Merry (early) Christmas!

Hey y'all!
It's almost Christmas. I'm sure you've already figured that out, considering it is the 22nd. Maybe you don't celebrate Christmas. That's okay! Happy (insert holiday here)! Christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year. It's biting cold, with a glittering layer of fresh snow on the ground. The blue sky peeking through the thick winter clouds, showering the earth with it's warmth. I had the pleasure to drive up to Estes Park early in the winter and got to see a beautiful foggy snowfall.

As we first drove into the National Park, this is what we saw

We started up the drive to Bear Lake just as the snow started to fall

Bear Lake had nearly completely frozen over

Nearly the same area as the first photo above. The fog lifted a little as the snow progressed over the Rockies

On the road to the Alluvial Fan. The road was clear, but the sky had started to fill with fog and it had just begun to snow. The Alluvial Fan was closed due to flooding that had occurred earlier in the year.

These photos are the epitome of the Christmas holiday season. The snow washes out all of the bad memories of the year and replaces them with fresh, new impressions of the season. It gives a new feeling to the earth, to see the world covered in a white layer of pure beauty. While the plants have either died or hibernated for the season, the world has moved on, clearing space for the precipitation that plans to come in and take over for the winter. 

Life has Plateaued

Really, it has. After XC ended (for those of us not fast enough to go to NXR) my life simplified. A lot. It got really boring. Honest! While I was getting tired of the late nights spend studying, I miss it. A lot. I'm still running, though. I was supposed to take a few weeks off after XC ended, but I wasn't pushing myself very hard, so I decided to keep running. Even though my longest run has only been 4 miles (I did 5 one day, but it was broken into 4 and 1), I'm somehow getting faster. I should probably actually do a long run one of these days and break that 4 mile barrier. It's a little (okay, a lot) intimidating.

I'm still reminiscing those hours spent with my team. I'm getting quite nostalgic too. I miss all the laughs we had together, all the stupid jokes we made, all those crazy times we had, especially that one time when we went for smoothies after Regionals, walking through the drive through because the store was closed.
Oh man, I miss those days.
Luckily, I still have the banquet to look forward to. It'll be cool to see everyone dressed up instead wearing those running clothes.
With Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, I'm trying to run more to burn off all those calories that I'll be eating. Like that'll work! I won't be eating a lot, actually. With all the people (omnivores) around us, I suspect I won't be eating much. I doubt there will be abundant vegan food. Good thing I can be satisfied and occupied with a container of hummus and a basket of veggies or a roll of crackers, because that might be all I'll be eating.

On the topic of running, I just had a birthday. And guess what I got? Racing flats! And running books!
So, to specify, I got RC 5000's, Thrive, Born to Run (Can you BELIEVE that I hadn't read that before?!), Daniels Running Formula, Eat & Run, and No Meat Athlete. I've already finished Born to Run, and I'm well into Eat & Run. I've been looking at all the "exotic" recipes and ingredients in Thrive, too. Not that I don't usually eat kale or quinoa, because I do, but I don't eat miso or garbanzo bean flour or drink hemp milk. I'm excited to try all those recipes, once I can get ahold of those ingredients. Everyone is skeptical of 'energy bars,' thinking that they are only for those crazy people who spend their days weight lifting, running marathons, or climbing Mt Everest, but in reality, they are for athletes who need a burst of energy before, during, or after workouts. Or who just need food in general. Things that athletes eat aren't just for athletes. It goes the same for nearly everything. Omnivores can eat vegan food (although not vice-versa), smoothies aren't just for hippies, and music isn't just for the song writers/composers. Get my point?

Anyway, I need to go knit some. It is my rest day, after all. I've got my "big" 4k club championship race early tomorrow morning. Good night and good luck with all of your endeavors! <3

XC Regionals!

I made it to Regionals!
That was my goal, and it came true only because a few things happened this season.
First, I calculated with the times set by the girls on our team that I would be the 8th runner on the team, (i.e. last/worst runner) thus not making regionals (Run 7 of each gender). As disappointed as I was, I continued to work hard and keep on pushing.
But I pushed too hard.
After Patriot League (Sterling) I had major pain in my left calf. It continued to pain me up until the start line at regionals. Literally. I hadn't run in 3 days, mostly walking while trying to rest it. I figured that my teammate would be running in my place at regionals, since she has a much better time than my PR. She was absent from school due to a family emergency, (pray for her family, please) also meaning that she wasn't at practice.
 I got an email stating that I was going to run at regionals.
Am I thrilled?
Yes. Yes, I am.
Quite thrilled. So thrilled that I forget my injury during the race and PR by 1:30! That's a sub 30 for this season! Not as great as I'd like, but I have one more race: JV Champs on Tuesday. In that race I am going to PR again, disregarding that I just raced a few days earlier.
I only have one photo of my own from the race, as my family left before awards last night.

Our team is amazing! Boy and girls both got 1st place, making us regional champs! The boys swept the meet getting a perfect score of 6, getting the first 4 places of the race, and also placing at 7th.
The girls got 1st, 3rd, and 7th places, with the latter 2 placers getting big PRs!
Our team is very supportive and inspirational, always cheering, always pushing, always listening, always there.
 We are the Lions.

Into the Forest

This weekend we planned a beautiful hike in the flatirons. We made our snacks, filled our bottles, and packed our packs. We drove up to NCAR where the trail started. We saw a few signs saying that the road was damaged, but that turned out to be a pot hole on the road. In Nebraska, that's a typical spring road. In Colorado? ROAD DAMAGE. We parked and were about to get out when we saw some people coming back to their cars, we asked them if the trail was open, and they replied that no, the trail was closed due to the recent flooding which caused severe erosion on the trail. So we turned back and headed down to Boulder. We drove up Boulder Canyon a little ways to Betasso Preserve where we had planned a back-up hike. We walked/ran (I ran) one of the trails last year for a Turkey Trot, so we drove on past and parked in a new area, at the trailhead to Bummers Rock. It was a beautiful 1/4 mile trail with boulder hopping at the end, up to the top. I held back and took some photos of the plants along (and outside) the trail. It was a gorgeous foggy day with perfect lighting.

Aster

Daisy, I think. Not entirely sure though...

I'm pretty sure this is a common mullein.

Lichen

Black Tipped Senecio

Overall, it was a fun little trip, with great views up top. You could see the birds circling and calling, Boulder Creek flowing down the canyon, the fog in the foothills, and the beautiful world at it's best.

A Walk in the Park

A couple weeks ago, I went down to a nearby lake and shot some photos of Longs/Meeker, an old barn by the highway, and some prairie dogs.
Without further ado, here they are:

Old Barbed Wire Fence

Gotta love a telephoto lens!

Not to be creepy, but I found prairie dog skull. It was so cool!

We also found this massive spider and it's web while trying to take portrait shots. We got distracted by the awesome spider and the fly that is caught.

About a month and a half ago we decided spur of the moment to go hike to Chasm Lake.

Longs Peak ahead

Looking down into the plains

East face getting closer

This chipmunk was very friendly

Considering that I was using a 50mm lens (plus the non-full frame sensor), this guy let me get really close to him

A stream just off the trail, going up to Battle Mountain

And at last, the one good photo of the old barn and Longs/Meeker

The Meets

Last Friday the JV runners had a meet in Mead, CO, about 20 minutes from Longmont, CO.
It was very cold and rainy that day, not exactly good running conditions. The cold is okay, but the rain isn't helpful with glasses and with the wind. It was 45 degrees out, a little weird for September. I bundled up and got out of the bus. The JV girls were the third race that day, after the middle school girls and boys. We warmed up, got to the starting line, and stripped of our warm clothes, leaving us in singlets and shorts. It was freezing and muddy. I would have thought this is be gorgeous weather had I been inside, but outside was a different story. A lot of the course was pure mud, thick and slick. We all started to run on the sides of the course, thinking that we were so clever, only to run that section again and see that the sides were now trampled and slippery with mud that came off of our shoes. My shoes came untied at various times during the meet, leaving me with ample opportunities to trip and fall. And trip and fall I did. Twice, actually, and within 5 strides of one another. I tried my shoes with my trembling fingers and started running again. I knew that I lost my sub-30 race that day, but I was determined to still PR. And so I did, slashing off 2:25 from my last meet. My knee was scraped up pretty good from the falls, but I didn't feel it; it was a combination of adrenaline and numbing of the cold. Overall, it was a fun race, not what I was expecting, but still exciting.

Yesterday our team (JV and V boys and girls) piled into the bus at 5:50am, about to embark on a 2 1/2 hour trip to Sterling, CO for our next meet, the Patriot League meet. It's now championship time, with this meet being all conference. We arrived safely in Sterling around 8:30 ish and set up camp, putting up our tents and tarps. It was freezing cold and very windy, really not helpful conditions. The V boys were the first race that day, with the V girls next, then the JV boys, and 5 minutes after, the JV girls. The cold had let up a little by 11:15, but the wind hadn't a bit. The gun went off and so did we, all 15 JV girls runners. I went out way to fast, but I only regret that a little. It was my only time being in the top 3, but I slowly fell back. The course was supposed to be fast and flat, but I didn't find that to be true. My first mile was 9:15, second around 10:28, and last mile +.1 mi was 11:45. I have never sprinted that fast in a race, ever. The varsity boys were standing and cheering me on for the last straightaway, which was really really nice and really inspired me to keep on sprinting, no matter if I could breathe or not. I clocked in 31:18, a new PR. My goal was sub 30, but that just wasn't how it was supposed to be that day. I'm pleased with that result, but I'm really just proud of my teammates, lots of them getting PRs, including my fellow JV girl runner who was hoping just to finish the race, but got her best time, 26:08, in her first race of the season. The varsity boys got all conference, with them grabbing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 11th spots for the race. The varsity girls only had 2 placers, but they still did really well. The JV boys got 4th place overall, with lots of them getting PRs. The JV girls only had 2 runners in the race, but my teammate grabbed 1st place, with the second place finisher over a minute behind her. I got 11th place, and with that our team got 3rd place. It was a really fun day, and we had some good laughs on the bus ride home. We learned that our JV boys took a detour during the race, taking a wrong turn in the forest somewhere, but they still did remarkably well! I'm really proud of Lyons, considering all we've been through, we are still pushing hard and not letting anything defeat us. Some of us consider ourselves Sea Lions now, with all the flooding. Seems like there is always a bright side to the difficulties we may face.

Grand Canyon

I'm back.
I'm going to try to post everyday, but that probably won't happen. Maybe I can post every week?
Here is a pretty picture to start you off with.

This was at the Grand Canyon, one of our many stops on our summer road trip.

 Unfortunately, some of the stops were rather brief and I only got photos from within the car, through the windows. I might be back today to write another post to accompany this one, more about the adventures to and from the Grand Canyon. 

We started our trip to the Grand Canyon in Williams, AZ. T'was a beautiful morning, sunny and cool. We decided to take the train up to the canyon, so we walked over to the train station from our hotel. As we stood on the platform, we saw the beautiful car. It was a refurbished 1928(?) coach, with original mahogany wood trimming, among other things. I thought all the cars were like this one, but it turned out that this was the only car (at least that we know of; we didn't get behind the snack car) that was older. Sadly, I didn't nab any photos of the train car before it started filling up, no nothing of that. I have a few more of the canyon, though.

The beautiful train tracks coming into the station.

A storm was rolling into the canyon. It was gorgeous and foggy.

I think this is pretty much the same photo as above but in black and white.

That is about all of the good shots I have of the canyon. It was so amazing and I want to go back right now. I'd love to see the north rim, too.

The Non-Intro Intro Post

Hi ya'll!
I don't think I want to do an intro. That's boring. Instead, if you want to know about me, you can just head over to the About Me page to learn about me, someone who you probably don't know. Anyways. Since this is turning into an intro post anyways, I won't have it be my official first post, which will contain pretty pictures and nice words about adventures that I've had across various states this summer.