Slowstar

Beautiful afternoon here in Portland. Little rain down there in Cali? Ah, well. You need it. Here, periods of actual sunshine (as opposed to the virtual kind we usually settle for in the winter). Temps well into the 50s. Light breezes. I ran seven miles, that's all. The glorious weather brushed up against me in all the right places and whispered stuff-I-can't-repeat in my ear, but I did not succumb. I set out to run seven, easy (aka, slow), and seven easy I did run. Left runner's knee was a little achy to start but loosened up. Everything else felt great, which surprised me because I was running on the street. Yesterday on the grass my hips were hurting. Today on the street, A-OK. The mysteries. I do wear shoes with more cushion on the road. My current road shoe is halfway between a racing shoe and what most people use as a training shoe: the Asics Gel Speedstar 3. That's it pictured above. Subdued color scheme, no? On the grass I wear a New Balance trail racing shoe that is practically like going barefoot. After that, the Speedstars feel plush, even on the road. I raced in them at Cascade last Sunday and will again at Vancouver this weekend.

I'm getting fired up for Vancouver. The weather forecast is slowly improving. Right now they're saying 40s and only a 50 percent chance of rain. All week they've been too bullish on the rain. Yesterday we had an 80 percent chance of rain and .01 inches fell in Portland. Today the POP was 40 percent and, well, you heard what I said up top: some sun. Anyway, I don't even care that much what the weather gods dish out. I'm not exactly tapering and zeroing in on this race, but I am giving myself a little bit of a chance with nothing but easy running this week: 15 yesterday, seven today, maybe eight tomorrow. Then a full day of rest Saturday. All leading up to my favorite race format: a flat half, with tons of fast people to chase.

UPDATE: Ha, now it's down to 30 percent chance of rain for Sunday.
UPDATE II (Fri., 7:15 a.m): "Sunday: Rain likely, mainly after 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48. East wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%."