May recap and exciting news!

Well, it's been a long time since I've updated the blog and I apologize. I have been keeping very busy with work, home life, and the 5ks! I'll recap some highlights from the past month:

I am now up to about 40% completion on the 5k challenge! For those of you just joining check out the details of that challenge here. I began running in a different location for most of my runs at the beginning of May. Klamath Falls, OR is my layover city for work now, so I take that opportunity and make the most of it by running each day that I'm away from home. I also got a smartphone recently and began tracking my runs via a GPS app on my phone. It's been very nice to have here because I can take it along and know exactly how far I've ran at any given point. Since I don't know the town very well, I have been able to just start my run and not worry about how to make a loop that is an appropriate length. When I hit 1.5k on the distance meter, I simply turn around to head back to the hotel.

Klamath Falls is a medium-sized city on the eastern crest of the Cascades, about 200 miles from Eugene to the south and east. The elevation is about 4200' so it's usually colder than Eugene, but drier as well (which I am LOVING so far). There isn't a lot of outdoor recreation here other than hunting and fishing as the city is in a very agricultural area and flanked by the Upper Klamath Lake to the west.

 

Upper Klamath Lake as seen from my office

Klamath Falls has quite a railroading history, and to this day I would call it a railroad town, but I'm probably biased. One great thing the city and county have done is create the O, C & E Trail State Park. This rails-to-trails park starts near the current railyard and continues east and then north for 100 miles. The first 10 of that are paved and I've been taking full advantage of the park since my runs began down here. The trail is a nice wide (4'8 1/2", to be exact), paved path that is oh-so-level and makes for a quick 5k run.

Trail sign near the hotel

Also, I've been swimming a lot more in the last month (reason why in the next paragraph) than I ever have before. When I get the chance at home I go for a 1/2 mile swim at the gym (gasp!) with a coworker. The swimming, I have to say, is even more enjoyable than the runs because I don't get sore feet or knees from doing it!

One last piece of EXCITING NEWS: I'm pleased to tell you all that I recently signed up for the Eugene Triathlon which takes place August 28th! I'm going to do the short course, which is a .5 mile swim, followed by a 24 mile bike ride, and finally a 5k run. I'm VERY excited about the event and have used it to keep up my motivation for the 5k challenge, in addition to my all-around fitness goals. I'll fill you in on my workout schedule and progress next time, but for now I can tell you that I haven't been on a road bike to train- ever. I've got some work to do!

That's it for now...hope you all have a great day!