Uh, these aren't even running shoes. Or women's shoes. They're the away shoes that Brandon Roy wears. Yeah, they're pretty sweet. And have nothing to do with this post. Oh well.

I sure wish I was up-to-date on posting these… Eegads. I really, really liked my C25K Week 5 playlist. So much so, that I stuck with week five for a good, oh, THREE WEEKS! Yeah, since I live in fear of injuries (particularly the dreaded “knee injury”), I kind of psyched myself out about moving onto Week 6. Doh! But what I can say is that the upside of dragging this thing out for so long is that I ran the twenty minute segment several times, and can definitely say that I can run for that sustained period of time with no problem. So, I guess it’s a good thing in the end. Nevertheless, I’ve forced myself to move on, and am committed to sticking with the normal C25K routine–my paranoia about injuries is probably a bit nutty, and not neccessarily healthy at this point.

Like I said, this is probably my favorite playlist so far. It’s got nice pacing, and these are some great songs, for sure.

Ulysses – Mason Jennings (for the warm-up walk)
Girl Inform Me – The Shins (for the warm-up walk)
Universal Mind Control - Common (I have another Common song on this week’s playlist that’s so filthy, I’m slightly embarrassed to post it here.)
Candyman – Cornership
Champion – Kanye West
Double Up – Lifesavas (Oh yeah, they’re from PDX…)
Crazy – Gnarls Barkley (They’re on Warner Bros., who is really fanatical about online song clips and videos, so all I’ve got for you is the Wikipedia entry. They’ve even had amateur covers of the song removed from YouTube. Stay classy, WB, stay classy.)
The Way You Move – Outkast
Tell Him – Lauryn Hill (for the cool-down walk; this is the only full-length version of the song I could find online)

I made this playlist a tiny bit too short, so I would pick a random song on the iPod for the last couple minutes. Oops. Other lessons learned from this playlist? It’s a damn shame that Lauryn Hill went crazy and quit making music. She’s so freaking amazing. Seriously. It sucks in a big way. Ironically, in the Kanye song, there’s a great line insinuating the same thing about Ms. Hill. I didn’t realize this when I made this playlist, so it was a nice, slightly amusing, surprise.

~Sarah

Posted in running Tagged: c25k, music, running, silly ]]> http://moonfamilyband.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/yes-another-playlist/feed/ 0 moonfamilyband nike-blue-chip-brandon-roy-away-pe-6 http://moonfamilyband.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/flashback-friday-at-last/ http://moonfamilyband.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/flashback-friday-at-last/#comments Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:59:26 +0000 moonfamilyband http://moonfamilyband.wordpress.com/?p=119 ]]> Since this was only on Tuesday, I don’t think we can legitimately call this video “Flashback Friday.” But, whatever, it made us both cry.

This doesn’t really need any commentary, does it? The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air — the gift that keeps on giving.

The Long Way Around – Dixie Chicks
Brown Sueter – A Filial (note: that link takes you to a legal, freebie download of that song from this interesting hip hip group from Brazil)
Portland, Oregon – Loretta Lynn, feat. Jack White
Would You Believe – Mavericks
Love Lockdown – Kanye West
Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Stevie Wonder
Ballad of Who Could Care Less – Ben Folds Five
Phantom Limb – The Shins

~Sarah

Since Josh started working in the Pearl District, we’ve been paying more attention to restaurants around there, and can highly, highly recommend this place. Yes it’s vegan, and, no we’re not we’re not vegans, although Josh is strictly a vegetarian and I pretty much am as well, except the occasional dabbling in seafood (gotta love the seafood!). However, the food is intensely flavorful and the folks who were there are also incredibly friendly. It’s a bit off-putting that the restaurant’s actually inside a yoga place, but once you get over that, and fight for one of the few tables in the place, it is AMAZING. Seriously. We couldn’t stop talking about the sandwiches from Blossoming Lotus all week. No lie. Plus it’s really near to Powell’s, which is awfully handy, considering how much time we spend there.

We wouldn’t have stopped into the new pizza joint in the Pearl District that had a sign in the window proclaiming, “Voted Best Pizza in Clark County” if we hadn’t read this review. (My assumption is always–fair or not–that everything in The ‘Couv is exponentially worse than everything in Portland.) Leonardo‘s is super-good, the kind of pizza I love–that medium-thick, chewy crust, loaded with tons of toppings kind of pizza. My mom loved it too; Josh liked it, but still prefers Hot Lips–and I can’t dispute that, Hot Lips rocks in a completely different way. (Plus, Hot Lips is within walking distance of our house–a definite plus.) The staff was incredibly friendly, too, which is a HUGE plus in the often not-so-friendly Pearl.

And finally, Josh discovered the awesome Pearl Specialty Market & Spirits over on Lovejoy, right before you get onto the Broadway Bridge. The place is a serious liquor store. It seems that in Portland all the booze shops are of the scratch-off lottery ticket and swill variety, and aren’t really the “browsing” sort of place that Josh and I are hot on… Know what I mean? Anyway, this place is fabulous! They have about a million (okay, probably 30) different varieties of bourbon, which makes me happy, and loads of interesting liquors that are very tempting. Since we’re not big drinkers, when we do buy alcohol, we like to get nice stuff. Josh got me some amazing Blanton’s Bourbon for Thanksgiving, which has some of the most beautiful packaging I’ve seen on anything, ever. We went back after Christmas and he got me some Basil Hayden’s as well. (The Blanton’s is amazing, very deep and rich; the Basil Hayden’s is the exact opposite, very light and gentle. Interestingly, I really enjoy both, although the Blanton’s is definitely one that’s perfect on ice while the Basil Hayden’s is a lovely mixer–especially with a spash of ginger ale.) Anyway, again, the folks who work there are very nice, and I also appreciate that the guy carded me, even though it was Josh making the purchase, to make sure that he wasn’t furnishing alcohol to a minor. That sort of rocked.

~Sarah

Doesn’t look much different than the Kennedy School did on the day we were there, except there’s adorable children coming out of the building, rather than happy hour patrons. Oh, and the car, of course.

These are trying times, huh? Not only is the economy, you know, a disaster, we got a foot and a half of snow in freaking Portland. Portland! Portland, Oregon! While Josh the Midwesterner has the genetics to be able to handle this on some level, my Oregonian brain just shuts down. I hate it. Like many Oregonians, I’m of the belief that if you get the urge to interact with snow/winter, you just go up to Mt. Hood. You visit winter. Winter doesn’t visit you. That’s the proper order of the universe in my book. In New Mexico, when it would snow–which happened frequently–I was basically paralyzed. Josh had to drive me to work, I didn’t have the right clothes, it was just one big disaster on my part. (Interestingly, Josh had many of the same reactions in the horrible heat of the summer there. No wonder New Mexico didn’t take.)

I tell you, though, there’s nothing like the Storm of the Century to make you feel unloved by the powers that be. I realize that this was a significant weather event, and I certainly don’t remember anything of this magnitude in my lifetime–and neither does my mom who has been here for 59 years, but it seems perplexing that our neighborhood was completely abandoned by the powers that be. I’d consider Killingsworth, Ainsworth, NE 33rd and Lombard all significant streets in terms of moving people through the city, yet they did not see any attempt at snow removal or de-icing (that we observed) throughout the entire two weeks. I wonder what consistutes an important street in this city?

We stopped hearing buses in our ‘hood even before the “big” part of the storm. It’s my understanding–which could very well be wrong–that a bus spun out on 33rd at some point and they just stopped coming up the hill to Concordia. Our neighbors, who have a giant truck and stayed mobile during the whole “snow event,” said that once you got to Prescott, the roads were passable, which is a bit depressing, really, since Prescott is the dividing line between the “nice” neighborhoods of Alameda/Wilshire and our wonderful, but not so “nice” neighborhood of Concordia. Essentially, it seemed that our neighborhood was completely cut off from the rest of the city, as the roads were obviously impassible in a normal vehicle and Tri-Met chose to suspend most, and possibly all, of the routes running through Concordia. Even if we’d been inclined to walk all the way to our nearest MAX station (the Arbor Lodge station on the Yellow Line) we would have been out of luck, since that line was shut down for much of the worst of the storm. (The whole MAX line thing is infuriating in and of itself, since it is effectively a commuter rail and not an urban people mover. MAX is great, but only if you’re lucky enough to live near it. But that’s for another day.) I worry what kind of risks people took whose work was open, had no access to public transit and were having to resort to braving the very, very dangerous roads in our area. We are very fortunate that our neighborhood has a grocery store (although that wouldn’t have been the case a few short years ago), so we were able to stay stocked with food–and the good folks at New Seasons kept us up-to-date about store closings via Twitter. (In fact, I could be a real pill and make the case that I learned a lot more from Twitter than the “Arctic Blast” coverage on KGW.)

It’s obvious to me, as someone who knows a lot more than I should about this kind of thing, that the City and Tri-Met weren’t prepared to deal with snow removal and keeping this  city moving, and to a certain extent, I sympathize. I am sure that the guys on the ground were doing their very best to make things work during the storm. I don’t blame them in any way, shape or form. I blame what I perceive as a lack of coordination and a lack of a plan for dealing with a weather-related event like this. And I contend that this lapse really does matter.

Why? Because if this is an example of how Portland responds, we’re screwed in a disaster. A major earthquake, for example, would present logistical challenges for which we seem woefully unprepared to tackle. What about a catastrophic flood? Would they be able to coordinate centrally to remove debris? Would they be able to make sure that transportation routes are cleared so that people could be helped? How long would it take for buses or the Max to start running if the solution wasn’t “wait for it melt?” From the perspective of a resident who was hoping for some sort of coordinated response to help keep Portland moving somewhat during this event as a demonstration of our readiness, I was extraordinarily disappointed. While it is a very real possibility that I am 100% wrong in my perception, it seemed that only the City’s transportation bureau was handling snow removal and de-icing. Do other bureaus within the City own equipment that could be used to clear up transportation routes? If so, were they deployed? In a disaster, would only PDOT be working to clear our roads so that people can get help, or would they mobilize all of the forces within the bureaucracy to make that happen? Would they leverage private resources if needed? For example, would it have been cheaper to rent equipment from some of the many equipment rental joints over on Columbia Boulevard and clear some of the main streets than deal with the ramifications of the damage to the roadways thanks to chains and other debris? I don’t know. Maybe it’s a stupid question, but when Josh and I were driving over that way earlier today, we noticed that equipment and wondered… It would be really dumb to advocate that Portland purchase snowplows, given that we so rarely have anything like this, but in the three years since we’ve been back in Stumptown, two of those winters have had snow and ice events that have cause serious transporation problems–thus, it’s very clear that someone needs a plan for to best deal with these problems, given our available resources. And as Portlanders, we need to hold our leadership accountable in that regard, because it really does matter. Because next time it may be an emergency that won’t simply melt away.

I hate to leave you on that negative note, but if you’ve known me for awhile, you may know that disaster preparedness is something about which I feel very strongly. We were living in D.C. still during 9/11 and that alone was experience enough for me to realize that anything can happen and you’ve got to have a plan. You also may know that I have received a bit of FEMA training from being a Public Information Officer in the past and learned far more than I’d ever want to know about how our responses to smaller “mini-emergencies” are great practice for “the big ones,” and that a failure in a situation like a snowstorm that catches an entire region flat-footed is a great learning opportunity.

Like I said, I hate to leave on a negative note, so I’ll say this: the snowstorm really allowed us to get re-acquainted with our wonderful little neighborhood. We’re so lucky to live somewhere with so many ammenities, most of which are locally-owned and operated. On Christmas Eve, when we realized that we hadn’t gotten the dog her Christmas gift yet, we were able to trudge through the snow and pick something up for her. When we needed food for Christmas dinner, we braved the lines with most everyone else in Concordia over at New Seasons. The Kennedy School–a place we haven’t gone much in the past year really–has opened a lovely new sports bar where we were able to watch a game and enjoy a beer. We even met our neighbors across the way to whom we had never previously spoken. Josh and I got to spend some wonderful time together–which isn’t anything unusual, knowing us–but I always treasure those times, regardless. All and all, I actually will always remember Christmas ’08–and the Snowpocalypse–fondly.

~Sarah

I think this is definitely an instance when too much knowledge was a bit of a hindrance. I’d read that weeks three and four can be a problem for people, so I just kept doing week three to make sure that I wouldn’t get frustrated and give up with C25K. I’m sure I would have done just fine moving on to week four last week, but I definitely feel prepared for week four now!

And I’m realizing that this is kind of fun. Which is weird, because I hate running. But there’s something deeply satisfying in the accomplishment part of it. And I think that doing something hard is a good thing for the psyche.

Anyway, here’s my week three playlist.

• Closer to You – Wallflowers (nice pace for the walk, actually)
• Bridging the Gap – Nas (awesome song, if you don’t have it get it)
• Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing -  Chris Isaak (perfect running pace)
• Superstition – Stevie Wonder (gotta love Stevie)
• Lubbock or Leave It – Dixie Chicks (factoid: this song’s about Shelby Knox)
• Denial Twist – White Stripes (another one with a great pace for the running portion)
• Gonna Make You Love #2 – Ryan Adams (kind of a quick beat, but at this point the motivation helps)
• Hanginaround – Counting Crows (as a Gen-Xer, I am contractually obligated to include a Counting Crows song)

More confirmation that I have “eclectic” taste in music. But we knew that already…

And, according to Blazers Edge, this was one of Brandon’s comments in the locker room after making those two incredible shots,

“Obama winning the election is bigger than any shot I could make.”

Brandon Roy is awesome in so many ways…

So, I’ve finished week two of the C25K, and I’m going to do a couple of more week two runs before moving onto week three. This is for two reasons: 1) fear and 2) new shoes.

First, the fear. Have you seen the week three run? You have to run for three whole minutes at a time! At a time! So, I’m thinking I need to get a bit more of a comfort level with the whole running thing in general before I start week three. I’m shooting for Sunday for my first week three run.

Second, the shoes. I really needed new shoes. I loved the shoes I was running in, but they’re cross-trainers as opposed to running shoes and they were on the heavy side. They were some sweet-ass Stella McCartney for Adidas all silver leather sneakers (like sneakers you’d wear on a lunar vacation), and they are the coolest shoes ever. So cool, in fact, that Trail Blazers Strength and Conditioning Coach Bobby Medina complimented me on my crazy shoes. And he, like, deals with NBA players on a daily basis who have, you know, shoe contrants and shoes custom designed for them. Anyway… I went to the Adidas warehouse sale (where I got the Stella’s earlier this year) yesterday with the objective of finding some Microbounce+ running shoes, which are the running equivalent of my other shoes. I have really high arches and a high instep, which means that I need a lot of cushion in my heel and arch, otherwise I get symptons similar to plantar fasciatis–which is really painful. It’s actually really tough to find sneakers that have the appropriate amount of support–in the right places–for my messed up feet. I found exactly the shoes I was looking for–in the color I wanted. Interestingly, the only pair they seemed to have was in my size and happened to be in an 8.5 box, rather than a 7.5 box. So, it’s like they were waiting for me. I wore them to run/walk yesterday, and they were so much better, since they were much lighter, but still had all the cushioning of my lunar sneakers. But… Yesterday evening I was dragging. My legs and knees were so tired. Josh informed me that this is the effect of new shoes. They sort of throw you off balance (or, more accurately, correct the off-balanceness of older shoes) and they tend to make you a bit achy as you adjust to the new shoes. So, I’m going to do one or two more runs in my new shoes before I switch to the more intense run. We’ll see how that goes. I just don’t want to set myself up for failure…

In related news, here’s my week two playlist:

1. Chimayo by Will Kimbrough
2. Gold Digger by Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
3. My Favorite Game by The Cardigans
4. Hard to Handle by Otis Redding
5. Ready to Run by The Dixie Chicks
6. Sexyback by Justin Timberlake (don’t laugh–the CD was a promo copy from a radio station, okay)
7. The Rising by Bruce Springsteen (this video link isn’t the version on my playlist, but that particular video makes me a bit teary)

Yes, my musical taste is hard to categorize…

Also, soon I’m going to write about the recent Presidential election, now that I’ve finally processed the reality that our guy actually won.

~Sarah