Tag Archives: fun

Running Both is Funnest

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After writing last time about slow running for those just getting into the habit, I was interested to see a recent column, The Art of the Easy Shuffle, by David Roche. For those who do not know Roche, you should check out his work in the print or on-line editions of Trail Runner magazine, where he combines knowledgeable analysis of the most-current medical studies with his real-world experience coaching athletes of all levels. You can also find his coaching service, Some Work, All Play at https://swaprunning.com/.

Anyway, in that recent column, Roche was recommending that experienced runners incorporate a significant amount of slow running in their training plans. Even for the most hard-core, Roche pointed out, slow running is a way to build total volume (geek speak for ‘miles per week’) with less risk of damage to the body. Aerobic fitness (the body’s ability to draw oxygen out of the atmosphere and get it to the muscles to fuel their work) is another proven benefit, with studies showing that the maximum potential to increase that fitness comes from lots of aerobic exercise (at or below the level sustainable for an hour or more, i.e., low to moderate effort) not from the more intense anaerobic exercise (output above that level, i.e, running hard, and thus fast).

Great technical knowledge and great for the hard core, but a recent run reminded me of an altogether simpler reason for running slow – it can make you hungry to run fast again!

Pounding out a 10-mile mid-week run was decently satisfying, and there was plenty to pay attention to – checking the heart rate to make sure it was still averaging below 140, self-correcting stride to avoid heel strike, pulling the head back to keep eyes up and neck tall, taking time to see the sights – but as the GPS read off eight miles and then approached nine, it felt a bit like medicine to be choked down. What a relief then, to crank the dial up a couple of notches at the start of that final mile, a little more when GPs showed just a half to go, and all the way to 11 (for all you Spinal Tap fans out there) for the final quarter. Yeah! – that felt great, and because the first 90% of the run had been moderate, it felt downright easy. There was no pain, no worry about damage, and very little fatigue. Best of both worlds, you might call it.

 

So; try slowing down for a good part of your regular running (maybe as much as 60 of weekly ‘volume’). But if you’re feeling well and healthy when you get to the final ten percent of a run, allow yourself the pleasure of really blasting it. Feel the air moving past you faster and faster, experience the world narrowing down to just you and the pavement (or dirt if you’re that kind of bear). Maybe get your body forward a bit; more on the toes, less on the heels. Consciously lengthen each stride at the same time you push-off harder to fit more strides into each minute. You’re well-warmed up by now, all systems operating at capacity, so put everything you’ve got onto the ground as you approach the day’s target distance – whatever that is for you – and remind yourself of the simple joy of being alive and active in the physical world.

Running slow is fun, running fast is funner. Running both is funnest.

See you out there – from a safe distance!

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson

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‘For people in a hurry,’ in the sense that it this is a tiny volume, pocket sized with barely 200 pages and not small type; and also in the sense that a universe of complex ideas are treated briefly and with concision. Perfect for those who want a general sense of what terms like multi-verse, dark energy and Boolean Algebra mean, without the years of schooling and boggled-brains it would take to really ‘know’ this stuff.

For those folks (of which I count myself one), Tyson does a great job, leading us in somewhat random-feeling steps from the relatively-intuitive astronomic understandings that give us a map of the nearby (solar system, asteroids) to the tougher concepts that make up our current best understanding what the entire universe consists of, how it was formed and how it behaves, at levels from the molecular to the quantum. Along the way he delivers plenty of staggering numbers such as:

the portion of all matter/energy which is visible vs that which is totally invisible except through its effects – that being ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ accounting, for if memory serves, some two thirds of all there is!

The number of molecules in a single cup of water – which is greater than the total number of cups of water in all the oceans of earth!

The number of bacteria in one inch of a human colon – which is greater than the number of all the humans who have lived through all time!

And many, many, more

Of particular appeal are passages recounting a few great miss-understandings which even great minds have labored under, and how those very mistakes eventually led them and others to new discoveries, an essential part of the scientific method which is sometimes lost in the shouting matches of reactionary culture wars.

 

Once all that knowledge has been disseminated, a final summation touts the intellectual and moral benefits of these concepts being understood widely, partly to cultivate the skills of thought that will lead to success in other pursuits, but more importantly  to instill the awe, wonder and humility that enable us to better appreciate and manage our environment and culture. Some of that falls flat, as when he suggests the absence of atmosphere in space means we should not engage in ‘flag-waving’ about space exploration – a very tenuous stretch of analogy. For the most part though, Tyson is an inspiring democratizer.

All in all, a worthy volume to read, and perhaps a good tool to raise the level of conversation at cocktail parties and Covid-lock-down video calls. Thanks NdGT!

(which now that I’ve typed it out, looks like an algebraic designation of some great import…if I assign the value of G as 27 to tenth power, and T as the length of time since the big bang, and d as the cosmic constant, can I solve for the value of N?  Hope your not holding your breath!)