Duck Duck

 Lately I have been drawn to the kayak in the morning to go see birds.  This means shorter runs, or no run at all.  Surprising I'm okay with this.   Today I cashed in the long run for a little 5.3 mile stroll and the 2.5 on the kayak. 

 The goal is to see 10 types of birds and in my mind they are captured by memory in groups of 5.  Today the goal was 15, but it was not achieved.

 The first group was a White Ibis flying overhead,  Limpkin, Blue Heron, Double Crested Cormorant, and the mighty Green Heron.  The Green Heron is a bird I have to get closer to for the solid read.

 The second group was the Common Gullinale (Moorehen), Sandhill Crane standing afar in someone's yard, Anhinga, Grackle, and a lone Whistling Duck.  The Whistling Duck is becoming a favorite.  Alone or in pairs they do not seem to call as much, but do in larger groups.  You cannot miss their sound.

 The final group was only two more common birds, but they were farther away so I had to paddle over a ways into the lilly pads to add the Great Egret and finally the Little Blue Heron.

 I'm going to have to up my knowledge of song and yard birds to increase the identifications per trip.  One can take some detours on the kayak into neighborhoods off the main water and see the smaller birds.  Plenty of areas with reeds, marsh, and scrub trees to search.  But they are fast and small so not a lot of time to just stare and figure it out.  Sure, Cardinals, Crows, Vultures, and even some Hawks stand out, but the little Warblers, Chickadees, Sparrows, and such are harder.

 This interests me.  It is another activity that draws and keeps me outside.  This and the fact one does not think about the time passing, but being a part of nothingness. 

I don't even have a garage

 55.1 miles achieved this week.  Brother it has been hot these past few mornings.  

 Already moved to 41st on the Long Haul 100 wait list. 

 Crawford signed up for the wait list and is in the 54th spot.  Now if it works out I have someone to try and one up on long runs.  Whatever it takes.

 Someone with the exact same name and age as me is already in.  The race director sent me a note asking why I registered twice.

 It's good to have something in front of me.  

12:15 pace

 The horror.   11.2 mile pace on random surfaces.  Only walked about 0.2 miles.

 47th on the Long Haul 100 wait list.

 My wife has a nice recumbent bike.  It is fun to ride.

 Don't sweat the mickey mouse is a line uttered to me about 36 years ago by my boss.  I'm just now beginning to apply the concept rather liberally. 

 A cup of black coffee has been serving as the place where I then say it all starts from here.

 I can't eat 50 eggs.

 I can eat 50 wings.

 The argument could be made for me to take social security at 62 solely on the knowledge that pound for pound I have eaten the most hamburgers and hot dogs.

 The blue heron spears the blue gill immediately and then moves away from me.  Then it goes down head first and you can watch the trajectory.   I'm not certain if they are ever full.

Stand back, sometimes the shrapnel comes through my fingers

 So...I signed up for the Long Haul 100 in January down the road in Lakeland,  FL.  Apparently it is a Western States qualifier so I ended up on the wait list.  Oh well.  I'm thinking one last hurrah and then cutback on the jogging and incorporate other low aerobic stuff.  It is time and yes I will still do Ice Age.

 When you play games with small kids you tend to change the rules so they can win.  This is a bad comparison, but in all aspects of life the rules appear to change, but I'm not a kid.  Stuff comes in a mailbox, an email, verbally, suddenly, ideally, mentally, etc.  How it works is I react and send it back usually timely.  Why doesn't the ball come back quicker any longer?  Aggrevates me because then I want to just swim in the same pool.  No wonder many of us want to Gilligan Island it.

High cheese

 If you have not seen the 30 for 30 on Bo Jackson it is definitely worth the watch.  I have watched it several times and as a sports fan you still find yourself cheering for Bo.  But as we know, Bo is very seriously injured.  He will not play football again, but does return to Major League Baseball.

 Mike Greenberg comments that occasionally you would see the old Bo, the flashes of brilliance, but it wasn’t always there.  This is how running is now for me without any flashes of brilliance.  There appear to be two paths to follow.  Go out and lumber around and chase mileage, or rest more and introduce efforts which represent something like an actual run.

 Lumbering around is any combination of walking/jogging ending up producing miles at 11:00-13:30 pace.  A common effort of 6.5 miles takes 1:20:00.  Efforts feeling like a run are around 10:00 a mile, but they extract a cost.  During my last training I was able to get near 8:00’s for 6 miles and close to 7:30’s for 3 miles.  I like those because a lot of time isn’t eaten up.

Hey I have to get something done I’ll return back to this in the future.