A Portland tale of winter

Yesterday morning I woke up to white roof tops—it snowed!  By the time I got to work most of the snow had melted, there were periods of snow and sunshine throughout the morning. 

Snow covered backyard before work

During my almost daily lunchtime walk I got pelted with corn snow/hail for the first few minutes but then it cleared up to be a really nice walk. Around 2:30 pm I noticed the office got a bit darker, when I looked out the window it looked like a blizzard. It was snowing hard and starting to stick. About 10-15 minutes later we were told we could go home.

Around 3:30, snowy front yard

When I arrived home, it was still snowing pretty hard but nothing was sticking the actual roads.  I chuckled to myself that with less than 2 inches of accumulation and nothing sticking to the roads, buses had chains, schools were closed and I got to go home from work early.  That would NOT have flown when I lived in Boston.

Garden beds covered in snow and Zoey playing in the white fluff

Snow covered roof tops and some late afternoon sunshine.  View from our upstairs office.

Our sproutlings were covered by the porch overhang, hoping they don't die from the cold weather.

Accumulation on the deck rail.

Since I got to go home early, what did I do with my time...went for a run of course!

At the end of a snowy and cold but super peaceful run.

Then, I took Zoey for a long walk before the sun went down. Once the sun went down the temps plummeted and I got cozy with Zoey and some tea on the couch. Wonderful way to end the day.

All in all, a great winter day! 

Motivation is makin' a comeback

After my last post I decided to allow myself one final weekend of laziness and then declare it over. No more excuses—it is time to get my arse into gear. Mr. Pi and I had so many fun plans this weekend, wine tasting, get together with friends and pulling weeds in the yard. Unfortunately, we both came down with a nasty bug, luckily the worst of it went away pretty weekly though neither of us are 100%. So, I spent my last weekend of laziness being extremely lazy. I did laundry, made chicken soup and that’s about it.  Monday morning I came to work armed with cold fighting items:

I researched some training plans and since I’m not sure exactly what events will be on the schedule for the summer I looked at a lot of plans and am still determining what would be best for me. Since I know the summer is going to include at least one tri, likely a half marathon and likely a cycling event-- I figured some sort of balanced tri plan that isn’t too crazy, one that eases back into things, would be good. The plan is still in motion as I’m still nailing down summer events BUT for this week the plan is 2x run, bike swim and at least one weights session.


Last night I had the best run I’ve had in ages. I downloaded a running app for the iPhone called B210k. Its formal name is Bridge to 10k. It essentially picks up where the Couch to 5k plan ends and preps you for a 10k. Since I haven’t been doing much running since the Goofy challenge I thought a run/walk intro would be good. The first session is: 5 minute warm-up then, 4x10 minutes of running (with 1 minute break between each run cycle) and a 5 minute cool-down. I started the first run cycle at an 11:30 and over the course of the 10 minute cycle dropped it to a 10:30, the second run cycle I started at 11:30 and dropped to 10:10, the third run cycle I alternated 2 minutes at 11:15 and 2 minutes at 10:10, the final run cycle I started at 10:50 and slowly dropped the pace every minute and ended at a 9:00 (for the last 1:30 only). Mentally and physically this was a great run. My overall run average was around an 11 mm but the part that I really loved was the feeling at the end of the 10 minute cycle that I didn’t really need the walk break and at the end of the last run cycle I could have easily done at least a couple more run cycles. While I’m unsure how often I’ll use the app, for $1.99 or whatever it cost, it was worth it even for that one great, confidence boosting run.


After running, I hit weights for 30ish minutes and let’s just say I know I haven’t done weights in a long while---I am sore! My plan before March starts is to return to crazy weights class (aka 24SET, 24LIFT, Bodypump).


Member in my last post how I said I feel better when I’ve worked out? Still holds true. The endorphins are back a flowin’. Even today, I feel better and am not as bitter about having an office job. Don’t get me wrong I really like my work but I do get bitter about feeling like an office drone some days. Anyone else ever feel that way?


In other news, the forecasters have been predicting snow. Of course, I don’t believe them.  I hope it snows (sorry birthday girl)—I love the snow. What I love even more---SUNSHINE---and it’s supposed to be BACK on Friday!

Random Thoughts

Work:  I’m still adjusting to my new work schedule, which is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I’m a morning person and am almost always at work before 8:00am.  My co-worker and boss are not, they are evening people.  I am struggling with feeling guilty about leaving at the prescribed 5:00pm even though I’ve already worked a long and hard day because it looks like I’m the new person who is chomping at the bit to leave work right at 5:00pm.  This makes me anxious.  I really like my new job it’s challenging and rewarding but what I really dislike is constantly feeling like I have to prove myself.  I know that’s part of starting in a new place but I really miss having confidence in my work and knowing that my boss/co-workers also have confidence in me.

Training:  I also thought that since I don’t actually HAVE to be at work until 8:00am that I would get back to my morning workout routine more easily.  But instead, I set out my stuff every night and hit the snooze every morning—except for some reason on Fridays.  And since I’m not used to being at work until 5:00pm it’s been hard to get motivated to work out after work too—I’m tired, already had a long day and by the time I get home it is dark.  Also, I have nothing on my race calendar to keep me motivated.  I’ve been working out just not like I am when I’m on a schedule training for a race.  I’ve realized I can no longer self motivate myself to do the hard workouts—I need that goal race to motivate me.  I thought taking time off was going to inspire me to try new classes at the gym, etc but it totally hasn’t.  I function better on a schedule—not too ambitious of one but some sort of schedule so, I’m looking at some spring/summer/fall options to inspire me.  I feel better when I’m working out consistently which I totally know in my head but I’m in that weird place of knowing getting out the door will make me feel but not being able to get myself out the door.  Ya know? 

Friends:  I’ve been a horrible friend.  I just mailed my best friend’s birthday, which is now almost a month late (SORRY!!!!).  I haven’t been feeling very social or wanting to do anything especially in large groups.  I’ve been anxious about hanging out with anyone.  This is weird.  I’m not usually an anxious person.  Why am I all of sudden socially awkward?

House and Husband:  Not all has been in a weird place.  Mr. Pi and I have been doing some fun house projects and having great weekends together.

We framed our unframed closet door in the guest room which I think makes the room look so much more complete.

Closet before

Mr. Pi's cute butt while he works on nailing in the molding.

Closet after, with molding.

Closet after also showing the mirror we hung and photos.

We made a custom cork board and hung a US map in our guest room.  We’ve put in map pins for places we’ve done big athletic events, places we’ve vacationed, places we’ve lived and our cross country road trip.  We also have pins set aside for guests so when we have company they can stick a pin in the map and tell us where they are from. (We’re working on hanging the world map in our bedroom.)

Blank wall above the bed.

Not a great photo but this is the map!  We've put some pins in and there are green pins on the side for when our guests come.

We’ve taken lots of walks around the neighborhood with the dog on the weekends and gone to some fun brunch places.

Country Cat (which has my favorite breakfast in Portland---the monte cristo, which I never order at other places, with a side of "judy" which is this fresh homemade never the same jam mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm).  My mom and stepdad got us a gift card to this place so we can keep going back!  They have dinner too but we've only been for breakfast.

Ned Ludd which is fancy breakfast.  My mom and stepdad got us a gift card there.  We still have some $$ left so we might try it out for dinner.  It was also very tasty.

 We’ve been watching our sproutlings, which are nearly blooming.

 All in all, post-holidays has been an adjustment and I’m slowly working my way through the issues and finding my way back to a happy, healthy, balanced me.  At the moment, I'm trying to stay healthy and not get the nasty thing that seems to be going around!