The week started strong, but by the end I think a combination of last weekend’s long run, some long work hours, and lack of sleep all caught up to me.  I’m happy with the intensity I was able to get on Tues and Weds, but I would like to get a solid week in from start to finish one of these times.  Seems like it has been a while.

Monday
11 miles

Soggy.  Rained all day.

Played around with shooting short range with my long lens (300mm).  Really liked this one of my daughter playing the piano.  She has become a very good pianist over the past couple of years and I enjoy hearing her practice.  The lighting was poor, and I didn’t use a flash.  Instead, I had her turn on and adjust the small lamp on top of the piano to shine on her hands.  The sharpness of the extended finger is what I like best.  I came up with a little free verse to describe the scene.

Then I went outside and shot some flowers in the yard.  The rain had just let up and it was still heavily overcast.  The colors were all very deep and rich.  There was the tiniest kiss of light on this flower bud that totally made the shot.  Probably my best yet in terms of lighting.  My wife said it looked like a Mother’s Day card so I added a verse to it as well.

Tuesday
7 miles

Hit the roads for this one. 1 warmup, 5 medium tempo (7:11 pace, 158 avg hr), 1 cool down.  Felt ok, need to keep injecting a little faster running into the week.  My fitness and strength are good, but my coordination and efficiency are way behind.

Wednesday
12.6 miles

Waterton Canyon.  My wife rode alongside on her bike and we had a great evening in the canyon.  I had a good run, keeping it steady up to the the dam, then ramping up the effort each mile on the return to finish the last 6 miles with a 6:48 average.  That felt awesome!  I like how the heart rate graph shows the increasing intensity over that stretch.  I ramped it up nicely and finished strong.  Needed that!

Thursday
10.3 miles

Feeling a little worked from last night, but things got better as the run progressed.  7 laps @ the Boneyard.

Friday
14.1 miles

Tough day after a late night of work and getting up early again.  Struggled through this one, but got it done.  The weekend doesn’t look good for getting much of a long run in, so this will be it.

Loving the wildflowers this time of year.

This tree looked like some sort of anteater if you were to turn it sideways.

Saturday
5.8 miles

Worked all morning at a garage sale for our kid’s scout activities and girl’s camp fund raiser.  It was cool and damp, but thankfully the rain held off and it was a big success.

Headed out for a run in the afternoon and felt terrible.  Bagged it early and headed home.

Came up on a fox while it was catching a rodent.  Crunch.

Next!

Had to pick up some supplies for tomorrow’s dinner, so we stopped and checked on our shopping center owls.  No signs of flight yet, but they are getting big quickly.

Sunday

OFF

Happy Mother’s Day!

Took Jessica on a drive to see the ‘Oreo Cows’.  They were spread out and far away when we first got there.

Never fear, she knew just what to do.

That’s more like it.

I’m calling this guy Double Stuf.

Total:  60.8 miles / 9:23