Week 5

I saw this tree outside of a ghetto I was working in Mississippi.  It basically filled my thoughts the rest of the Day.  This tree looks like a maple, a relatively slow growing tree.  This barbed wire was running right through the middle of the tree with no sign of distress anywhere.  There are lots of cool observations that can be made about this tree and its friend the barbed wire so I thought I would run through them to see if anyone had any other thoughts.

When do we think this happened?  It was clear to me this tree was used as a fence post, Id guess 80 - 100 years ago?  at first it was a nuisance to the tree but the tree didn't care.  The tree has no feelings or thoughts about the wire it just did what it knows best...  GROW..  Now its a part of it.  Mother nature created this tree in such a way that even with the strain of barbed wire on it, it will continue to grow on.  My lesson is you can survive anything..  This tree didn't put a second thought to the fact that man thought it would make a good fence post and it could quite possibly kill it.  It grew anyway.  To me mother nature is the most amazing force.  

Tonight I ran in a popular place called Elk Meadow.  you think its just a name but as the name says, the meadow was littered with elk grazing as the sun decided to bed down for the night.  You look towards the hills and see the snowy peaks in the distance and you cant hep but feel mother nature.  A perfect balance.

Today was just a great day, stressful work with nice thoughts and conversation between meetings.  I did 4 miles @ :48:10 (12min average)  ave HR was 164 with a max of 173.  wasn't an easy run with 1000 feet of elevation gain.  Id call it moderate.

Yesterday was 5+ miles with 1454' of elevation gain and that took me 1:28:13.  About a 17.5 min mile. This was a difficult run but well worth it.  Would have been much shorter had i not gotten lost and had to re-run a section.  

Need to keep it up, traveling has thrown off my schedule but I need to stick with it.   Sundays run was supposed to be 8 miles, I think I'm set back a week which is fine.  I will jump ahead at some point and be back on schedule.

So I am looking to sign up for a race Circuit in Evergreen and possibly the "Leadville Heavy Half" marathon.  I'm a little nervous about the Heavy Half but I may just do it...