The Full Loop

I wish I could remember when the last time it was that I ran the full loop on the waterfront. I don’t know if I documented it on here, but I’m guessing it was about 5-6 years ago. Last week I ran part of the loop. This week I got to run the full thing! I felt so happy and accomplished afterwards.

Don’t mind the derpy photo! I was trying to get a photo of the beautiful cherry blossom trees that are now in full bloom on the waterfront. They are one of my favorite trees.

It was supposed to be 60+ degrees. But by the time I was ready to run, the sun was out and it was a chilly 50 degrees. I wore my running sweater but after about 10 minutes, I didn’t need it and took it off. It was a gorgeous sunny day for a run.

Here is a photo of me crossing the Steel Bridge:

And across the river:

Once I got across the river, I did some run/walk intervals. My left knee was bugging me slightly but it wasn’t too terrible. This time I ran across the Hawthorne Bridge instead of cutting it short like last time.

After my run last week, I ordered a running belt on Amazon.I was having an issue trying to figure out where to put my work badge so I could get back into the building. But I didn’t have pockets big enough. This was the first time I ran with a belt. I didn’t particularly like it–if you don’t have a muffin top, you will wearing a running belt!!–but it did work pretty well. And it stayed in place, too, so that’s a plus.

It was such a nice day out, I didn’t want to go back into the office. I walked the last few blocks to work and then went to the gym to foam roll and stretch.

I showered and then was back at my desk to eat my sad frozen meal for lunch. It’s the quickest and easiest thing on days I run outside because I use my full lunch hour for the run/stretch/shower.

Here are my stats:

I’ve been noticing that my run pattern seems to be: fastest mile is the first mile. Probably because I can run for about 1 to 1.5 miles without having to take a walk break and towards the end of the run I take more walk breaks. Oh well, I’m not trying to beat any records. Maybe my own. 😉

Last night I took a hot bath with epsom salts to hopefully stave off the soreness from my run (it seemed to help) and slept SO good that night. I love running outside.