Photos of Montana are posted elsewhere. An update on money in photography. I go over my training methods which I think quite good.
I will probably return to writing here soon, but I am still trying to resolve myself to a world where I will be paying a small fee to blog. I mean, its blogging, you know? But $2.49 to post all these photos so people may view them and read my adventure stories if they like is not bad. I enjoy it a little I suppose, in a vanity sort of way, few readers though I find.
I have had a little trouble with this blog in that I never feel witty or entertaining. Perhaps I let loose my inner cynicism too much, or I rush through posts trying to remember details before they fade and tell every story for every mile, or maybe its something else. Maybe I am entertaining. But I know that while writing letters by hand to people and sealing them in envelopes, I feel darned brilliant and recipients treasure these letters and all but beg me for more. I also always feel clever in emails, though they run long, and the dearth of replies perhaps suggests that I exhaust people or am not as entertaining as I think. My other blog all about food gets mostly rave reviews. I have more followers, and though I receive some criticism, my favorite comparing me to James Joyce without the payoff (a little like calling someone a torturer of teeth who fails to fill cavities), and a few death threats, mostly my fan response is gushing praise. Just peruse my fan letters and questions from real fans, which I can hardly keep up with in mailbag posts.
So I want to do better here. I think I can. I tell the same stories in person and in letters and am adored. Yet here, something does not click. I will work on that, and probably start paying to post a few pictures soon. For now, most of Washington is up here, but I did not post 4 final trip reports with photos. My Montana gallery on the website now has nearly 50 pictures up from 2 trips to Glacier National Park and some of them are really spectacular. Also I am working on posting to the Wyoming gallery. You can stop over there if you really love my pictures. Hey anything is possible.
Now for an update on my ongoing series: Is there money in photography? I am still finding the answer to be a hearty no. I receive more and more compliments and am trying different products, but even in an indoor, half-week show, I still sold very little. The posters fizzled, my cards were duds, and I moved not a single matte-framed print. A shock, as they are beautiful and all of these items I am practically trying to give away at this point. I am giving out more business cards and hearing more people say they will contact me, so maybe things are picking up. We'll see. The photos are good, and many unique, they are presented well, the price is good, I am not completely horrible to be around, but still no success so far.
Now for my workout theories. I used to spend most of my life in the gym. This was back in high school, during my bodybuilding days. That was probably a bad idea, but it gave me an excuse not to date, and I did win some contests and people guessed me to be 25 until my braces shone through a smile. I am not a gym rat anymore. I go once a week tops, and that is only in the winter. I try to do things at the gym that I can't accomplish outdoors. When weather is good, I walk anyplace under 2 miles, or skate, time permitting. Grocery store especially. Skating I use to keep my legs strong. That also utilizes many of the ski muscles, good for ski buffs. I never jog, as it hurts my knees, though I can walk and climb almost without end. Jogging puts a very high strain on the joints and I think there are wiser choices. If I am using machines for cardio during the winter, I go with a bike I can stand and climb on- simulating steep mountains, or any elliptical machine. There are also ski simulators, but I'd rather just go through that motion the few times I cross country ski each year (though this winter is looking good to be cold and long and snowy).
I prefer to get a lot of my work in in the pool. I alternate swimming, several strokes, with my favorite secret exercise: running in waist high water. I go forward, backward, sideways, and mix in jumps. It is a great chest-pounder that really gets the heart going and will build strong legs, particularly in muscles you climb with. Stretching is important every morning, at least a few moves. I mix in some light yoga when I need to relax before I start the day or feel extra stiff or tight. I like calisthenics, such as lunges, which are great for the mountain climber as they really stretch and strengthen the flexor muscle in the upper center of the thigh, connecting to the hip. That's a trouble spot when going uphill for long stretches and I popped both of mine a few seasons back. Since then they have been a focus muscle for me and my left one is problematic. Lunges, and lots of quad and hamstring stretches have prevented any injury this year though.
I play some racquetball and I find it pretty good for total body fitness. My last session left me with burning triceps, shoulders, chest, back, and abdominals and worked up a healthy sweat. I got enough running in to make me breathe heavy for about two seconds.
I think rhythm is a bad thing with exercising. I like to mix in bursts of intense training with a period just long enough to relax again. New machines seem to feature this thinking with preset programs that alternate 1 minute of hard effort with 4 or 2 minute cycles of moderate work. I go a step further. I make 1 out of each 3 or 4 "intense" minutes a "black-out" minute. I take it to the very edge of feeling like my heart will explode. This method is said to burn more calories, build more muscle, and improve aerobic capacity more. I agree on all counts.
Try to work all your muscles and not get into ruts. If the workout is predictable, or you always use the same machine for the same time, you are doing no good. In my one workout each week during winter I try to focus on specific mountain principles too. I do not take water, I may wet my mouth at the drinking fountain, but that's it. I will train up to 4 hours with no water. That's the idea. I keep going even after tired, do not eat, take very short breaks, and try to use any trick I can think to build stamina. Its the marine method really. Get used to being tired, hungry, hot, and dried out, and if you can still do a thing then, you can do it any time. If you are willing to work past suffering, you stop suffering. Or derived from Dante: the way out of Hell is to all the way through Hell. The elusive thing about comfort is the more you try to make yourself comfortable, the less comfortable you'll be. Its quite contrary to the concept in vogue now of sipping water constantly and snacking non-stop, to keep hydrated and nourished. It makes babies of men, I say. There's been plenty of chat about that on previous blogs.
I do little weight lifting. When I use weights, its with perfect form. I've had too many injuries trying to move great poundage. Its not practical strength either. In high school I could throw about huge weight, but I am probably stronger in a real world sense now. Its also not in my interests to weigh a ton anymore. I have trouble keeping a modest body weight with my metabolism and all the hiking I do. For strength training I prefer calisthenic type work at home. Stretch bands, pushups, planking, lunges, kicks, pullups. Those are great because they work with your bodyweight and in the mountains, that is what I need to move. They also produce real strength, the kind a gymnast has. When I do weights, I prefer free weights and sets of 12 reps. Again, keep perfect form. These do compliment the fuller range of motion of fitness bands and will build strength in core muscles that calisthenics cannot reproduce.
All of this worked well for me. In the whole summer I was often miserable, tired, hot, clumsy with fatigue, cursing, cold, or any other state, but on the whole, I put in a lot of long days of 12-13 hours with no injuries, little rest, day after day, and completed near 500 miles this year, most in the mountains, 300 in a 4 month period, and summited 47 peaks, many quite difficult. My troubles never compared with what I felt in previous seasons. Looking back at my hiking in the past, its laughable that I thought myself hard or strong. I turned back only a few times this year, was durable in all weathers, went whole days on sips of water or handfuls of meagre fare, and did what most would not even dream of, what most would call crazy. My suffering was never deep or prolonged. And the free and wild pleasures of the mountains, I was able to enjoy more than ever because they were not mingled with grief, grumbling, and pain or burns. If my adventures sound fun to you, you may want to try training like me. Older posts had some of this all in them too, but I wrote on it again because I tested myself all summer and fall and found my methods proved mostly true. I fully expect to be stronger, fitter, and harder next year and to have even less problems. Fluke things can occur, falling rocks and weather and the like, but I get ever more confident that I can handle anything, or at least, survive it.
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