What I Thought About During Today's Run

When I wasn't assessing my condition on today's easy, comfortable seven-miler in the drizzle, I was pondering Jim Cramer. Did Stewart already do something on this? It's too good.

Cramer, last Friday:
"I think investors who are nervous about the dictatorship of the Pelosi proletariat will feel at ease, and we could have a gigantic rally off a Coakley loss and a Brown win (Tuesday night). It will be a signal that a more pro-business, less pro-labor government could be in front of us."

Dow close Tuesday: 10,725
Dow close after Day 1 of the Brown Era: 10,610 (-115)
Dow close after Day 2 of the Brown Era: 10,321 (-289)
Dow close after Day 3 of the Brown Era: 10,172 (-149)

The Brown rally so far? -553 points on the Dow (-5.2%).

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%."

Miles and Piles

In Berlin, when I visited last September, it was evident that many people did not pick up after their dogs. It wasn't just that you saw the stuff on sidewalks and streets and in parks. This was something the sight-impaired would have winced at. I thought it was a pretty sorry state of affairs, and was even more alarmed when told the situation had improved in recent years.

Here in Portland, dog owners are often seen pulling out there plastic bag after Bartholomew rises from his squat. Unattended, untended poop, while hardly unheard of, is disparate. You walk four or five miles and some days you see none, some days you see one pile, some days maybe two. Maybe. It's not a problem. But today, today at Normandale Park, I stepped in TWO PILES.

True, I ran the .68-mile perimeter 21 times. I took many steps. But I ran a consistent route. In fact, late in the run you could see my path marked in the grass. So if my consistent, narrow path resulted in stepping in TWO PILES, well how many piles lurk in Normandale? I shudder to imagine.

Pretty decent run, nevertheless. Fifteen miles in 2:05, an 8:30 pace. Very slow. Yo, I raced a half-marathon on Sunday and am doing another one this Sunday. I don't think I need to do anything intense right now. Actually, it was a 9:00 pace on the first seven miles and around 8:00 on the last eight. Hip was aching by the end. Both hips. And I smelled.