Laurelhurst Park - Portland, OR

Laurelhurst, located in Southeast Portland is an incredible green oasis in the middle of Portland's eastside. Within its borders are a pond, horseshoe pits, picnic tables, an off-leash dog area, and a couple of mostly paved trails that are ideal for running.The park is great as a quick and easy escape when running through neighborhoods gets boring. There is a larger paved trail that runs around the entire perimeter of the park. A full loop is about .85 miles.

The loop is ideal for interval running or for just pounding out a few miles after work. Because of its location, its easy to link Laurelhurst with Mt. Tabor, allowing for a longer, more scenic run.
Crowd wise, the park is never completely empty, so be prepared to run around couples, dogs, kids and other runners. As with many city parks, Laurelhurst can get a bit sketchy at night and there are a couple of dark spots that make running alone more of a dicey adventure. However, the park is lit with street lamps, and I've run there at night, and seen other runners doing the same, without any problems. There are numerous entrances around the park, with plenty of parking if you choose to drive up there.

Distance: the paved loop around the park is .85 miles long.

Directions: From downtown Portland, you can take either Burnside St. or Madison/Hawthorne Blvd. For the Burnside route, starting from SW Taylor St and SW Naito Parkway, take Taylor St. west to SW 4th St and take a right. Continue on this until you hit Burnside St and take a right (east). Cross the Burnside Bridge (check out the views!) and continue east. As you come to the intersection of Sandy Blvd and Burnside make sure that you are in the far right lane, otherwise you will be forced onto Sandy (Sandy is the bane of navigating in Portland). Turn right on SE 32nd Ave and then your first left on SE Ankeny St., which will run directly into the park.

For the Madison/Hawthorne route, starting from SW Taylor St. and SW Naito Parkway, head west on Taylor and take a left on SW 3rd St. and then a left onto SW Madison St. This road will take you across the Hawthorne Bridge and will turn into SE Hawthorne Blvd. Take Hawthorne for about 2.5 miles and then take a left on SE 39th St. Take this for about a mile and then take a left at SE Stark St., and then a right onto SE Oak St. The park will be in front of you, and you can park on this road.


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Discovery Park - Seattle, WA

I've been frequenting the Emerald City a lot lately and when not downing liters of coffee to deal with the rain, have been exploring numerous running venues. One of my favorites is Discovery Park, located in the northwest corner of the Queen Ann Peninsula.

The park is built around an old military installation, which means lots of old derelict buildings. Some are eyesores, but some are fairly interesting to look at - old estates for the upper officer ranks. The park is also surrounded by older homes, and some of the trails put you out into the neighborhoods around the park, providing another site seeing venue as most of the homes are pretty cool to look at

Most of the park sits on top of a bluff overlooking the Puget Sound making for some fantastic views. The best feature about the park is the variety of trails. You can run through old growth forests, through coastal grasslands and even along the beach. The views of Puget Sound are absolutely stunning. The only thing to watch out for is that the park is often crowded during the weekends and full of kids, dogs and families. It seems that most of the family oriented use of the park is focused on the beach and on the paved trails, leaving a lot of the running trails to the runners.

The Loop Trail is the main trail through the park; a mix of dirt and concrete that runs along the bluff and into the forested parts of the park. This trail is about 3 miles in length, with various other trails branching off of it. It's worth doing a couple of times to take in all of the views. Trail maps of the park are not very informative. There is a decent one available here (in PDF format).

Directions: the park is located in the northwest corner of the Queen Anne Peninsula, almost directly to the south of the Ballard area (on the other side of the canal), so directions will change depending on where you are coming from. Below is a Google Map of the location. The physical address of the park is: 3801 W Government Way, Seattle, WA 98119.

Distance: anywhere from 1 to 11 miles.


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Tryon Creek State Park

Tryon Creek is an Oregon State Park, located within the city limits of Portland in the Southwest Hills, about 9 miles from downtown Portland. Very similar in topography to Forest Park, Tryon has a variety of trails that loop through a large valley with multiple streams. It is worth checking out and becoming familiar with, as it presents a great alternative to Forest Park when the weekend traffic there gets to be too much.

By far the best feature of the park is the variety of routes that can be taken through it. Two hour runs are possible, as well as quick 30 minute out and backs. As a whole the park is incredibly hilly, so be prepared for runs that are a bit harder. Another thing to watch out for is the mud. The park lacks decent drainage in a lot of spots, so be prepared to splash through some sections. If you do get a little dirty and don't want to hop right back into the car, the Lewis and Clark Law School borders the northern end of the park, and has shower rooms that are usually open during the day. They are located in the Gantenbein student center (campus map here).

My only complaint with the park, and this is rather easily rectified, is that it is confusing to learn how to navigate through it. Initially, trails with seem to end and begin at random, and will pop you out into some random neighborhoods. However, once you run through it a couple of times, or accompany someone who knows the park, you'll find that it begins to make sense.

Directions: From downtown Portland, take I-5 South and take exit 297 for Terwilliger Blvd. Bear right off of the exit onto Barbur Blvd and take the first right onto Terwilliger Blvd. heading South. Continue on Terwilliger Blvd until you hit the traffic circle. Take the second exit off of the circle (the Law School is the first exit) and continue down Terwilliger for about another mile. The parking lot for the park is on the right.

Website with trail maps: http://www.tryonfriends.org/

Below are trail maps of the Upper, Middle and Lower sections of the park.




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Core Support

The NY Times has a good article in their Play Magazine section about the prevalance of back injuries among high torque/high impact athlete groups. The article touches on various causes behind back problems among athletes, gives a glimpse into young, elite level tennis players and what their backs look like (do not let your children get involved in elite level tennis. Ouch). The article also provides three core strenghtening exercises to help build a solid back support system:

SUPPORT THAT LAZY SPINE: Entire books have been devoted to workout routines for the back. But you can save yourself some trouble by focusing on these three exercises, which work most of the large muscles in the body’s core. Do them four times a week, breathing slowly and steadily throughout.

CURL UP

Lie on your back with your knees bent. Slide your hands under your lower back to provide support; you don’t want your spine flat against the floor. Straighten one leg. Then, while keeping your neck and lower spine straight and unmoving, lift your shoulders and chest off the floor. Hold the position for about eight seconds. Repeat 10 times, then switch legs and do another 10.

SIDE BRIDGE

Lie on your side, with your legs bent at the knee and your upper hand across your chest. Bend your lower arm so that your elbow is pointing away from your chest. Slowly raise your shoulders, keeping your spine straight, and hold for 8 to 10 seconds. Repeat on the other side. After a few weeks, do the exercise with your legs straight.

BIRD DOG

Start on all fours, then slowly lift your right arm and left leg until each is parallel to the ground. Hold for eight seconds. Repeat with the opposite arm and leg. Do 10 reps on each side. Keep your spine straight, hips level and abdominal muscles slightly contracted. And don’t forget to breathe.

Med School Stairs

Portland is a great city for running; a lot of urban parks, a lot of trails and a lot of ways to work in both pavement and trail running in the same outing. The city also has a variety of great urban features that can add immensley to a good workout.

For a more intense leg builder I rank Terwilliger Boulevard and the Medical School Stairs (as I call them) at the top of my list. Terwilliger winds from downtown all the way to Tryon State Park, and along the way passes some great scenery. A paved path parallels most of the road, which is itself rather hilly. About 2 miles from downtown (starting at SW Washington and Broadway to 6th Ave to Terwilliger), or about 4 miles (starting from Tryon Creek and Boones Ferry Rd) lay the Med School Stairs. They start on Terwilliger and descend up to what I thinki is the Veteran's Hospital. I am not sure how many stairs there are, but its enough to get legs burning. It is the closest I've come to a stadium run in Portland.

Mapping Runs

A friend sent me a link to this cool website from USA Track & Field. The site provides a tool which allows you to map your runs. Basically, you set way points on a Google Map image, and the program calculates mileage, and lets you designate start/finish points and even where water breaks are. They system also lets you save your map and search others maps. Great for traveling. From the homepage, the feature is under "America's Running Routes" (look for the blue United States map).

Map your runs!

Council Crest Climb

Geographically, Portland would seem to be great city for watching the 4th of July fireworks, which are launched from downtown, near the Willamette River. Because of the city's numerous hills, quality viewing points abound. The big problem is that the trees in the Northwest are ridiculously tall, resulting in little actual firework watching. We found this out when we tried to go to Council Crest Park, where we joined about 200 other eager spectators. Everyone was sitting, eating and drinking, waiting for the show to start. And when it did start, everyone rose to their feet, rushed to the edge of the park....and realized that the trees where in the way. From that point, it was literally a mad dash back to the cars to head back down the hill in an attempt to find a better spot; 200 people trying to make their way down the narrow and windy hills of West Portland. Probably drunk. Good times.

But, as the result of the madness, I found a great quick ride up to the park. Supposedly Council Crest Park is the highest point in Portland, and the ride up to it is therefore pretty short and steep. The start (in downtown Portland) is about 50ft. above sea level while the ride's highest point is 1,073ft. about sea level, reached in less then 4 miles of climbing. The ride is goreous; some amazing views of the city and of the Cascads, and the neighborhoods you ride through have some amazing houses. Aesthetically, it's one of my favorite rides in the Portland area.

I've used the ride as a quick workout before heading home after work or up to school for the day and as a warm up for longer rides, which are easily accessible from the area. Traffic is usually fairly moderate, and most people are aware that cyclists frequent the area. The somewhat sketchy part of the ride is through downtown, which is where I usually start. Generally the roads are wide enough to not be too much of a problem, but there is definitely some high traffic urban biking required.

Directions: I always start in downtown, near the Hawthorne Bridge, on the Tom McCall Waterfront Park. From there, head west on Taylor (toward the hills), cross over 405 and then take a left on SW 15th Ave (PGE Park should be right in front of you), and then a right on SW Salmon St. Salmon Street climbs fairly steeply up a short hill (this is a narrow road, be careful here) before it deadends at SW King Ave. Take a right and then an immediate left onto SW Park Place, west 2 blocks and then a left onto SW Vista Ave. You are going to stay on Vista as it runs through an "S" curve and then climbs up a relatively steep hill. Near the top of this straight stretch you will come to a light (at Spring Street and Vista); continue straight where Vista will veer slightly right up another relatively steep hill (be careful staying on Vista at this point, there is a lot of traffic). Remain on Vista until you eventually wind to a stop sign (the interesction of Vista and SW Broadway Drive). Take a right at the stop sign, and then an immediate left onto SW Greenway Avenue (this is a sketchy intersection, lots of traffic, so be careful). SW Greenway will basically take you the rest of the way up to the park (it turns into SW Council Crest Drive right before the summit).

Wooo!! Lots of directions, but you only need to do it once or twice to get pretty comfortable with it.


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