Parks and Wrecked Legs

We mixed a painful cocktail of activities yesterday. A P90X Plyometrics workout video + lots of walking to and through parks = PAIN. Jeff and I are now walking around like Frankensteins. I don’t know if I’ve experienced soreness like this. All I want is a hot tub (I’m jealous of you right now, Nena and Court).

First, on the P90X thing – we were delighted to recently get the DVD set as a gift. The holidays and the move have taken their toll and we need some kicking back into shape. Holy moly, does P90X do some kicking. If you’re not familiar with the program, there are 12 or so DVDs that focus on a particular part of the body or a particular type of exercise. For instance, Day #1 was chest and back, Day #2 was plyometrics, Day #3 (today for me) is arms and shoulders, and so on. The whole “muscle confusion” variety thing. Anyway, we’re liking it and hoping we can stick to it – for me, at least keep it in my mix of physical activity (or lack thereof, lately).

Cooper and me in Forest Park

On to a more fun topic – parks! I love parks. Who doesn’t, really? Portland has tons of parks. Forest Park, which is a quick walk from our place, is one of the largest city forests in the whole country. There are 70 miles of trails for walking, running, and biking. We decided to take a little hike with Cooper, who kept a constant eye on the stream that ran along our entire path. It was beautiful – and we thanked our lucky stars to have weather that made it feel like we were walking in spring rather than mid-February. There were waterfalls, little hills, wooden bridges, mossy tress – and that was just the mile or so we explored. We would’ve gone farther but we realized our freshly-tortured legs probably weren’t going to hold up much longer. But we will definitely be back soon.

To put the cherry on top of Cooper’s fun excursion, we swung by Wallace Park, which has a fenced-in area for dogs. This park is a quick two blocks from home – super handy. What’s good, and sort of bad, is Cooper is finally becoming a semi-social dog with other pups. Walking in Chicago, he’d pull away from dogs when we passed them on the sidewalk. In Indianapolis, he’d merely ignore them. In Portland, he swings around to give them a doggy hello. I don’t know what’s going on, but I suppose it’s good for him…

Overall, it was a great day of exploring – which included trying three (yes, three) new restaurants: St. Honoré Boulangerie, Pepino’s, and North 45 Pub. Just one more reason to keep the P90X coming…