Who's In? - publications

Is Birding a Sport?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:53:55 -0400

If birding is a sport, I'm not very good at it, hampered as I am by imperfect vision, impatience, and the presence of two raucous dogs whenever I'm outside. But I believe there is some competitiveness among serious birders, and one could train to be better at it, surely. I tend to see the same dozen or so birds (I mean species, not individuals) over and over again. This must be comparable to the person whose workout consists of the same two-mile jog over and over again. Pleasant and familiar, but ... isn't there more? Got a hint of it yesterday, when I saw an indigo bunting for the first time ever. And this was on my usual dogwalking rounds, nowhere new and exotic. A lesson to keep one's eyes open!

Here's a picture, not taken by me (but by jec6). It's from a fun birding site called Birdpost. You can keep your "life list" online there, and also map where you spotted particular birds. That seems like it could have some interesting applications for those who study bird populations. Perhaps not academically rigorous, but a massive amateur data gathering, kind of like SETI but a bit more down to earth.

Happy birding, all.

Lose the Baby Weight

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:47:00 -0400

Or any weight, or forget the weight loss and improve your health and fitness. I had the pleasure to work with two cool women, who are also fitness experts and writers/presenters, to create a 12-week plan for regaining or improving fitness while dropping some of the pounds leftover from a pregnancy (even if the blessed event was long ago).

Deborah Bohn and Amy Cotta guide you through 12 weeks of “assignments” for your diet, your exercise, and your attitude. They say success is tougher if you don’t work on all three together. They bring a great sisterly and realistic approach to the project, understanding the challenges of limited time, money, or energy that plague most women. Their program and the style of their message brings you to the realization that although they offer 12 weeks of suggested workouts (with videos) and diet tips and advice, what they’re really setting you up for is a life of healthier choices. Not perfection, and not deprivation (one article is called “Hooray for Pizza, Beer, and Chocolate”), but a sustainable, informed way of living.

There are probably other things out there in this line, but this is a charming antidote to tabloid headlines and shouting adverts for the latest nutrition/diet “breakthrough,” or … even … NPR conversations on yo-yo dieting (not the name of a Chinese musician).

Here’s a link to the index page of the website where the Lose the Baby Weight Challenge lives. But as it’s a bit out of chronological order, here’s an overview of the 12 weeks, with links to the weekly content. Check it out.

Whimsical Rowing Reportage

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:15:00 -0400

This news from Xinhua on the Chinese gold-medal winning women's quad kept me captivated. I thought I would share. It feels like it should be presented in a big, heavy-paged fairy tale book. With gilt-edges and illuminated pages. Partly it's the poetic way the two languages meet, and partly it's the fatefulness of each person's place in life that comes across, as opposed to the individual drive of will and zeal that you get from American athletes (or reporters).

For example:

After being engaged in rowing, Jin almost had no time to spend with her family members.
"After I entered the national team in 2003, I have had only ten days each year to spend with my family," recalled she.

and

"We finally chose Zhang rather than Feng Guixin due to Zhang's daring spirit," said Zhou Qinian, head coach of sculling group of Chinese rowing team.

Happy olympic times, all!

Barack on Basketball

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 23:10:00 -0400

I recently finished reading Barak Obama’s memoir, Dreams of My Father, written in 1995. I’m prone to like the guy anyway, and the fact that he can string a few sentences together gracefully and tell a really good story endears him to me even more. As does knowing he’s a fellow hoops enthusiast, who says he played (like me) “with a consuming passion that would always exceed my limited talent.”

Here’s what he says about what he found in the game, besides friends, a self-defining attitude, and respect:

…A way of being together when the game was tight and the sweat broke and the best players stopped worrying about their points and the worst players got swept up in the moment and the score only mattered because that’s how you sustained the trance. In the middle of which you might make a move or a pass that surprised even you, so that even the guy guarding you had to smile, as if to say, “Damn…”

Every sport has its sublime moments, which share something in common, but all are shaped differently. There’s the fun of it.

(Obama only devotes two pages of his 442-page book to basketball; don’t want to give anyone the impression they should read it if they are looking for insights on the game. You should read it though, for a candid and compelling family history and surprisingly uncomfortable look at race today.)

Research on Fitness and Training

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:15:00 -0400

I’ve found tons of really interesting research and reports at Peak Performance, a U.K. publication you can subscribe to, or get online info through its blog. It’s got everything from “How to Train for a Triathlon,” to “Sports Drinks and Teeth.” Did you know the acidity in sports drinks is high and therefore if you drink them regularly your teeth enamel may erode 30 percent faster than if you just drink water? Yikes.

Doubt

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 22:10:00 -0400

I had dinner last night with a few former national lightweight rowing team compadres. Phew, that’s a lot of adjectives! The culture of rowing has a kind of stupid feature in the show of celebrating pain. Lots of t-shirts attest to this; I'm thinking of “That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” That is a groovy existential thing to sport on your chest when you're in your indestructible 20s, I suppose. But it occurs to me that the phrase remains true about the friendships one forms doing something very difficult together. So there’s an old love built on competition and survival among these women.

Anyhow, not to wax philosophical yet again. We don’t all see each other much (one now lives in France) but we fall into easy comfort with each other. We talked a lot about sports, of course. And, in light of my undertaking this little project, we were talking about sports magazines. I lamented the loss several years ago of Sports Illustrated for Women. In fact, the gap that I felt was left on the newsstand was part of what inspired me to explore this space. To my surprise, two of my jock friends said, “Oh, I was so disappointed in that magazine,” or “I hated it.” To me it was the only fitness magazine that addressed athletes who were interested in performance rather than appearance (though there was always some nod to beauty concerns). But these two were looking for the same format as SI for men, which is all about being a spectator and following the stars. This, they thought, would legitimize women’s sports, market and promote it. I was so stunned that they’d want a spectator magazine that I didn’t know what to say next.

Or what to say here. Since they are probably right, come to think of it, as SI-Women folded because of a lack of “numbers.” Lacking myself the wherewithal to follow or assign others to follow all the major (and often more interesting minor) sports where women are excelling, I must let Lisa and Carey down and cover just the little world of jockdom around me, the useful information that comes my way at random or by research, the interesting sporting tales of my friends and their x degrees of separation. My apologies, I guess.

I knew someone who called self-doubt a killer, and another someone who found people who lacked self-doubt completely boring. All new ventures, be they sports goals, jobs, projects, relationships, recipes… seem to have a moment (at least) of piercing dubiousness. Let it be noted that this is it, here.

And also that a good website that covers high-level women’s sports is Womens Sportsnet.com. There’s also a great one focusing on Canadian women’s sports called Women Warriors, and another Canadian one that focuses more on issues and social policies regarding women's and girls’ sports, with the archaicly lugubrious name of Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity.