Lake Sherwood Recreation Area

I had a fun night with a group of friends last night so today I was ready to recharge with some solitude and my cameras.  I slept in, then decided to drive up to Lake Sherwood for the morning.  It's a little less than an hour away, and I hadn't been there yet.

As I was driving along a winding road through the forest, I could see little waterfalls in the stream that paralleled the road.  I eventually found a spot to pull over right next to a neat area in the stream, and so I spent a good bit of time there before continuing on to the lake.

I love the sun streaming down in this one.

I eventually headed on to the lake, where signs informed me that all cars were charged a day fee from May through September.  Glad I came in November.  I didn't see a single other person the entire time I was in the area, which was perfect.  I like solitude on my adventures.  

I could hear the geese long before I could see them, and they were clearly not happy about my presence.  They took off for an even more solitary spot shortly after they caught sight of me.  I didn't even have time to adjust settings on my camera to get the exposure right.  And it was hard to focus because the sun was so bright. 

I kind of like the blurred effect in this photo.

This guy was also very unhappy with my presence and quite vocal about it.  It took me awhile to find him, but he was so loud I found him eventually, way up in a tree.  Thank goodness for zoom lenses...

It gets harder to find colorful photos every weekend.  

Now that it's halfway through November, there are hardly any leaves left anywhere.  

It has occurred to me that I'm pretty lucky it hasn't snowed at all yet.

I prefer colorful photos, but at this time of year it seems the only way to 

really get them is through heavy editing...

 Having fun.

Enjoying the peace and solitude.

I really wish I had thought to bring a book along.

Yes. To all of this.

Seven Lessons Running Teaches us About Life

Back to Running!

After 7 weeks of 0-2 runs per week, most of which were Pub Run jogs, I decided it was time to try again.  The last two Pub Runs have been a bit faster and longer, and have felt good.  So on Wednesday, I decided to go for a run.  I kept the pace easy, and planned to head straight home if my foot started hurting.  It never started hurting, so I went for 7 miles.  On Friday, I decided to run again, thinking I would probably stick to 5 or 6, but again, my foot did not hurt.  It felt so good to be running, I gradually picked up the pace as I went along, and I ended up with 8 miles.  I am trying to hold off on running two days in a row or on running too fast quite yet.  We'll see how long I can hold out...

This week:

M : sweatfest 40 min/10.1 miles

Pub Run 5.2 miles / 8:04 pace / 118 ft

T : bike 23.2 miles / 17.8 mph / 1683 ft

W : run 7 miles / 8:08 pace / 492 ft

R : bike 24.7 miles / 19.4 mph / 1640 ft

F : run 8 miles / 7:39 pace / 571 ft

Su : bike 25.1 miles / 15.5 mph / 2556 ft

total run miles : 20.2 

total bike miles : 83.2

Sunday Funday 11/8/2015

I want to go on as many photo adventures as I can while the weather is still decent out, I'm not sure how often I'll manage to drag myself out to take pictures once it's too cold to keep feeling in my fingers while using a camera!  Yesterday was rainy and dreary for most of the day, and by the time it was almost nice out, I was enjoying my couch so much I didn't feel like going out and doing anything.  So I enjoyed a day on the couch going through photos and doing a bit of this and a bit of that.  It was good to have a quiet and relaxing day after a very stressful week at school.  

Today I wanted to bike in the morning, and I had told Sue I would trail ride at 1:30, so that didn't leave much time for a photo-adventure, but I was determined to get some camera time in.  So I went down to the Fort Spring boat launch, only about 15 minutes away.  I had some fun taking photos of the water and being silly jumping around, then went straight to the barn and brought my camera along on the trail ride.

Fort Spring

The trees are bare but the sky is brilliant!

a bit of editing fun

Trail Ride

Pony heard the crinkling sound of the water bottle and tried to bite it, so Sue stuck it in her mouth for her to drink out of.  It was hilarious.

 Check out the cloud of dust she just shook off...

Photo Adventure 11/1/2015

My weekend didn't feel complete without a photo adventure.  I was doing laundry this morning and decided that I really needed to go somewhere to play with my camera.  I got a Lensbaby Spark this week, and I wanted to experiment with it.  I also wanted to play with my macro lens.  I decided to head out to Anthony.  It's only 30-45 minutes away, and there are some good views on the way there for capturing what's left of the fall foliage.

The last few weeks have been really busy and hectic for me at school, and last night I went downtown with some friends, which turned into a very long and loud night.  Sensory overload.  I don't do well with crowds or loud noises, and it was very draining for me.  But a friend was in from out of town who I don't see often anymore, so I tried to be social.  After all of the noise and chaos, it was incredibly nice to be alone in the woods by the water today, taking my time, playing with my camera, and enjoying the peaceful quiet and solitude.

The lensbaby creates one spot of focus with everything else blurred.  

Plus it's bendy so you can move the focus around.

It's fun to play with.

Bubbles!

Coleman Cliffs

The view is really awesome from the edge of the cliff, but there were a lot of 

no trespassing and tow zone signs posted so sadly I did not go out to the edge for photos.

The Greenbrier River at the boat launch in Anthony.

the adventure-mobile

Macro-Fun

and of course, no adventure is complete without some jumping shots

it's a new rule

Gorgeous and windy days

I missed this week's Pub Run because of a Board Meeting.  I figured it could only be good for my foot to skip a week anyway.  But I have really been missing running and it's stress-relief properties.  By Wednesday afternoon, I really really really wanted to run.  I tried to hold out, I really did.  But I had been having more and more trouble falling asleep at night, and I could feel that Wednesday night was going to be another rough one.  I ate a bowl of ice cream.  But that didn't make me feel any less restless.  Somewhere around 8:15 I gave up and decided to go for a run.  There was a light rain, but that didn't deter me at all.  I headed out the door.  I focused on keeping an easy pace.  No overdoing it like the last time I tried to go for a run.  It felt really good to be out there.  I had zero foot discomfort until about mile 3.3.  I kept going for another mile, and the foot discomfort never got too bad.  Sleeping has mostly been better since then.

It was super windy on Thursday.  I felt like a leaf in a hurricane.  I did manage to keep my bike on the road, but there were a couple times I thought I might end up in a ditch.  I'm impressed that I managed to get my average pace as high as it was.  It felt like I was crawling for a lot of the ride.

This week : 

M : bike 24.3 / 19.4 mph / 1739 ft

T : sweatfest 30 min / 8.2 miles

W : run 4.3 / 8:22 pace / 265 ft

R : bike 27.2 / 17.5 mph / 2218 ft

Sa : bike 24.1 / 16.8 mph / 2083 ft

total bike miles : 84

In other news, my lungs are super not happy with me right now.  I frequently notice myself short of breath, but I mostly ignore it.  I'm not going to start using the inhaler every time my breath is a little bit short.  I need my lungs to build back up, not think they can rely on an inhaler all the time.  I do ok mostly, it's just a little harder for me to bike really hard, and after each bike sprint it takes me a little longer to recover.  Exercise built my lungs up before, surely it can do it again...  I cancelled my follow-up appointment with the pulmonologist because I need to see how badly my new health insurance cost is going to hurt before I go pay for a doctor's visit and tests.  It makes my blood boil whenever people try to talk about affordable health care.  The health insurance company takes all my money and then barely gives me any back when I go to a doctor.  So frustrating. 

The brief return of shorts weather

Last Sunday, I decided that my break from early morning exercise should be over, so I planned to get up early Monday and do a sweatfest ride.  I was hoping to get back into my early morning routine, because it was working really well for me, until I quit getting up so early.  I managed to get up Monday morning and do my trainer ride, but I gave up again after that.  I've been consistently getting up around 5, but 4 is just too early right now.  It's been too hard for me to get to bed by 8.  Also, it seems slightly silly to be getting up super early to exercise at 4:30 AM when the weather is gorgeous and warm-ish in the afternoons.

This week : 

M : 30 min trainer (7.3)

4.8 mile Pub Run

T : bike 19.7

W : sprint bike 13.4 (19.4 mph, 886 ft)

F : bike 25.3 w/Byron

Sa : bike 13.3 (race photographer)

total bike miles : 79.3

When I first started biking, I felt like it did nothing for my lungs.  They ended up getting weaker because biking was not keeping them in shape like running did.  Now my lungs have gotten so weak, biking is hard.  I have been getting faster on the bike, and now my legs are strong enough for me to ride pretty hard, but I keep running out of oxygen and having to slow down.  I'm hoping that since biking is now making my lungs work harder, it will also help me start to strengthen them back up...