The mind, like the foot

Why am I so often writing of birds? Perhaps because there are more flitting about in the desert that there are snakes slithering or chipmunks scurrying (though I do owe mammals of some sort a post soon).

A kestrel, on a wire (a kestrel rarely feels complete without one). As I approach, it gave its call. To imagine it was kee-ing at me is anthro-hubris, but, as I was running (and oxygen deprived) I thought of it nonetheless.

Kee-kee-kee-kee. Perhaps it meant run-run-run-run? If it had been my old coach, John, it would have certainly translated to, Relax and go, relax and go (but it would have been much more reserved, and respectable).

Or maybe I misheard, and it was he-he-he-he-he. Or the classic Run, Forrest, run?

No--it was, Nice short shorts, I'm sure. Then, like one of any number of grade schoolers (or even teenagers), it skipped the other way.

The mind, like the foot, extends towards the ground that presents itself, but it cares far less about how it lands.

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10 mi, 70 min; Mono City to Old 395 (I think), to Cemetery Road, to 167

Time to make strides

I decided to take it pretty easy today, because though the landscape never gets old for me--it always look different, new, though it's wave, after scraggly wave, of sage--the length and cadence of my run does. Monotony is the bane of creativity, and perhaps fitness. I'm looking forward to throwing my first, short tempo run into the mix, in two weeks. I'm also going to institute a genuine long run.

And, oh, it was refreshing do some strides today on E Mono Lake Dr. The first of many. In between my easy dashes, I watched a silhouetted kestrel, perched on a telephone wire over the sage. It dipped its long tail for steadiness, swiveled its neck-less head. Then, it sprung backwards, beating fast and low across the brush, gliding in to another lookout on a bush (and flushing a pair of watchful Say's phoebes, which flew to where it had been on the wire).

There's release in a burst of speed. A sense of intent, maybe hunger.

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8+ mi, 60 min, + 4 easy strides; Rambling on roads around Mono City