Sunday afternoon stroll on the River Trail

These photos are from a week ago, but I just realized I never got around to posting them.  Holly and I wanted to go on a photo adventure last weekend, but she wasn't free til late Sunday afternoon, and she had Harper with her, so we decided to just try a walk on the river trail.  We made it about a half a mile before Harper went from cheerful to unhappy in the stroller, and once Holly had to carry Harper she couldn't take many pictures so we turned around.  But I got a few photos out of the trip!

peek-a-boo!

A great week of 6+ mile runs...and then our water got shut off

I was really proud of myself for sticking to my 6 mile minimum all week!  I hope that I am able to make this a habit.  I know that there will be days when I just don't have time for 6, and I need to be able to run shorter on those days rather than not run at all, but I don't want to skimp on the runs without a valid time constraint.  Saturday's run was rough, a friend and I went to the Greenbrier to run, thinking it would be easy.  There is a road running through the property that is almost 3 miles one way, gently rolling.  We figured since it was flat compared to Lewisburg, it would be easy.  We ended up really struggling to maintain a decent pace.  I don't know if it was the wind (which was brutal at times) or the fact that we were each worn out from previous workouts, or if we just hadn't fueled properly, but we did so bad compared to what we expected, we now need to go do it again and redeem ourselves.

I took Sunday off because my body was clearly tired and begging me to take a break. I was thinking about trying that run again today, but then this happened.  No one is supposed to have running water right now, and we don't really know when we will get it back.  My water just happens to still be running, but it is only a matter of time before the pipes are empty, so I can't rely on it for anything like the shower I desperate need.  Look like I will be taking a couple of days off, because if I need a shower without running, I will definitely need a shower after running.  Maybe this water-enforced time off will let the bruise on top of my foot finally heal... There was a wrinkle in the tongue of my shoe during one run 2 weeks ago, and I am having a lot of trouble getting the bruise to heal!  I get these bruises every now and then, they are super annoying!

Jan 19-25

M : 6.6

T :  6.8

R : 6.2

F : 6

Sa : 6.3 w/DD

total : 31.9 miles

On Wednesday, it was 50+ degrees and I needed a day off from running, so I went out to the barn to visit Pony and play with my camera. 

On Friday night, I needed something to do with my hand while I watched Netflix, so I finally got around to snazzing up the camera strap on my second camera.  I'd been meaning to get to it for awhile, and I'm glad I finally did!  Now both of my cameras have pretty straps!

The perfect use for some of my ribbon.  I still have a LOT of ribbon, I'm going to need to come up with some more projects to use it up.  It's been sitting in a drawer for years...

Oh, and schools are closed because of the whole water-crisis thing...so I find myself with a lot of time on my hands today. Suddenly everything I want to do involves a need for water...

One-of-a-Kind Photography Adventure

Yesterday was a long, exciting day!  I ran the Beckley 1/2 in the morning, then had to immediately rush home, get cleaned up, get some food in my belly, and then head back out for a 6 hour photography adventure.

Step 1 of the photography adventure was photographing a farm in VA, 

about 30 minutes from Lewisburg.  

Step 2 of the adventure started when this arrived:

We climbed aboard (they put me in the front so I could take pictures), and flew towards Morgantown.

I-64 and the Greenbrier

Summersville Lake

Milan Puskar Stadium

Part of my assignment for the day was to take aerial shots of a baseball field that is under construction not too far from WVU.  Once were were done circling the construction, we headed to the airport, where we were met by a police escort which sped us through traffic and red lights straight to the football stadium.  We watched the first half of the game, then headed back to the airport and our helicopter. 

Step 3 of the adventure was photographing the absolutely gorgeous fall foliage that we flew over on the way back home. 

Highland Scenic Highway

I've been absolutely spoiled on the view of fall foliage from above.  

It will never be the same from the ground...

A very exhausted me arrived home around 7:15 PM from this adventure.  I started sorting through the 700+ photographs, but didn't make it very far before calling it quits and crawling into bed for some much needed and hard-earned sleep.  

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.

Cycling Explorations

Since I need to take time off from running, and I can't stand to not exercise regularly, I have had to embrace this whole cycling thing.  It was frustrating at first, because I didn't have the right muscle to ride with the same intensity that I was used to putting into my runs.  But after a few weeks, I have gotten much stronger, and am able to get a satisfying workout out of a bike ride.  It can still be hard to find the time for bike rides of a decent length, but I seem to be finding it.  I thought I was busy when I was running 30-45 miles a day, and now I find myself biking an hour or two, often longer on weekends.  Somehow it seems to fit in.  And on the days when it doesn't, I ride hard for 30 minutes or so.

My favorite part about cycling is that it takes me places my runs don't.  I am seeing parts of the area that I have never seen before, and since spring time has finally arrived in the Greenbrier Valley, the scenery is gorgeous, and often breathtaking.  The one-lane roads through farmland have very little traffic, but lots of cows and beautiful green fields.

I don't like stopping in the middle of a workout, so I don't have pictures of any of the scenery, except for today.  Today, the road I took turned unexpectedly into a dirt/gravel road.  Having already been chased by two different pairs of dogs, I really didn't want to turn around and backtrack.  So I took my chances that the map was correct and that the road would in fact continue to the next road I planned to take, and I stuck with it.  Parts of the road were decent, parts of it were very rutted and rocky and muddy.  But thankfully, my tires handled it beautifully.  I was rather angry about the state of the road, and desperately hoping I wouldn't end up lost, but as I looked around, it was so peaceful.  And every now and then I would get a glimpse of a breathtaking view as I wound my way up and down a mountain.  I had to break my no-stopping rule to snap a few pictures.

This was a part where the gravel road was relatively smooth.  

I love green trees and blue sky, such perfect weather!

Almost Heaven, West Virginia. 

What a view.

Eventually, the dirt road came to a T with a paved road.  With no street signs.  So I had to guess...up hill or down hill.  It wasn't how I remembered it looking on the map, but it turns out I hadn't looked closely enough at the map.  I knew that the place I was headed was most likely downhill, since it's near the river, so I chose downhill.   It turned out that where I had thought the road I started on continued straight and I needed to turn off to the left, it actually didn't go straight. The road I was on continued to the right, the one I had planned to turn off onto, was to the right.  I have no idea why that intersection wasn't labeled, but good thing I have a decent sense of direction! In the end, the road I took spit me out on a two lane road that was also unlabeled, but which I knew had to be the next road I wanted, Highway 63.  So, I made it home without actually getting lost, even though I felt lost for about half of the ride.  Adventuring is fun on weekends when I have the time for it!  Especially when the weather cooperates.

Yesterday, I went for my longest ride so far.  40 miles.  It didn't have any significant mountain climbs, so it wasn't particularly difficult, just long.  I actually felt like I could have kept going.  The only reason I didn't, was because the skies opened up and it started pouring when I was about 7 miles from home.  So, I got drenched.  It stopped raining right around the time I got back into town, which made it tempting to continue riding, but in the end the desire to get warm and dry won and I headed straight home.

Last week, I rode 90 miles, which I felt was pretty impressive for a busy person who has just picked up this new cycling hobby.  This week, I made a goal of hitting 90 again.  And then I hit a grand total of 118.9 miles for the week.  I would continue this quest to see how many miles I can ride in one week, but this coming week is looking pretty busy, so I suspect it will be a lower mileage week.  Time will tell.

Another week gone by

This week:

M: off

T: 4.7 / 41:02 / 8:43 (AM)

W: 4.7 / 40:31 / 8:37 (AM)

R: 6.75 / 48:17 / 7:09

F: off 

Sa: 12.04 / 1:37:00 / 8:03

Su: 6.75 / 54:05 / 8:00

week total : 34.94

I was going to take Thursday off this week because I didn't feel like getting up that morning, but then our weekly faculty meeting was over sooner than usual, and I felt energetic, so I decided to go for a run.  I started out slow, but my legs were begging for speed, so I picked up the pace about a mile in and pushed it for the rest of the run.  My lungs had a bit of trouble keeping up, but my legs felt great, and overall it felt really good to push the pace and work hard.  On Friday, I got home at lunch since we were having conferences at school and my only one was at 8 AM.  So I headed to Babcock State Park to take pictures.  I ended up doing quite a bit of un-planned hiking while I was there, so I got a good bit of exercise.  (Enough hill climbing to make my legs a bit sore the next day!)

exercises

T: 20 squats, 20 lunges

W: 20 squats, 30 lunges

Sa: 10 squats

Not so stellar on the exercising this week.  For some reason I always remember when I run first thing in the morning, but very rarely remember when I run in the afternoon.  Then again, I don't need the squats to warm me up for an afternoon run because I'm already warm from moving around all day.  

I had a busy but good weekend this week!  Saturday I hardly got a moment's rest between grocery shopping, running, soup-making for the Pub, taking Cheerleading Photos for a friend, and babysitting.  Today I caught some Fog Photos on my way home from Mass early this morning, and took Family Photos for a friend this afternoon.  I played with special effects on quite a few of the photos from this afternoon, it was entertaining.  And necessary on some of the photos...early/mid afternoon is a bad time to take photos, the sunlight was pretty harsh!

Oh, and dinner tonight was some delicious PB Beef & Broccoli.  Scrumptious.  

And I even managed to eat it with chopsticks without making too big of a mess. 

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.