I have a buddy who works for REI. His job, essentially, is to teach people how to hike, backpack and camp. He doesn't make a lot of money, but he's the most laid back, unstressed out guy I know. Yeah, I'm jealous of that. I'd take that job in a heart beat - if I didn't have a mortgage payment, anyway.

I take what I can get, though. I got out to the Gorge in May for two pretty fantastic trail runs and an awesome hike up Dog Mountain. I also got to run some trails down in Bend with some friends. Oregon's landscapes are easy to love. Running doesn't even feel like work when you're distracted by views.

I had a pretty good month of running: 86 miles, 13600 feet of climbing. Longest run was a bit over 12 miles. I got 16 Strava PRs, which is more than I had gotten all year!

I've been trucking up those hills in Marquam Park, forcing myself to go hard on the ups. I'm making sure my weekend long runs include some pretty substantial ascents. I really need to work on getting to some technical trails.

I'm still doing two hours of weight lifting a week. That's also been going really well - my strength seems to keep creeping up. I'm doing a cut back week on the lifting the week before my running cut back. That felt pretty good. I'm going to keep that in the plan.

I PR'd on 5 rep deadlifts at 137 kgs (302 lbs) and on 5 rep strict overhead presses at 48 kgs (106 lbs). Technically I also PR'd on weighted pull ups with 7 reps at 25 lbs, but those didn't feel hard so that won't hold up.

The combination of high intensity lifting with high volume running still seems to be working well. Of course, I haven't really ramped my running volume up all that much yet, but so far, so good. I do have to be careful to walk that line between working hard and hurting myself. No injuries (knocks on head)!

Nutrition hasn't been great. I've had a bit of a garbage pail diet this past month with more fast food than I ever eat. I need to reign some of that in so that I can eat more kale... No, I'm kidding, fuck kale. Spinach, yes. Arugula, yes. Kale... Toss it in the dumpster where I'm sure it grew!

June will bring more miles, more elevation and hopefully more (small) GAINZ!!! My longest run will be 18 miles before I have a cutback week. I should clear a hundred miles pretty easily.

No races planned for the month, but I may sign up for something last minute if I get a wild hair. (I did sign up for UnderArmour's trail marathon at Mt Bachelor, but that's not until July.)

Stay tough and salty!