July 3 Sunset + Fireworks

This was hands-down the most long-lasting sunset I have ever seen.  There was a splash of color low on the horizon when I arrived at the Riverside party around 6 PM, and there was still streaks of color after 9:30 PM.  Somewhere in the middle, for over an hour, it was breathtakingly gorgeous. All of the photos in this post were taken on my phone, an LG G4.  It takes impressively good photos!

Fiery water!

The dock lit up by fireworks from the left.

Fireworks on the horizon.

July 2 Sunset + Fireworks

Sunset beyond the gazebo.

Down by the bay, playing with the tripod.

I love the milky swirliness of the water at slow shutter speeds.

Sunset over the water. 

Playing around with the tripod while waiting for the fireworks. 

One of my ghost selves is staring at the other...

Fireworks!

A giant hole in the sky!

Playing with my lensbaby spark.  

This is what the fireworks looked like when I didn't try to focus it.  

It was cool to watch the fireworks through the lens like this. 

a week in RI

This week : 

M : run 2.5 / 7:44/ 223 ft

T : group bike intervals 23.7 / 18.5 mph / 689 ft

W : run w/Diane 3.2 / 11:08 / 63 ft

(warm up + 4x400 (1:37-1:44) with 400 walk/jog recovery)

R : group bike hill circuit 26.7 / 18.6 mph / 1263 ft

total run miles : 5.8

total bike miles : 50.5

I spent 11 + hrs in the car on Monday driving from WV to RI.  Had dinner upon arrival, and then thought it would be ok to run within an hour or so of eating.  I was wrong.  Hence the ridiculously short run.  

Met up with the Ten Speed Spokes crew on Tuesday for the Ocean Drive interval ride.  Tried this ride last year, and got dropped every time.  This year, instead of trying to join in the middle of the ride, I started on time with the group.  We did the first lap at a steady pace as people joined us, then the second lap picked up the pace along the drive, but kept it at a pace that everyone could hold on to.  The third lap a chaser group held back, then overtook the rest of us somewhere along the drive, causing some of us to also speed up and try to hold on.  I chased the faster group til I knew it was a lost cause, then held up until the people behind me caught up.  I called it a day after that loop, because my back was starting to bother me.  

My back was pretty sore on Wednesday, but I decided to run with my sister anyway.  We did a 1+ mile warm-up around the fields, and then did the 4x400 on the track.  I let her set the pace.  About halfway through the 3rd 400 sprint, my back started spasming.  It was a weird experience.  I've had back spasms before, but never during a run!  If they had been much stronger I probably would have fallen on my face.  I kept running however.  I decided if they got too bad, I would drop out, but I did end up doing all 4 of the 400s.  I skipped the cooldown jog in favor of walking 2 laps though.  

At some point, I finally located the source of the back problem as a really really tight muscle or 5 in my hip.  Since my foam roller was back home in WV, I ended up using some hard balls of yarn to try to roll it out.  

Thursday I met the TSS crew again for their hill circuit ride.  I missed out on this ride last summer when I was in town, so I really wanted to do it this year even though my back was telling me I should probably skip it.  I made it through 2 of the 10+ mile figure eights, then called it a day because my back felt like it was breaking in half.  It was slowing me down and I didn't want to hold up the group.  Or break my back.  

Was going to try a jog on Sunday but I napped for 2 hours instead of 1 and ran out of time so...more time off. 

Bike Week + going out with a bang

Lots of bike miles this week!  I got 100 miles for the first time since early August.  Having a week off from school made it much easier to get the miles in, and the weather was cooperative as well.  As of yesterday morning, I had about 93 miles.  I thought about going for a run since I hadn't done that at all this week, but I was so close to 100 miles, I had to bike again.  Plus it was warm enough to bike in shorts!  I made plans with a friend to go for a 40-ish mile ride right after lunch.  The ride started out well enough.  We were cruising along at a good pace after racing down a long hill.  We were talking, and I was looking at him instead of at the road.  It was a freshly paved road, which means the edge of the pavement drops sharply several inches into the weeds.  My front tire slipped off the road.  Instead of doing the smart thing and laying over into the weeds, I tried to save it and swerve back onto the pavement.  It did not work out well for me.  Thankfully there were no broken bones and nothing needed stitches.  I do have a good bit of road rash though.  And the worst part is that one of my front teeth seems to have taken the hardest hit.  It got bent back a little bit.  I was able to push it back into place, but it was not a pleasant feeling, and it is now a bit loose.  I can't bite at all, and sometimes when I am talking my bottom teeth hit it, which is very unpleasant.  Small town life means I have already been put in touch with a dentist who is ready to help me out if I need it.  Only time will tell if my tooth will recover on its own or if I will need a root canal, or a new tooth.  For now all I can do is wait and hope for the best.  

As far as crashes go, I could not have been any luckier.  I wasn't alone and I wasn't seriously injured.  And, even better, minutes after I crashed, Merrick drove by in the bike shop van with his family, so they were able to take me and my bike back to their house and help me clean up the wound on my knee and some of the road rash.  It was nice not to have to bike up the three mile hill to home after that crash!   

 

Bike Rides This Week

T : 22.3 miles / 16.9 mph / 1148 ft (Portsmouth, RI)

W : 27 miles / 17.6 mph / 843 ft (Newport, RI w/Cecilia & Scott)

R : 43.6 miles / 15.3 mph / 33327 ft (Aquidneck Island, RI, TSS Thanksgiving Hill Fest)

Sa : 7 miles / 20.1 mph / 423 ft (Lewisburg, WV w/Dan)

total bike miles : 100.1

Thursday's ride with Ten Speed Spokes was my longest ride since late July, and my first ride over 30 miles on the Super Six.  It was a tough hill ride, and I forgot my inhaler, which didn't make the hills any easier, but I had a great ride.  It was fun to ride with a group for once.  

Photos from Tuesday's ride

My face post-crash.

I do not understand how I hit hard enough to knock a tooth out of place, 

but my face doesn't look any worse than this.  

My chin is bruised, but doesn't even have a mark on it!

Sunset over Narragansett Bay 11/25/2015

It's hard to beat a sunset over the water!  Lucky to be able to catch them on the East coast.

roaming through my childhood backyard

It wouldn't do to travel and not go on at least one photo-adventure!  I'm only in RI for a few days, and yesterday I spent the day feeling too cold to get myself out the door to wander around taking photos.  Luckily today was a bit warmer, and I didn't go outside at all before my adventure, so I couldn't be frightened off of it by any coolness in the air.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day for photos.

My friend and I used to have picnics under this railroad bridge.

I wanted to go down under it today, but the path was too overgrown to navigate with my cameras.

There were a few teepees in random places in the woods today.  

I've never seen them before.

The colorful leaves are already gone in WV, but I was glad to find some here in RI!

Of course I had to put my tripod to use and have some fun!

Happy 4th of July!

Carnegie Abbey fireworks

Portsmouth, RI

this one reminds me of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

most photos taken with a 4 sec exposure, f25, ISO 800 with my Rebel T5i