Bird Photography Setup

I am happy to say that I FINALLY have my bird photography setup complete. Over the last 9 years I have steadily improved my camera bodies, starting with a Nikon D50, then moving to a D200, the D300, and now my D600. I may upgrade the body again soon, but I want to just improve my skills first. As for lenses, I've gone through a few, made some uninformed purchases, and wallowed in regret. But yesterday I received a used Nikon 80-400mm and so far I'm thrilled! This lens and camera will give me exactly what I want: long reach, low weight, good quality glass, and the ability to shoot without the need for a tripod.

Coming from a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 (a great lens) I was expecting that the 80-400 was going to be terribly heavy. But since its not a fixed aperture lens, it has less glass.The weight is almost the same as the 70-200. Honestly, it feels lighter, easier to handle. I haven't had a chance to play with it much, though. I love the reach! I am not good with binoculars , maybe due to an astigmatic left eye, so I've always relied on a camera to see birds. 200mm is just not enough. And now I don't have to deal with it anymore.

Will I sell the 70-200mm? Probably. But the verdict is still out.

2017 Trip Plans

Rocky Mountain National Park, Sept 2016, E. Gilley

The year of 2016 is coming to a close, and there have been big changes for me. I finally left my house after purchasing a new one (new to me, certainly not a new house). I purchased a lovely Jacuzzi and have been melting my muscles in it regularly. I finally made it to Colorado, and I loved it! I am finally programming integrations, something I've desired for several years. I ran a 25k for the first time and possibly last.  So, I have made some good progress this year. I am thankful for these changes.

Now, I must start thinking of my goals for next year. I feel like  my days of excessive running are probably over. I still run 5 days a week, but I run for enjoyment and general health. Maybe I'll run the Gate River Run, but that's only 9.3 miles. I want to maintain the integrity of my joints, and I find that runs beyond 7 miles are too harsh on my knees.

Now that my days of desperate running are over, I feel I can focus on my other loves: birding, photography, and nature travel.  I also want to focus on creating a physic garden in my backyard. I may raise some quails or hens for eggs, too. I want my home to be as sustainable as possible. In a few years I would love to have the house running on solar power.

So, potential goals are:
A Florida Photo Big Year- photograph as many of the 516 Florida bird species as possible.

Start a simple organic physic garden with expansion goals

Investigate raising chickens or quails for eggs. Privacy fencing required.

Plan for solar power. Determine tree limbs to be cut.

Running with the Mind of Meditation: Herding Thoughts while Avoiding a Cardiac Event

What is my motivation? I ask myself this question over and over again during the central portion of my meditative run in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. I've come a long way from Florida to attend the Running with the Mind of Meditation retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center, and my assignment today is a contemplative meditation. I'm to run 30 minutes, a run of three 10 minute segments. Segment one is a warm up. I can talk, socialize, think of chocolate, whatever I want. Segment two is where I am supposed to contemplate the question "what is my motivation?". The final segment is cool down time.

The goal of the question is not necessarily to find the answer. Repeating the question many times in my head as I huff and puff up a hill at 8000 feet of elevation is a method to get me focused, a training of the brain as well as body.

And what are these things called "hills"? I don't see them in Florida. That's a question for another blog post. And there goes my mind, rambling down a path it wasn't scheduled to travel.

Bringing the mind back to the question, a few answers pop to the forefront. Nature! My motivation for running is to be in Nature, witnessing the smells of evergreens, viewing the pale bark of the birch trees, anticipating the cool mountain breeze that I can hear rolling down the valley. Yes, being at one with Nature is my motivation.

But is that all? It can't be. At home in Florida, where there are no mountains or the breezes that come with the monoliths, I run almost everyday, outdoors, in the dark, on an urban sidewalk. Occasionally, I see a Green Heron or a few White Ibis passing overhead as the sun ascends, but my witness of Nature is pretty scarce on my regular route.

So, my motivation to run must be something else. I'm still gasping for air as I climb this hill. Darn, this is not a hill! It feels like a mountain. My heart is racing, and I can feel the pounding of my pulse in the veins crisscrossing my skull. I'm going to be in such great shape when I return to Florida. There it is! My motivation is to get and stay healthy. Running works my heart, expands my lungs, trains my tendons and ligaments. It helps me keep my weight down, which in turn fends off sleep apnea, diabetes, and joint pain. I am motivated to run to maintain my body.

Ouch, tripped on a rock. My ankle slides a little too far to the left, and I run a few more steps to assess the impact. I can run through this. Should I run through this? I want to continue my course and pace, and  whether I should or shouldnt doesn't matter right now. But that's not a healthy choice. It is potentially damaging to run through an injury. So, is my motivation really about maintaining health? Not always, I surmise.

This contemplation is hard! I find an answer and then I wheedle myself away from it. I'm no closer to finding the answer than I was at the beginning of this run. I have to hurry up and find my answer before Marty, one of the Running facilitators, blows the whistle that can be heard across Shambhala land. It's over 600 acres of mountain and forest retreat, but Marty's whistle can pierce through thick tree stands and round bends in the valley. It's loud.

I rein my meandering mind and steer it back to the question. Will this hill never end? I look up from my concentrated stare at the dirt and see her. She's about 50 feet ahead of me. She's always ahead of me! On every run since I arrived here, she's in front of me. I will catch her this time. I speed up, attempting to slightly exceed her cadence. Her legs are short like mine so I'm sure to catch up soon.

Whoa! A hazy veil descends over my field of vision, sounds have become muffled, and all the blood that's supposed to be in my body has jumped into my skull cavity. My heart pounds and I instantly back off my pursuit. This whole oxygen-deficit thing is real! I didn't come to Colorado to sample the health care system, so my attempt to catch up to the fast woman in front of me is over. She, unlike me, continues to dance up the hill like a nimble mountain goat. I plod on, slower, like a lazy pack mule until I reach the Great Stupa. I circumambulate the Stupa while the others behind me  catch up. 

A bit deflated after my failed attempt to overtake my fellow runner, I trot around the Stupa, listening to the gray gravel crackle beneath me. Back to the question: what is my motivation? The answer...a high pitched arrow of sound speeds through the air. I see a mule deer perk her ears.

Contemplation time is over. The whistle has been blown and now it's time to run the final 10 minutes. It's cool down time as we run from the Great Stupa back to the Meditation Hall, a fun downhill jaunt. I truly enjoy this portion.

I watch the other faster runners as they descend the hill, some running so quickly that they hold their arms out to the sides in an attempt brake themselves.  It's a steep downhill, and I know my short legs will be angry at me later for descending so quickly. But it's fun! I fly downward, my arms agape. I'm certain I look like a flying squirrel as I pass into the birch tree stand spanning the tiny river that is oozing with beavers.

No time to look for beavers. My flight continues, and I'm paying close attention to every divet and dip in the gravelly road before me. It twists and turns, and I want to catch up to the fast runners, so I take the inside of the curves.

My head hurts. Where is all of the oxygen? I'm almost there. I can see the other runners mulling around the entrance to the meditation hall. I stride in, glad that I finished the last stretch so well. As I come to a halt, I notice tiny spasms firing off in my quadriceps. They're like miniature fireworks shooting all over my thighs. They're not painful. They feel rather good.

I walk around in large circles, listening to the crunching gravel beneath my worn trail running sneakers. My circles slow down as my heart rate comes back to normal. Other runners are coming in, their faces full of the joy I just experienced from my downhill escapade.

Running is wonderful. It brings joy, it brings pain, it let's me focus on my mind, my body, or the trivialities of daily life. I'm not sure I will ever find the answer to "what is my motivation", but for today's  run it was to enjoy the path of self-discovery.

Tomorrow it will be different, I'm certain.

Equanimity and My Love of Running

I am trying to maintain an even keel with my running. I am not sure what to call "my running". Is it a hobby? No, that glosses over the importance of it. It is a lifestyle, however, I once had a bodybuilder boyfriend who could not shut up about his "bodybuilding lifestyle." I found the phrase so annoying that I refuse to use the word unless absolutely necessary. I think I will from now on refer to it as my "running practice". This does not diminish or overstate the importance that running has to my daily life.

Equanimity. A sense of evenhandedness and composure. I want my running to always be in balance with the rest of my life, although I will admit that it plays a larger role in my life than it does for most. The key for me is to ensure that running always enhances my physical and mental health. When it it causes me harm, then I need to reevaluate my goals and training strategies.

Running is not just a physical activity I engage in for my cardiovascular health. It is just as important to my mental health. It enhances my meditation practice. It gives me something I haven't been able to find anywhere else, a sense of calmness, a slowing of the mind. So why not get the most out of every run that I can?

 

To that end, I have decided to attend a workshop called Running with the Mind of Meditation in Colorado in early September. I had read the book with the same name about 4 months ago. The book was written by the leader of the Shambhala, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. It was the first of numerous books on the subject of finding a meditative element while running. I have also read Zen and the Art of Running, and I am currently re-reading it. For subjects like this, it helps me to read a book 2 or more times. I figured, though, that a workshop would be yet another enhancement to my running and meditation practices. 

The joy of vacations are only about 40% contained within the actual vacation time. The remaining 60% of the joy is found in the planning and preparation. Now that I know where and when I  am going, my planning can truly begin. And this is the fun part.

Hanson's Half Marathon Method: Battling Illness and Fatigue

I am actually more than halfway through my half marathon training using the Hanson's method. I had started this the first week of November, and I now have 22 days until my race. The race I'm training for is a 25k, but I could not find any training plans specific to that distance. I figured that the Hanson's method, with its 6 days of running, 40 to 50 miles per week, would fit the bill.

When they talk about "cumulative fatigue" in the book, they're not joking. I'm fatigued, in more ways than one. Yes, my body is tired and almost always sore, but not in an intolerable way. I'm strangely aware of my calves and ankles lately.

General muscle fatigue is one thing, but I feel I'm drawing so much energy to maintain my 6 day a week schedule that I can't fight a nagging sinus infection. I've been battling this infection since it's infancy on December 19. Yes, I made note of the exact day and time this little virus began as a wee common cold at 1pm to its full-blown, blustering and obnoxious adulthood of today, 7 weeks later.

A sinus infection, at its worst for me, is not a mere congestion problem. It's a full body process. I'm nauseated. My appetite is low, so I tend to not eat well or drink enough. I'm dizzy. I have irritating crackling sounds in my ears. I feel like I'm on an airplane, rising above the clouds and my ears are about to pop, all the time. My upper teeth ache and I want to pull them out. There are two gremlins in my skull, sitting behind my eyes, dancing on my optic nerves and attempting vainly to push my eyeballs out of their sockets.

But the worst part is probably the fatigue. It's a difficult to describe feeling. It's like there is a parasitic, invisible soul sitting deep in my bones who is stealing energy from my bloodstream. I feel that I'm trying to energize 2 humans on 1 human-power. This makes running, even an easy run, seem like a mountain climb at 15000 feet, where the air is gauzy thin.

I guess I'm writing all of this because I feel guilty. I have chosen to take today, an easy run day, off. Instead of running 6 days this week, I will run only 5. I know it sounds a little silly to feel guilty about running only 5 days in a week, but I do not like veering off the plan. In order to maintain my health, I must back off. Good health is what running is really about for me (although I have to remind myself sometimes).

I will try to remain objective about my chosen training plan. Essentially, I think it's sound. But I don't know that I should have chosen a plan so intensive at this time of year when I know I will be battling sinus problems.

Sinus issues are not new to me. They come every year at the same time, usually January through March. This plan might be better suited for me at a time when I know I'm healthier, April through June and then maybe September through December. July and August in Florida would be too hot and humid to pursue a plan of this intensity, no matter what my state of health is.

Live and learn, I suppose. I choose to live healthily, and so I choose to not run today. It'll be OK.

7 mile Tempo Run: Retrospective

Let's review today's run. I ran a total of 8.1 miles. Mile 1 was a warm-up. The remaining distance was run at the pace I intend to run my race.

Or at least it was supposed to be run at that pace.

My goal pace for 15 miles is a 10:27 mile. I ran my tempo run at:

10:14

10:05

10:22

10:40

10:05

10:07

9:33

Ok, so the closest I came to my goal pace was 10:22. Only one of the miles did I run too slowly. And that last mile? I was kicking it pretty hard, although I still had some juice left in me at the end. 

Here's the real question. Is it OK to run your tempo run faster than your goal pace? Isn't it a good thing to run faster for the entirety? If my times were all over the place, some faster, some slower, then I could see that this might not be good. But I would say I averaged a 10:12. Does that mean that should be my goal pace? Or do I just leave it be?

I don't know the answers to these questions. 

On a separate note, I have been reading The Runner's Brain by Dr. Jeff Brown and I tried a couple of his suggestions. First, I picked out an outfit that I felt made me fast. I know it sounds silly because how can a shirt, some toe socks, and some compression tights make you fast.  But whatever  I felt like a serious runner, and I needed to feel that way for this zippier run.

Next, I tried to focus internally. I already have an internal associative style of thinking when I run hard. That means I focus on what's going on within my body. For example, I scan my body for pain points  I adjust my breathing constantly, and I am forever assessing my current form. Am I standing straight with a tilt at the ankles? Am I hunched over? Are my shoulders relaxed and not bunched up near my ears? Is my head facing forward or am I staring upwards at the sky? Are my elbows cocked outward? The faster I run, the more I assess my form.  The slower I run, the more likely I am to have an external dissociative style of thinking.  What will I have for dinner? Will the code I wrote for the web service break and cause me to stay late at work tonight? Are there any more good nature documentaries on Netflix?

One thing I did during the last mile was interesting. I was getting tired. So I did a body scan. I noticed that there wasn't any particular body part that was hurting or felt fatigued. My breathing was about the same as it had been. So why I was getting tired? Was I really tired or did I just think I was tired because I was so close to the end?  I did notice it was requiring more effort to make my legs move. It seemed like I was expending a bit more energy to get my quads pumping, and I was not going any faster.That wasn't entirely true because that last mile I ran about 40 seconds faster than the others. But it seemed like I was working very hard for this extra speed. 

My run this morning was quite a success. I got a little too relaxed on that 10:40 mile ( I knew it felt too easy!), but otherwise I did pretty good. Taking a day between the strength session and the tempo run helps. I take a day completely off. 

The next 3 days are easy and long runs. I look forward to these. My mind wanders a bit, but it feels like a brain vacation. I just let it go wherever it wants. I will dress in something appropriate, maybe something that will make me slow down a bit.  

No Marathon Club

I think I should start a new club.  It'll be called the No Marathon Club, and, you guessed it, only people who have never,nor will ever, do a marathon are allowed to join.

OK, so maybe someday I will do a marathon, but I don't see it in my near future at all. The distance and challenge just don't call to me. It seems that everyone else has already done a marathon.  I can be one of the few runners whose has never done one.  That'll be unique!

Actually, I don't care about uniqueness in this respect.  Maybe that's why the marathon doesn't appeal to me.  Yes, it is difficult. Extremely difficult.  Yes, not many people actually run a marathon. So the lure of standing out amongst a crowd may be one of the reasons people run marathons.  But that lure is non-existent for me.

I had pondered not too long ago about doing a 50k.  30 miles.  And I have since determined that this is not for me either.

I love running.  Absolutely love it, and I don't want to stop enjoying it.  I fear that running and training for those long distances will make me HATE running.  And I am not willing to risk it. I will stick with moderate distances like 13.1 or 25k.  And even those distances are a little much.  I am ready to start focusing on getting a great time in the 10k and the 5k.  I think 2016 will be all about that.

Except for the 25k I plan on doing in February.  But that's it.

Vacation Decided!

Back in November I wrote a post about my potential vacation plans for 2016.  It has taken me more than two months to finally figure out what to do and where to go!  It was a tough decision,and I bounced back and forth from Iceland to Moab to Alaska and then Spain.  I considered the Rocky Mountain National Park, a Napa Valley Wine Marathon, even a trip above the Arctic circle in Nunavut, Canada.

I could not decide!

I threw my hands up in the air and started to really think hard about why this decision was so difficult. First, I seem to be known at the office and amongst my family members as a bit of an adventurer, going to odd places on my own and doing weird stuff (8 mile hike wearing mud boots along the rocky coast of Homer, Alaska, 6 mile mud/muck run in Nova Scotia, an attempt to scale Mt. Rainier in Washington state, kayaking off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, etc).

I almost feel like I have a reputation to live up to.  What crazy thing will I do next?  Run a costumed wine-related marathon in the Burgundy region of France?  Maybe a 3-day stage race in Alberta, Canada. Or a simple half-marathon in Yellowstone National Park?

It was all too much for me. I determined this: I am tired of spending 24 to 48 hours of my vacations on airplanes, mulling around airports, going through customs, searching for my luggage.  I am tired of spending 75% of my vacation driving around some foreign country or what seems like a foreign country (Alaska) . Yes, the best way to get to know a place is by driving through it, but it's also exhausting. I swear, I saw every square inch of the province of Nova Scotia, twice.

By the way, never rent a Chevy Spark in Nova Scotia. A car that weighs more than your luggage is really required for a hardy place like that.

So, I started going in the other direction. What is the opposite of adventure? Relaxation, meditation, maybe some art therapy or easy yoga. I then started looking for vacations that would still incorporate my running, but would also be super relaxing. I thought about attending a Chi Running class in conjunction with a one week yoga retreat. I looked at a Mindful Running retreat in Utah. I found a 3 day retreat outside Toronto, Ontario that was solely yoga for runners.

I got frustrated again. Long travel times and high expenses just made these vacations seem a little ridiculous.

I then realized that what I needed I could probably get right here at home. I want yoga, so why not sign up for a 30 day yoga pass near the house? I want meditation, so why not attend the Tibetan sanctuary also near my house on Saturday mornings for sitting meditation? I want a little adventure, so why  not go to the indoor rock climbing gym? Still want something unusual? Attend a cooking class.

So, in one month, I will do all of these things. My staycation is being planned. And half the fun of a vacation is actually in the planning, at least for me.

Oh, and in July I am signed up for a one week runner's camp in the mountains of North Carolina.  A quick morning flight will get me to North Carolina in time for a late lunch. I will be around other runners, doing yoga, camping, swimming in mountain streams, running on trails, hopefully making s'mores in the evenings.  I am so excited about this.