Chocolate Festival 2018

I had been on the fence about whether or not to run the 10k this year, but in the end I decided that it would be beneficial for me to run it as a tempo run, since I haven't had much speedwork lately.  I knew that it would absolutely not be a smart idea for me to all-out race it, and thankfully I was able to keep my competitive side in check and keep myself to tempo effort rather than race effort.  I ended up coming in 2nd place female. 

Pre-race chat with my former running buddy Jim and the female winner of the day.

and we're off!

My finish.  Coby and the girls got there just in time to snap this pic!

After a quick post-race shower, we headed back downtown for the Chocolate Festival.  It was fun to do it with the kids.  I think our favorite was the chocolate-covered bacon.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect, and once we had spent all our chocolate tickets, we headed out to the barn for a picnic lunch and time spent with Pony.  

Ready to eat some chocolate!

Pony was loving all the attention!

It was too nice out not to take some photos!

Gray Kitty photobombed us, and Pony was not very cooperative about joining us...because she just wanted to devour grass.  

Happy Easter!

I ran six days instead of 5 this week...because today was supposed to be a day off but I can't properly celebrate a holiday without a run!  (or that is the excuse I am using, anyway)

miles this week:

M : 6.4 (road/trail)

T :  6.2

R : 6 (road/trail)

F : 4.4 / 2.5

Sa : 7

Su : 4.5

total miles : 37.3

Monday's and Thursday's runs were with the dogs I was taking care of, as was Friday's 2.5 miler.  Friday's was my last run with them.  I had a good time house/dog sitting for a week, and even though that bed was possibly the most comfortable one I have ever slept in, it felt good to get back to my own bed on Friday night.  The weather was sunny and gorgeous yesterday and today, but not nearly as warm out as it looked.  Only about 46 degrees for my runs both days, and really strong wind on Saturday.  

It is my goal to take it easy on training mileage for the next month or so, and not set any kind of minimum miles for myself, because I have a race every weekend for the next FOUR WEEKENDS!  What was I thinking?! (other than that I am addicted to racing...) Hopefully I will have successful races and stay injury free.  

Since faculty meeting was cancelled on Wednesday, and I had already planned not to run, I took advantage of finally having some free time on a nice-weather day and took Franka out to the barn to visit Pony.  She has been asking me to take her for awhile not and I just hadn't been able to make it happen.  

We were talking about horses as I was getting ready to leave school and 

she said  : "Some horses are white, some are brown, some are black, and some are pink."

I said : "There's no such thing as pink horses!"

she said : "I used to have a pink horse, but a tiger ate it."

She has been killing off a lot of things with tigers lately...

Blue Lagoon

It's nice to have friends who grew up in the area and know about all the secret, awesome, places to go take pictures.  I never would have found this place on my own.  It's only about 15 minutes away, but I had never even heard about it until a few days ago.

Usually I am in charge of my photo adventures; I am the one who decides when and where.  But this time, I was along for the ride.  I didn't have much of a clue where we were going or how long it would take to get there.

This isn't actually the cave we went into, but I didn't happen to take a picture of the other one. 

The one we actually went into was a lot darker...

Looking back towards the entrance of the cave we went into.

Good thing we brought a flashlight...it was pretty dark in the cave.  

Then we came out somewhere and had this view.

Looking down over the cliff, there was this view.

Next time I will have to bring my zoom lens so I can also capture the birds flying overhead.  Yesterday, I decided against carrying both cameras since I wasn't sure how far I would be walking!

King of the Rock. 

(or of the Cliff?)

I suppose I should have stood up and been Queen of the Rock. 

Maybe next time.

Sunglasses fun...I love the color in the photo.

Awesome reflection in these glasses, but I can't take credit of this photo. 

Michael took a turn with my camera.

I said yes!

Just kidding!  A bunch of kids showed up, and one of them went through the caves and somehow ended up down there, and wrote this.  Those of us up above on the cliff had fun calling out instructions.  Like telling him to turn a lower case r into the R.  And making fun of how small the o was compared to the other letters... Then they called up some girl and she was supposed to come see the message.  Sadly, we left before witnessing the acceptance or denial. 

We passed by the barn on the way back from Blue Lagoon, so of course I needed to stop and visit Pony.  She's too dirty for pictures, and I didn't feel like inducing an allergy attack, so I'll brush her another day...once the zyrtec has some more time to build up in my system.

Jack Black was hanging around being photogenic though, apparently he likes high fives.

A long overdue long run

Happily, I got back to a normal running routine this week, and ran 5 times.  I didn't impose a 6 mile minimum on myself though, I went back to my 4.5 mile minimum for now.

Runs this week : 

M : 5 

T : 5 

W :  4.5 

(sprint, avg 6:42 pace)

R : 4.6

Sa : 12.2

(jog, avg 8:29 pace)

total : 31.4

I was really happy with Wednesday's sprint!  Wednesday is faculty meeting day, so it often turns into a day off because of how late I get home.  However, I really wanted to save my days off for later in the week, and I got home with enough time for a quick run before sunset, so I decided to go for an overdue sprint run.  I'm glad I made that decision, I have a race next Saturday and I'm sure it will be helpful for my body to have run something close to race pace beforehand.  

I was even more overdue for the long run than I was for the sprint.  I am running a 10 mile race next Saturday, and haven't really done a long run since my last half marathon in November.  I decided to run an out and back to the top of Muddy Creek Mountain.  It is the perfect place to train for the Blue Ridge Half Marathon.  Check out that elevation profile... a totaled 1,344 ft of elevation gain.  

I crashed pretty hard after this run, but I had anticipated that.  I really need to start doing more long runs so that my body can get used to them.  

In other news, I finally found something to keep my hands warm during winter runs!  I bought ski mittens.  Waterproof and windproof, well insulated, fleecy inside.  I tried them out for the first time on my long run.  It was hard to decided what to wear, because it was in the high 30s when I started, and was supposed to get into the 50s.  (it was probably in the mid 40s when I finished).   I have had such bad luck lately, with my fingers getting painfully frozen no matter what the temperature.  My fingers get cold and numb even in 50 degree weather.  I knew my new mittens would probably be too warm for this run, but I was afraid none of my other gloves would be warm enough.  Lately my fingers have started hurting in the first 2-3 miles of my run, and I knew there was no way I would survive 12 miles if that happened, so I decided to err on the side of being too warm.  Hot, sweaty hands were a very new feeling.  I ended up alternating wearing the mittens and carrying them.  They came in handy when 2 dogs rushed at me on the top of the mountain, it was nice to have something to swat them with when they were snapping at my legs.  

The weather this weekend was awesome. High 50s yesterday, and up to 70 today!  I happily went to visit Pony both days this weekend.  Today I enjoyed lying on a blanket and basking in the warm sunshine while she was grazing.  Yesterday, she was so excited to see me, she started running in from the far end of the field before I even got out of my car.  Today, she was already at the gate when I pulled in.  

an unfortunately lazy week

...because I have been coughing up a lung.

I took Monday off because there was no running water and I didn't want to run if I couldn't shower.  Tuesday I ran 6.1 miles and enjoyed a luxurious shower after 72 hours of filth.  I know it's a first world problem, but I hope I never have to go that long without washing my hair again.  Clearly I will not be going on any camping trips anytime soon.  Or possibly ever.  I ended up taking off the rest of the week because my cough got too bad to ignore.  I was coughing so hard it was making me gag.  Not much fun.  Really hard to sleep at night with that kind of a cough.  Lucky me I had a previously-scheduled doctor's appt on Thursday.  The doctor recommended Delsym cough syrup, so that's what I went with.  It seemed to make me cough even more violently at first, but once that wore off I coughed less, so I guess it worked somehow.  I decided that running in freezing air was probably not the best idea for my lungs while I have this cough, so I haven't run since Tuesday.  Last night I finally slept through the night without being disturbed by coughing fits, which was really nice.  I was so tempted to run today, but decided to give it one more day.  I will probably run tomorrow, before I go completely stir-crazy.

I was on the fence about the Blacksburg 10 miler for this year, but I found a friend to go with me, so I signed up a few days ago.  I am looking forward to it, I miss racing!  I just hope I am able to get some training in during the next 2 weeks.

I didn't get to run today, but at least I was able to venture out for a bit of fresh air.  

what a burr-filled mess!

hello there!

Photography Class 9-29-14

I teach an after-school photography class on Mondays.  I love sharing my joy of photography with my students, and teaching them how to use all the settings on their cameras so that they can take cool photos too.  Today was our third class, and I took them out to the barn to take pictures of the animals and beautiful scenery out there.  They thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to seeing their photos at the next class!

Here are some of the photos I got today.

And just for fun, here are some of the awesome photos I took during class last week.  Our new sandbox had just been completed 2 days earlier, so it's still new and exciting for everyone!  There were two younger students playing in the sandbox, and they were very willing and cheerful models for my class.

Photography Lately

Looking forward to two photo-taking opportunities this weekend!  Saturday mid-day I will be taking pictures of a cheer-leading team of 5/6 y/o kids led by a friend.  Later Saturday, or possibly Sunday, I will hopefully be taking some family photos for a friend.  I'm looking forward to both, as they will both be good experiences and hopefully will result in some fabulous photos!

My camera came with a short little wire tripod that I've barely used.  I was at the barn a few weeks ago and it occurred to me that I could set the tripod up in the grass, turn on the self-timer, and take pictures of myself with my horse.  I've been wanting some nice photos with her, and have no desire to pay someone to take them for me.  So I set up the tripod and took some pictures.  It was so much fun, I did it again the next day.  And the next.  The second day, I discovered that I could change the self timer from 2 shots at a time, all the way up to 10 shots at a time.  The 10 shot feature was great, because it allowed enough time for movement between the 1st and 10th shots, so I could get more variety.  Here are some of the best shots I got.  I'm usually against cropping my photos, but I did crop the ones I took in these photo-shoots, because it is a lot harder to set up the perfect image when you are taking photos of yourself!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

This is one of my favorites...one of my friends photo-shopped the power lines out of the sky for me!

It came out so well, I ordered it on a canvas to hang on the wall in my apt.

Here are a few other photographs I took recently that I really like.