

Look at those arms!

Look at those arms!

All-in-all, a good time was had.

A few of the ladies of PB&J (Portland Bloggers & Joggers): Sarah, Alisa, Amy, Jen & Emily

Sunday, I didn’t do much. I wasn’t hungover, just lazy! I did my menu planning for the next 2 weeks and then went grocery shopping so that my menus wouldn’t go to waste. After I returned home from the market, the architect & I had a beer & surveyed our property. I pulled eleventy-hundred weeds out of my flower/herb garden in front, and now there are only eleventy-hundred more to go!  Woo!

Mondays are usually my [workout] day off, but since I took yesterday off, I need to run tonight. If I run just 7.25 miles, I will hit 90 for the month. So, that’s probably what I’ll do :)

Now, it’s lunch time (finally). Have a good week!

82.75 :)

Mar 28th, 2009
by gazelle.
10 comments

According to Garmin, in the past 7 days I have:

  • Run 35.28 miles for a total of
  • 6 hours, 33 minutes & 53 seconds with an average pace of
  • 11:09 and burned approximately
  • 4,021 calories

I feel pretty good about that.

Earlier this week I did a 5 mile run, broken up into 2 parts – a 5K and then a 2 mile cool down. I ran the 5K in 30:30 exactly and wasn’t running hard the 1st mile – so I am feeling pretty good about getting my sub-30 PR next Sunday!

I also did an 8 mile run, which wasn’t speedy or anything (11:30 miles) but was nice.

Today, however, I met the Ambitious One & JM (as well as the faster Mr. Pi who doesn’t actually run with us) for the week’s long run. Tonight is our wine party, and none of us wanted to take a chance on actually WANTING to run tomorrow! We met at Sauvie Island at 10. JM & I were planning on just the 12 mile loop, the Ambitious One had 15 on her schedule, and Mr. Pi had 20.  The first couple of miles were HARD for me – everything was ridiculously tight – my achilles, my hip flexor – it was painful. I stopped & stretched at mile 2 and that made a huge difference. I think I just need to remember that I need a longer warm-up/stretch before running than I used to. It was cool & rainy, but not terrible. I was soaked when I got home, but wasn’t too cold until I stopped running.

We all took different approaches to pausing our timers – I paused the least – only when we actually were not moving at all, and had 12.18 miles in 2:17:43 (11:18 pace). I have to remind myself that I really don’t do the long runs for pace so much as for distance, and that it’s really okay to have a slower time.  But, because you can definitely tell which miles had walk breaks, I’m just going to share my splits:

  • Mile 1 – 10:18
  • Mile 2 – 10:40
  • Mile 3 – 11:32 (first stretch/break)
  • Mile 4 – 10:47
  • Mile 5 – 11:46 (break for water/Gu)
  • Mile 6 – 11:19
  • Mile 7 – 12:56 (which is odd, because this mile also had my top speed…..)
  • Mile 8 – 10:49
  • Mile 9 – 12:55
  • Mile 10 – 10:46
  • Mile 11 – 11:54
  • Mile 12 – 10:10
  • Mile 12.18 – 9:27

I feel pretty good that I had enough energy to kick it up a notch when I knew there was just over a mile left back to the parking lot.

It was a really nice loop – we saw some lambs and calves, and lots of other farm animals and birds. We’ll definitely have to check it out again in a month to see how it changes as the trees start to leaf out & the crops start to grow.

It was a weird week, for me. I got a lot of miles in, but didn’t manage to work in any cross training, really.  I am now only 7.25 miles away from my March 90 mile goal – and I think I can manage to fit those in before Wednesday!

I feel pretty awesome right now – I’m warm & showered & my belly is full. I finished my long run, and it’s only Saturday – which means tomorrow is a whole day with no major workouts planned! I think I’ll take it easy tomorrow & just go to Bikram in the afternoon.

Happy weekend.

Looking Ahead

Mar 25th, 2009
by gazelle.
14 comments

I am trying to feel a bit more positive and less blah today. I got denied a follow-up visit with my PT, so I guess I’m on my own (unless I want to shell out the actual cost of a visit, which at this point, I don’t).  So – I just need to be extra vigilant about doing my exercises & monitoring & foam rolling. And, since I want to complete all my planned races this year, I think I’ll have to do just that. What is it about doing my PT exercises that is so hard? I can go out & run 27 miles a week, but can’t take 15 minute 4-5 days a week to make sure that I can run 27 miles next week? That is so lame. I’ve been doing 200-300 crunches/night & push-ups 3 nights a week, but I can’t figure out how to work in some one-legged squats or plyometrics?  Lame, lame, lame.

Anyways – back to NOT lame. In April, I will run 100 miles, and I would like to do so in good health. This month, I should hit 90 – which is still the biggest mileage month I’ve ever had. If I keep up with my plans for the rest of the year (what, you don’t map out 12 months of running in January?), I’ll be over 1,000 miles for the year, and that is something pretty awesome, I think.

My biggest challenge in the coming months (since I’m planning a sprint tri- on 8/1/09) will be getting in the pool. While I don’t HATE swimming, I don’t love it. It’s harder to get up for that than anything else. It takes very little to intimidate/discourage me:

  • Other people waiting to use the pool – check!
  • Circle swimming with people who are faster than me (i.e. everyone) – check!
  • The thought that someone might look at and then judge me – check!

All this leads me to believe that I will have to change my schedule Wednesday AM swims to some time with fewer people & less early, making it harder to choose sleep over swim. I’m thinking maybe Friday early afternoons, just prior to my Friday trail runs. Or, maybe someone could just give me enough money to install an indoor lap pool on my property. I’d totally let you come use it, too! I had briefly thought of doing 2 swims/week in June & July to really prepare for my Tri-swim, but am not sure I can be that dedicated.

Soon, it will be nice enough to ride my bike to work again, and then I can do that 1x/week for automatic cross training (it’s about 18 miles round trip). I’m planning on taking my bike out (for the first time in WAAAY too long) for a test commute to my temporary part-time job on Friday, since it’s supposed to be nice.

There are so many things to look forward to in the next few months – and I’m excited that I’m strong enough to make these plans. I may not have the body I dream of having, but at least my body can do all the things I dream of doing…

And, to remember my earlier mantra: “Life is good, dammit!”

I feel lazy

Mar 24th, 2009
by gazelle.
17 comments

Last night, I got my crunches & push-ups in, as well as 20 minutes of yoga. Then the architect & I made mini quesadillas (they were delicious) and watched the Discovery Channel.

I know – pretty exciting stuff!

This morning, I meant to get up & run 5 miles before work, but for some reason, my alarm did not go off. When I woke at 6, I decided that I would just sleep & do my run after work – hope the weather holds!

Today is a weirdly busy day. Not urgently busy like things have been, well, for a couple of months, but a lot of little things to get done – and I’m just not focused. I have a headache, desperately need to take the 40 steps down the hall to fill up my water bottle, and just feel kinda whiny & blah…..not sure what’s causing that. I do feel that I’m not getting nearly enough sleep lately, which is silly, because I generally get a minimum of 7 every night (it’s usually closer to 8-9).

Today I just feel that I don’t particualrly want to be here. I almost wish that I was the one who was unemployed, instead of the architect (actually, he probably wishes the same, I think he’s ready to contribute to society again).

The most exciting news that I have is that I finally uploaded my last two runs from Leo, and my 3 miler last Tuesday evening with the architect clocked at 31:20 (10:25 pace), and I really wasn’t trying for speed, so that’s nice. AND, my 10 miler with JM on Sunday came in at 1:49:45, just under 11 minute miles – which although not as speedy as I’d ultimately like to be, still makes me happy.

I am very much looking forward to my upcoming 5 & 10Ks – I am planning on PR-ing on both!

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