Stop Setting Goals....

Being completely frank about myself (to myself), I never "really" set goals when it comes to my hobbies. I think that's part of the beauty of having hobbies. They are anxiety-free, leisure activities I don't have to worry about failing. I do them for fun and push myself only when I want. Ironically, I often feel like I am more willing to push myself to perform my hobbies than work. I think I do this because, at my core, I have a problem with authority - but that's a different story altogether. Or maybe it's because I feel like there is real freedom in not worrying about my contribution. Take that however you want. As in a contribution toward work, other people, or life in general. Selfishly, I feel the need to pull back out of "the system" and take a deep breath. I focus on friends, family, and sometimes nothing at all. When I'm running, hiking, or biking, I am in the moment. It's a zen experience for me to be able to focus on my heart-beat, the road/trail, or just reflect on social situations. I do the latter a lot. I'm not really good with interpersonal interaction. Or, if I am, it's because I work hard at it - and that's just the kind of stress I need to escape, at times.

Sometimes friends offer the right kind of escape. Friends that you trust and who do not judge. I recently redefined my understanding of trust. I used to think trust was telling someone something and relying on them to hold that information in confidence. I thought that offering something personal about myself to be safe-guarded by someone else was the quintessence of trust. This is true to a point. But trust in friendship is a process whereby you can trust someone else to accept you for who you are. You rely on them to be their-self; both without judgement. Reciprocation is key. If I'm being honest, I believe there are many people you can trust with holding personal information in confidence. However, that doesn't mean there is no judgement nor does that make two people good friends. Friendship is about acceptance and this kind of trust is rare. At least it is for me. I'm 30 years old and only put all this together recently... I'm not sure if that fact is a really good thing or if it's just sad... Either way, it is what it is and I'm just happy I know.

To me, a perfect day consists of doing things I like with the people I care about. Sounds obvious, right? Unfortunately, that hasn't always been so simple for me. I mean, how much time do we think that's what we're doing when we're really just trying to fit in? One way I differentiate the two is by asking myself what I'm trying to get out of my interactions? If I have placed goals on the situation other than having a good time, chances are it's not candid. At the very least there is no solace in it - now there's a word! I mean, how can I be content if I'm placing expectations on my social interactions? So I don't set goals like that. It's like my hobbies. I might work hard at them, but it's because I genuinely want to. No pressure. Combine hobbies and friends and, to me, you have true solace. Oh, and setting goals is fine. I guess what I'm saying is something like, "don't miss the forest for the trees."

So happy to have friends, family, and hobbies to share.

Perceiving Color in Nature

Part of the wonderful experience of being outdoors involves taking-in the beautiful scenery. Imagine it - going out for a trail hike during that sweet-spot moment when Fall leaves are at their peak. I've heard many people talk about how amazing Fall colors can be. Unfortunately, I don't think I fully appreciate the sentiment because I am red-green color-blind. A protanope to be exact but that really isn't specific enough. Even among those, mostly men, who are color deficient, there is individual variability. For me, I have the inherited condition given to me by my mother. It involves having a mutant set of color receptor cones in the eyes that process red and green differently than normal. But there is an interesting story for how this was discovered and what it means for people with the heritable trait!

First, I want to show you what it's like to see through my eyes. It's probably not what you'd expect. It is, however, the question that rakes most people's mind when they find out I'm color blind. I know this because the first questions I am asked when I tell people I'm color-blind is, [points to object] "what color is this?" I'm usually inclined to play along because they're interested and, let's be honest, it's not the worst question to ask. The hard part for me is not being able to convey what objects look like through my eyes. Worse still, I have no clue what the same objects look like to most other people. But for now I can at least satisfy the former by offering you a side-by-side comparison of two images: one is the original image while the other is filtered to distort the original colors in such a way as they appear to me. See if you notice the difference.

Truth be told, the filter isn't perfect. I can see a bit of difference between the first two side-by-side images. It appears that there is a bit more green in the left image. The bottom images look identical to me. Not even sure if I did it right. But there you have it. To many protanopes, these side-by-side images are indistinguishable. Now for the fun part: science.

The human eye usually has 3 color receptor cones that feed ganglion cells information about light wavelength that is interpreted as color in the brain. (Food for thought: color doesn't exist outside your brain.) People with a normally functioning set of three cones are called trichromats. These cones are broken down as follows:

• White/Black - responsible for tints and shades
• Yellow/Blue - responsible for distinguishing yellow and blue
• Red/Green - yep, you guessed it... 

In 1948, Dutch scientist H.L. de Vries was studying functional differences in color-blind men who possessed a mutant cone that is less sensitive to either green or red, making it difficult for them to distinguish the two colors. To test their ability to match colors, de Vries had the men look at a standard color swatch of yellow and, in a separate swatch, mix colors by turning knobs so that the result, to their eyes, matched the standard yellow swatch. What he found was that, to compensate for their difficulty in discerning hues, they needed to add more green or red than normal-seeing people to make the colors match.

What's more interesting is that, while trying to determine if this color-blind trait was heritable, de Vries tested the daughters of one individual and discovered that, even though they were not color-blind, they needed more red in their test light than normal people to precisely match the color swatches. What de Vries stumbled upon wouldn't be re-evaluated for another 30 years or so and not extensively investigated until the late '90s (Reagan & Mollon, 1997; Jordan et al., 2010). In the mean time, de Vries surmised that red-green color-blindness ran in families, affecting men but not women. He also concluded that, while men had two normal cones and one mutant cone, mothers and daughters of color-blind men had the mutant cone AND the three normal cones - a total of four separate cones in their eyes. This early work described a new set of individuals who possess 4 color receptors. They are known as anomalous trichromats or, more popularly, as tetrachromats. They are usually (if not exclusively) women and they have the ability to detect wavelengths of light not perceived by normal trichromats. 

So, if you are either the mother or daughter of a guy who is red-green color blind, you might be seeing the world a bit differently than most of your peers. For those guys out there with the mutant cone (myself included), fear not - there could be something on it's way that will help us distinguish those pesky colors that usually give us trouble. A friend of mine (thanks Kelly!) just sent along an article by BuzzFeed about a business venture between ValSpar paint and the company EnChroma to develop tinted glasses to help the color-blind. The original BuzzFeed article can be found here. I'm familiar with the idea because it uses the same filtering principles used to distort the images I posted above. In doing so, it alters the wavelengths of light that are otherwise indistinguishable by the color-blind into visible colors. Google chrome introduced a lab plugin for their web browser - Chrome - that works the same way (i.e. Daltonize). I have been using it for about a year and it's pretty neat. I'll show you a demonstration below using the pics posted above.

Unfiltered                                      Filtered

To be honest, I don't know how helpful those tinted glasses will actually be but I'm interested in getting a pair. Maybe once the price dips a little. At $350-$400, they're a little pricey! 

A Primer on Orienting

Here's a little guide to orienting using the Universal Transverse Mercador (UTM) system. To use this system you'll need a few tools designed specifically for the job:
1.) A map with UTM gridlines.
2.) A Roamer Scale (AKA square ruler) with variety of scales.
3.) A compass

Map with UTM Grid Lines:

These maps are widely available and will likely be on any legitimate map you buy. However, be sure you know what you're looking for. The map should tell you what metrics it uses in the margin and include the Zone (e.g. 18 Northern Hemisphere) depicted by the map. UTM grid lines are usually in blue and will have a numbering system that looks a bit strange (e.g. Longitude: ⁴⁴05^000mN , Latitude: ²80^000mE). These numbers reference the grid system which indicates the scale of the map in meters.  When combined, the examples given above depict a point on map in Zone 18 of the Northern Hemisphere that is 4,405,000 meters north and 280,000 meters east of the bottom-left most point in the corresponding UTM Zone.

Declination: The discrepancy between Grid North (GN) and Magnetic North (MN) on the map. This is important if you are using a compass to determine your location via triangulation since your compass reading will be offset a few degrees from GN on the map. There's a really good reason why GN and MN are not the same. GN will always stay the same while MN will vary year to year, depending on shifts in the Earth's magnetic field. Also, True North (TN) represents geographic north. It is usually indicated by a star (see image). IMPORTANT: Always keep and up-to-date map that shows an accurate Declination. Being even 1-degree off could send you miles in the wrong direction if you walk long enough.

Scale: The scale is important for calculating accurate distance. It will look something like this (1:50,000). This simply means that you must multiple the units on the map by 50,000 to determine the actual number on the ground. For example, 1 inch on the map would be equivalent to 50,000 inches on the ground. Identifying the scaling system on your map is essential to working with UTM coordinates since you will need to use the proper conversion.

Topographic Lines: These lines indicate change in elevation. The map should tell you how many vertical feet are between consecutive lines. REMEMBER: The closer the topographic lines, the steeper the terrain. Avoid traveling in a direction that is too steep.

                         Roamer:

These "square rulers" are necessary for determining coordinate locations on a map. Whatever coordinate system you use, be sure you have a Roamer that uses the scale appropriate for your map.

Guide to UTM Map Reading:
For a somewhat thorough introduction to UTM coordinate reading, follow this link:
Instructional video for using the UTM coordinate system.

(Very boring but thorough!)

                                                  Compass:

Ok, so you don't really need a compass to identify coordinates on a map. But, if you ever need to physically arrive at that destination, a compass is essential. Also, anyone who ventures into the outdoors for overnight backpacking or long trail hikes should own and use a compass. Using a compass can help you get your bearings, even if in the most general sense. Combine the use of a compass with a map/coordinate system and, with some work, you can triangulate your position down to a few meters. Knowing your position is very important for determining which direction to travel if you get lost. Especially if you must find the most efficient route.

How to Triangulate your location:

1. Get to a position that you can easily identify prominent landmarks that correspond to your map. 
2. Using a compass, take a bearing on a prominent landmark (the straight line that intersects the landmark and your position).                                                                                                             
• Taking a bearing: Point the "orienting arrow" on your compass in the direction of the landmark and take a reading between this direction and magnetic north (example: 24 degrees). 
• Twist the knob on your compass wheel so that the "orienting arrow" is in the direction of the landmark. 
• Remember to correct for declination!                                                                                       
3. Now that you have your bearing represented on the compass, match the "orienting arrow" on your compass with the north line on your map. 
4. Next, line-up the edge of your compass to the landmark as portrayed on your map. With the "orienting arrow" pointing north and the edge of your compass touching the landmark on the map, you should be able to draw a straight line along the entire edge of your compass representing the bearing-line (the straight line drawn on the map that intersects the landmark and your position). 

So far, you know that both you and the landmark fall on the bearing line. However, you do not know where along that line you are located. To determine where you are located along the bearing line, find another landmark and repeat steps 2-4.

You should now have drawn two lines that intersect based on your bearing between 2 landmarks. The point of intersection between the two lines represents your location.

Instructional video for Triangulating and plotting a Bearing

World Class Climbing in the Gorge

Motivational video to help get you (but mostly me) outdoors and mitigate the pitfalls of St. Patty's Day debauchery! Before you have that (those) beer(s) or go in for hearty helpings of corned-beef and potatoes, try and get that workout in.

Good Luck!

Nutrition Etc...

Iron. I've been thinking about Iron a lot lately. As a part of my New Year's resolution, I started tracking just about everything I eat. For me, it has been a colossal undertaking wrought with being made too aware of what I'm probably doing wrong - on a daily basis. What's more, any attempt to correct malnutrition in one area usually results in an imbalance in another area. Take protein for example - eat more protein rich food, increase fat. Unless you eat chicken as your primary source of protein, you will likely run into this problem. The same is true for calcium. One thing I've noticed in all this diet-tracking is my utter lack of eating whole foods with a balance of vitamins and minerals. It seems that while fighting to regulate my carbs, fat, sugar, protein, and calories, I have overlooked vitamins and minerals! I was so focused on keeping out the bad that I neglected taking in the good. That brings me back to Iron. Recently, I began tracking the days I felt fatigued and was unable to finish my workouts satisfactorily. I correlated my Iron levels with performance and voila!, a negative relationship.

Unfortunately, that's not the whole story. On days that I don't get enough Iron, I'm also low in other essential vitamins and minerals. For example, I am regularly deficient in Vitamin A, Fiber, Potassium, and Iron. While Vitamin A is pretty easy to fix (eat 1 serving of carrots!), the others are a little more tricky. Fiber, for instance, is attainable but I have to eat a lot more bran (harder than it seems) and beans. Also, there are some social consequences to the latter. Moving on... I can probably up-take Potassium by eating a banana but I have to be more aware of sugar that day. Now what about Iron? Like I mentioned before using other examples, this comes with a trade-off. The best way to get Iron is to eat red meat. You can also get it in leafy green vegetables; however, be prepared to eat a lot! But wait a minute. Before I start filling my grocery cart full of spinach, what does Iron even do? To me, Iron was like Winston Churchill (W.C.). I knew they were both very important but I wasn't exactly sure why? Well, a quick Google search revealed the answer (of both Iron and W.C.!). Both ensure sufficient support from allies to keep the "enemy" at bay. You see, Iron (W.C.) is responsible for recruiting oxygen (allies) to muscles (the frontline). To prevent fatigue, Iron ensures muscles receive plenty of oxygen. This potentially explains a bit about my fatigue/Iron relationship. So, I started taking One-A-Day Men's Health to supplement my diet. This seemed to put everything back on track... except it didn't. My multi-vitamin does not have Iron or Potassium. Interesting. Why not? Well, the other day I researched the reason why my multi-vitamin doesn't contain Iron (I'm still not sure why no Potassium). What I learned was that having too much Iron is not good and supplement companies intentionally keep it out of multi-vitamins. Here is the reason why: There's some substantial evidence to support that the body retains Iron and that too much can lead to an increased risk of type-II diabetes mellitus (Aregbasola et al., 2013), stroke (Kaluza, Wolk, & Larson, 2013), and coronary heard disease (Qi et al., 2007; Hunnicutt, He, & Xun, 2014). WOW! Well played Bayer Pharmaceutics for keeping it out of my One-A-Day.

Ok, so I probably need more Iron. But I'm not going to try and get it via a supplement. I'm going to try to get it through whole foods as best I can. And if I don't, I'm going to err on the side of caution and pay tribute to the the old adage, "less is more". While I'm sure that most anything you eat or do is somehow linked to increased risks of negative side-effects, I'll choose to play it safe with Iron. In the mean time, I'll also stick with taking my multi-vitamin and playing the balance game with my diet. If anything, keeping track of my diet has been a great learning experience. It gives me the opportunity to find out what I'm doing (and have been doing) to my body over time. To some extent it's a pain to log this stuff on a daily basis but it's gratifying, too. I continue to learn what's likely good and bad for my body. More importantly, I'm learning what to learn. Until monitoring my diet, I never thought to investigate the role of Iron and the consequences of having too much.

That First 5k

If you are like me, run training wanes sometime in December. For about a month or two, weather conditions are usually not amenable to putting feet to pavement. If I'm lucky, I can don my running shoes as early as February - but not consistently. Consistency doesn't happen until March at the earliest. It is then that my "running season" begins.

During those blustery, winter months I hike, indoor climb, and indoor bike. This does a good job of maintaining me until I can get back running. However, riding a stationary bike is not a comparable replacement to being on the real thing and neither does it satisfy my alone time when I lace my shoes, plug in my headphones, and run for miles. In moderation, I like the indoor bike. It dutifully serves it's purpose and allows me to push myself. One advantage it has over other training programs is visibility to vitals monitoring. You need not look far to visually register cadence, speed, heart-rate, and power (with no distraction from traffic). Come to think of it, you have an ideal heads-up display! Another advantage to the indoor bike is control. Like a laboratory experiment that dictates every considerable aspect of the environment, a stationary bike is controlled. It is laboratory experimentation at it's finest, really. The rider controls intensity with a precise turn of a resistance knob in an environment set to specification. It is admittedly easier to account for plateaus in training in this environment when compared to one unfettered. It seems so ideal... only it isn't. Riding a bike and not going anywhere disheartens my legs. They rebel and refuse to work without proper compensation. Legs, after all, are designed to take you places. How frustrating would it be if you jumped in your car, drove for 30 minutes, only to find you hadn't gone anywhere. My legs agree. They have to be outside to achieve proper motivation. Truth be told, I see my greatest gains in performance when I'm outdoors. There is just no substitute for the thrill of fresh air.

So despite the crisp air, single-digit temperatures (Fahrenheit), and piles of snow, I have been running through the winter months. Better yet, I'm running a 5k today at pace. Nothing spectacular but I'm hoping for a sub 7:40 minute mile average.  This will be the gateway to my training for a sub 2-hour half-marathon later this year. Here's to an injury free running season!

-Happy St. Patrick's Day

Friends, Family, and the Great Outdoors: North Fork Trail

Since I left Kentucky in 2009 I have looked for ways to pursue the outdoors. Moving to Washington, DC was not ideal, in my book. Rather, it was a means to an end (and you don't always get to choose). What I left behind in Kentucky was open access to wildland forestry with almost unlimited freedom to camp and hike wherever I pleased. This has the ability to spoil anyone who comes to think of this is the status-quo. Then I moved...

When you move to The District from a place like Kentucky many things change. The cultural atmosphere, the variety of people, access to resources, definitely the politics, but the first thing I noticed was the terrain. Somehow I had traveled away from the isolation and embrace of tightly-formed hills with deciduous forest to flat, marshy land and bay waters riddled with throngs of people. My favorite pass-time as a kid was hiking and riding my mountain bike. How would I make do? The District is full of parks, sure. But the last time I visited Rock Creek Park I had the opportunity to see patrons dressed in penny-loafers, fur coats, and walking their cats! Not exactly what I was used to. But that's when I opened my eyes. For the first time I had to reach rather than be handed to. I started making time to look broadly at my surroundings. I found Catoctin Mountain a a relatively short drive away and, just a little further, the Appalachian Trail. Come to find out, Maryland is a a treasure trove of outdoor adventure. Not just the western region beyond Savage Mountain and on into West Virginia. I'm talking Central Maryland! In less than twenty minutes I could be in Patapsco Park which boasts 170 miles of trails. More than half are open to mountain biking. Perfect!

North Fork Trail

When I was young, I would camp with friends and family. When it was just us kids, we would cram every basic essential into a school bag, lace up our boots (usually a work boot), and 'a-camping we did go'! My favorite mornings were waking up, crawling out of a sleeping bag and gathering kindling to try my hand at building a fire. I was almost always successful even if that meant using an entire box of kitchen matches. Not much has changed since then except I drink coffee now. Oh, and I've refined my fire-starting skills! I didn't know it then, but I was growing up learning how to backpack. To be honest, I never realized what backpacking culture was until I was more than two decades old. I bought my first real backpack when I moved to Maryland in 2010. I had taken a hiatus from camping, in general, while an undergrad. This stands as one of my biggest regrets. Now, I take every opportunity I can to hit the great outdoors. Moving north to the DMV ( District, Maryland, and Virginia) area gave me perspective. I started rock climbing, lightweight backpacking, and mountain biking more than ever. Right now I'm planning a trip with my brother to hike the full distance of the North Fork Trail in West Virginia. It's ~24 miles of the most scenic vistas in the Monogahela. Both my brother and I have rekindled our thirst for adventure and found a way to bond as adults. Funny, while living in Kentucky, with greater access to the outdoors and family, I never realized how important these trips are. Now that I'm further away, I try harder. So, despite some of my disappointments moving to the DMV, I have to say it has taught me about the importance of life, friends, family, the and great outdoors. Thanks, Maryland!

What I've Learned the Past 5 Years

Exercise is something we do to get our bodies healthy. When we're young, few people truly tell us how difficult it is to "get back on track" if we've let ourselves become too lackadaisical as an adult. Even if someone manages successfully to convey the importance of being active or not over-eating, most of us scoff and think, "yeah yeah, that'll never happen to me" or "so what, I'll just diet and exercise." I guess I say that because that's the way I was; young and naive. Once you traipse off to college - or wherever you go after high-school - and life doles out responsibilities for the first time, you think to yourself how awesomely busy you are compared to everyone else. You are one of the busiest people you know because you have a job, captain the soccer club team, and make good grades. Sure, these are ear-marks of success but hold up... If you're an 18 to 20 something-year-old, single college student then try to maintain perspective. It's not like you're running a Fortune 500 company. In short, life gets complicated. From what I hear, it usually gets even more complicated the older you get. As you tackle more and more responsibilities, get a job, take out a mortgage, have a kid, pay property tax, plan a budget, blah blah blah, you start to let seemingly less important things, shall we say slip. And suddenly you aren't eating right because it's so much easier to let the grocery list suffer while you trade-in lesser chores to make up for that sleep deficit you'll never truly crawl out of. And exercise? Forget it! But, as we're all well aware, poor diet and exercise comes with consequences. When we find ourself staring type-II diabetes in the face, we cry REFORM! So we buy that stationary bike we promise ourselves we'll ride three times a week. We'll fight this thing because we're tough, see. Only we don't and it just sits there collecting dust. Sure sure, we climb atop our trusty, uni-wheeled steed and give it the 'good ole college try' once in a while but that really isn't cutting it (and if you think it does you're delusional). What is called for is a lifestyle change. One that takes the formerly less important chores and brings them to the frontline. You willingly cash in the extra fifteen minutes of sleep in the morning to make oatmeal. And rather than cram it full of butter and sprinkle liberal amounts of sugar on the SOB, you hold off or get yourself a real teaspoon and start measuring what goes into your body. Maybe you trade in that stationary bike for something with 2-wheels and ride it to work. Will you sweat? Absolutely! But for most of us, that's ok most of the time. Hell, pack some extra deodorant and a change of clothes - you'll live. It's daunting. It's hard. And you're so busy with everything that you do that you couldn't possibly make the time... Chances are you can. Busier people do it every day. And if you're starting to think you are the busiest person in the world, please re-read the part about the college student and try to gain some perspective. Then (and maybe only then) will we realize that the first sentence of this post isn't entirely honest. Exercise isn't just something we do to get our bodies healthy. To achieve success, it must become a way of life.