16 April 2009

Workout notes: 2 mile walk last night with the group; once I got going I felt great. This morning: yoga with Ms. Vickie then an easy 2 mile run outside (too pretty not to).

When I got to yoga and took my sweatpants off, I found that I had my shorts on inside-out (liner was outside).

Social:

This article from the Economist demonstrates that the strain of growing up in poverty can affect mental performance. In short, there are many factors behind mental performance and not all of them are genetic.

The Legal Satyricon: this is a thoughtful essay on the photo shopped images that are used to sell “beauty” to women. In short, the images you see in, say, underwear ads are often photo-shopped.

I have a couple of thoughts:

1. Many women look plenty good as they are, at least if you go by what I’ve seen at masters swimming meets, running events, etc.

2. Unrealistic images are sold to men as well. After all, I spent much of my adolescence being miserable because girls didn’t react to me the way that they reacted to James Bond. Fortunately I grew up enough to see that Bond was FANTASY and that, yes, there ARE women who like the Inspector Clouseau’s of the world.

3. The same goes with male body image. I really thought that there was something wrong with me because I wasn’t buffed like the professional athletes I saw on TV. I then realized that
a. only a rare few have the bodies to become a pro athlete and
b. Some of what I was seeing was the result of chemicals.

So, the upshot is that, while unrealistic images are used to entice people to buy this or that, part of the growing up process is learning to accept one’s limitations and learning to separate fact from fiction.

Politics

Science Avenger destroys the James Dobson crowd. He makes two key points in this article:

1. Yes, the right wing is losing the culture wars, big time!
2. One of the reasons that they are losing is that the current instant-information culture allows the rest of us to immediately fact-check their claims and therefore expose them for being the deluded liars that they are.

Thereisnospoon from Daily Kos writes that the right wing will now wake up to reality: their well publicized temper tantrum did them no good whatsoever. The point is that they got beat and beat badly at the ballot box and all of the “I’m going to hold my breath until I turn blue” nonsense isn’t going to change that.

Red State Update makes a similar point (see 1:40 into it)

Nate Silver: estimates that the number attending “tea parties” nationwide to be about 250,000 (or what, the size of 2-3 Obama rallies? )

Texas governor claims sovereignty from “oppressive” U.S. government – Daily Kos TV (beta)

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Fox hosts support Texas sovereignty, say state wants to secede – Daily Kos TV (beta)

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Angry Chicago tea bagger calls Obama a fascist – Daily Kos TV (beta)

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15 April 2009

Workout notes AM: 2650 yard swim; 500 in 9:30 to warm up (slow), 5 x (100 fins, 100 paddle, 100 swim), 28:xx, 5 x 100 IM on the 2:20, 100 side, 50 fly (fins).

This evening: “building steam”: I volunteer to help new walkers work up to being able to finish the Steamboat 4 mile race. I wonder why anyone would need a group program to help them build up to finishing such a short race, though I can understand why someone might benefit from a group when it comes to training to perform at one’s best (e. g., if someone were racing it for time, wanted to learn how to racewalk it, etc.)

But, though I don’t like doing this, I do it anyway. It is a way to give back to the community and if I can help some overweight person get fit and avoid a heart attack, it is worth it.

McNaughton quip I crunched some numbers and found that my last 40 miles of the 2009 race (in the mud) was 45 minutes FASTER than my last 40 miles of my 2005 race (when it was dry). The difference, of course, was this year, I rested much more in the first 60 miles. I had three 2 hour naps plus another hour of assorted resting whereas in 2005 I just blew through the first 60 fairly hard.

It is amazing at how quickly a body can recover.

Religion, Superstition and Science

Tiny Frog makes an important point:

One of the ideas I hear a lot when someone dies is that “it was his time to go” – as if fate or God dictated the time of a person’s death. Now, I understand that this belief has a certain emotional appeal when someone dies, so it’s not something I’m going to argue about in that circumstance. But, it does bother me from a logical standpoint. If we really sit down and think about this rationally, I think it can be shown that (in general) people are not “fated” to die at a particular time. What would it really mean if each person has a time to die?

1. Geographical and historical differences in life spans are due to “fate” or “God”, not external factors like medicine, diet, sanitation, or safety.

In the real-world, life-spans appear to be correlated with access to health care and sanitation. The world map shows life-expectancies by nation.

I pulled this map from wikipedia:

Click for the larger version.

Tiny Frog goes on to point out increasing life expectancy:

Humans by Era Average Lifespan at Birth (years)
Upper Paleolithic 33
Neolithic 20
Bronze Age 18
Classical Greece 20-30
Classical Rome 20-30
Pre-Columbian North America 25-35
Medieval Britain 20-30
Early 20th Century 30-40
Current world average 66.12

Admittedly, life-expectancy numbers are skewed by high infant morality, but adult mortality was also higher than they are modern times.

Note the exponential increase recently. Why is that? That’s right: child mortality is way down, sanitation is better, nutrition is better and modern medicine is much, much better!

All of this improvement came when we started to look for and find naturalistic explanations for things rather than relying on “goddidit” as a “reason”.

Religion, deities, witches, fairies, elves, gnomes, pixies, etc. have been around for a long time. The Bible has been around (in present form) for about 1600-1700 years.

NONE of it did any good; it was rationality that helped us turn the corner.

Superstition sucks; rationality rocks.

Science Tuesday and Tea Party Eve….

I’ll save the stuff on the Tea Parties and my thoughts for the very last.

President Obama’s Weekly Address

Science (Via Cosmic Variance)
This interesting article comments on how the brain works: The past (which can be accurately reconstructed from data) and the future (which can be predicted by extrapolation) are very different; it is far easier to figure out what happened than it is to accurately predict what will happen. But our brains process both directions in a similar manner; and yes that means our memories are often faulty!

Via Why Evolution is True Yes, we do share 99 percent of the DNA with a chimpanzee. But we are different (I think); one crucial difference is the way our ankles are constructed. That makes a difference when it comes to climbing and walking and running.

Speaking of being built to run very long distance: this article from Seed Magazine discusses just that. Is it true that we evolved a huge aerobic capacity (or the potential for one) to be able to chase down faster prey and to wear them down?

Now back to chimps: did you know that male chimps that offer female chimps more meat have more, ahem, reproductive success? Maybe that is why we offer to take our sweeties out to eat?

Religion, Science and Society

Satire: Richard Dawkins admits that he can find no “evolutionary reason” for the existence of creationists. (note to dimwitted wingnuts: the article I linked to is satire)

I can find one reason: creationists are fun to laugh at!

Religion: Religion might have its uses, but it does NOT generate morality. Any honest look at the Bible can tell you that neither Judaism nor Christianity is responsible for the generation of morality. The only reason that these religions are at all tolerable is that they have grown away from their holy text; the more rational practitioners cherry pick what is good (and good is there) and ignore or rationalize away what is unpalatable.

Religion and the United States: President Obama is right: America might have many Christians, but it is not now, nor has it ever been a Christian nation (not officially anyway).

Local/IL-18.

Yes, our local racist groups are still active. Recently they left plastic Easter eggs with racist flyers in them. Yes, this is free speech; after all, if you make it illegal for these idiots to spread these, then it would be illegal to, say, go door to door with fliers for, say, a city council candidate. Free speech does expose one to unpleasantness from time to time.

Aaron Shock: our Representative speaks about his recent overseas trip.

Significant strides toward free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama were realized during an overseas trip by several members of Congress last week.

U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, who was among only three Republicans on the nine-member congressional trip led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, said such agreements would benefit the top two employers in his 18th Congressional District: agriculture and manufacturing.

Free trade agreements “would be huge boons to companies here in Illinois and around the country that do international trade,” Schock said. “Caterpillar (Inc.), for example, will benefit greatly. Right now there are more D-11 tractors in Colombia than anywhere else in the world.”

In addition to visiting Colombia and Panama and meeting with their top leaders, the delegation also visited Mexico, where they discussed moves to weed out corrupt police officers and curtail the drug trade with the attorney general. In Brazil, the group learned about efforts to reduce deforestation and advancements in alternative energy sources, Schock said.

Hoyer publicly pledged support for a Colombian free trade agreement and said he will ask U.S. President Barack Obama to send language to Congress for approval after the delegation meetings with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

The agreement has faced opposition from Democratic lawmakers as well as labor and human rights groups that criticize Colombia’s human rights policies. However, Colombian lawmakers recently approved measures to protect the rights of unions to organize and ensure they are not retaliated against.

Colombia already benefits from selling goods, including sugar and coffee, to the U.S. without tariffs. But without the trade agreement, U.S. companies pay a significant tariff on their goods to Columbia, Schock said, adding the trade agreement would eliminate virtually all tariffs between the two.

“There is no industry that benefits greater from free trade than the agriculture community,” Schock said. “Our ability to sell our grains and goods to countries like Panama and Colombia will only help to strengthen the ag economy in the United States.”

I am no fan of Rep. Shock, but it appears to me that he is on the right track here.

The Tea Bag Protests The Republicans appear to be in panic mode. This planned tea-party appears to be a desperate tactic.

Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman calls it “embarrassing to watch”:

Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people. Better, perhaps, to focus on the real policy debates, which are all among Democrats.

But here’s the thing: the G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now. That didn’t stop Republicans from taking control of both Congress and the White House. And they could return to power if the Democrats stumble. So it behooves us to look closely at the state of what is, after all, one of our nation’s two great political parties.

One way to get a good sense of the current state of the G.O.P., and also to see how little has really changed, is to look at the “tea parties” that have been held in a number of places already, and will be held across the country on Wednesday. These parties — antitaxation demonstrations that are supposed to evoke the memory of the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution — have been the subject of considerable mockery, and rightly so.

But everything that critics mock about these parties has long been standard practice within the Republican Party.

Thus, President Obama is being called a “socialist” who seeks to destroy capitalism. Why? Because he wants to raise the tax rate on the highest-income Americans back to, um, about 10 percentage points less than it was for most of the Reagan administration. Bizarre.
[...]

Going back to those tea parties, Mr. DeLay, a fierce opponent of the theory of evolution — he famously suggested that the teaching of evolution led to the Columbine school massacre — also foreshadowed the denunciations of evolution that have emerged at some of the parties.

Last but not least: it turns out that the tea parties don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They’re AstroTurf (fake grass roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects. In particular, a key role is being played by FreedomWorks, an organization run by Richard Armey, the former House majority leader, and supported by the usual group of right-wing billionaires. And the parties are, of course, being promoted heavily by Fox News.

My take on the tea parties

I grew up as an Air Force brat. So I had tax payer funded schools, subsidized housing, food and free medical care. I went to college at the US Naval Academy (federally funded). My first job was in the US Navy. My graduate education was funded by a mix of GI-bill benefits, federal fellowships and state funded teaching assistantships.

Now I am a mathematics professor. Some of my conferences were funded by the National Science Foundation. Students get tax payer funded aid to attend our university.

Under the radar: the military works its ass off to keep us safe, US interstate highways take us were we want to go, and rest areas let us recharge our batteries in route. I enjoy national parks with all of the perks.

So, were I to whine about taxes….maybe I’d feel just a wee bit hypocritical?

13 April 2009; Morning.

Workout notes Rest.

Social: the Legal Satyricon has an interesting post on the nature of the word “retard”.

The same goes for the “developmentally disabled.” As long as it doesn’t get Orwellian (I’m never using “handi-capable”), they can be whatever they want. In fact, I think it is sort of uncool to lump all “handicapped” people under one label. I think it is far more respectful to refer to the actual individual condition that affects the person (if it is relevant at all to the conversation), and that’s why I agree that referring to someone who is “developmentally disabled” as “retarded” is disrespectful and uncool.

So we agree, don’t call anyone with Down’s a “retard.”

But, that doesn’t mean that we need to cleanse the language of all uses of the word. I love the word “retard.” “Retard” is a completely accurate way to describe Marion Barry, Rhonda Storms, George W. Bush, Gail Dines, Larry Craig, Andrea Dworkin, and Kevin Federline. It is not the right thing to call Corky. Allow me to demonstrate where the line is drawn:

Sarah Palin’s son, Trig, is retarded: Formerly correct, now incorrect
Sarah Palin’s son, Trig, is a retard: Incorrect
Trig Palin has Down’s sydrome: Correct
Sarah Palin is a fucking retard: Correct

I’m sick of P.C. police trying to strip the language of words that are, well, colorful — even if they can be nasty and mean if used that way.

Bravo!! This says more skillfully what I’ve always felt.

Politics Nate Silver talks about Barack Obama and bipartisanship:

Note that, in Schmitt’s explication of Obama’s “bipartisanship”, we are operating somewhat in the conditional tense. We start by assuming that one’s opponents are acting in good faith, extending an olive branch to them and therefore pressing the reset button on the ongoing game of tit-for-tat. If the opponent demonstrates that they are not acting in good faith, however, all bets are off and we are back in the partisan game.

Have the Republicans in Congress been behaving in good faith? It is easy to argue that they have not been:

Surf to the blog to see the list of issues and analysis.

Political Boxing:

Pat Buchanan gets is wrong and gets schooled. Hat tip: Conservation Report.

Basically, he takes Buchanan to task for objecting to President Obama going to Notre Dame and his being ok with George W. Bush speaking there (the latter supports the death penalty, which the Catholic Church is agains).

The Invisible Pink Unicorn: Jon Stewart On Obama Skipping Church

overcoming irrationality, religious and otherwise, one post at a time

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Out with a Whimper: My McNaughton 100, 2009

Andy Weinberg, the long time race director of the McNaughton Park Trail Runs left the area to live in Vermont. However, true to his word, he kept the 2009 version of the race alive.

Before I say anything about my report, results etc., I’d like to give my heart-felt thanks to Andy, to all of those who so much trail maintenance (there were downed trees all over the place that had been cut up, for example). I’d also like to give a shout out to the aid station crews (Peoria Triathlon club, Buffalo runners) and a special shout out to the Buffalo ultra runners for a reason I’ll name later.

Short version: I took the “early start option” and finished my 100 mile walk in 47:45:16, which is by far my slowest 100 miler ever. But in one sense, it is one of the most satisfying ones too.

The raw data:

1st Loop – 10 Mile 10.000 3:03:18 18:20
2nd Loop – 20 Mile 20.000 6:29:08 19:27 10.00 3:25:50 20:35
3rd Loop – 30 Mile 30.000 14:27:07 28:54 10.00 7:57:59 47:48
4th Loop – 40 Mile 40.000 20:30:58 30:46 10.00 6:03:51 36:23
5th Loop – 50 Mile 50.000 24:18:09 29:10 10.00 3:47:11 22:43
6th Loop – 60 Mile 60.000 28:52:31 28:53 10.00 4:34:22 27:26
7th Loop – 70 Mile 70.000 35:00:02 30:00 10.00 6:07:31 36:45
8th Loop – 80 Mile 80.000 39:18:21 29:29 10.00 4:18:19 25:50
9th Loop – 90 Mile 90.000 43:29:45 29:00 10.00 4:11:24 25:08
10th Loop – 100 Mile 100.00 47:45:16 28:39 10.00 4:15:31 25:33

The course: here is my photo-tour.

My expectations going in: here.

My detailed report

I did have some delusions of being able to go straight through and perhaps equaling or exceeding my previous course best of 34:16 but those delusions were drenched right out of me when the Friday morning weather came up rainy. In fact, it poured all morning long and was still raining when we started; the course was mostly a river of very slick mud (the shiny stuff).

McNaughton (10 mile loops) is tough enough on dry days because of its 13 uphills per loop (1600 feet of climbing). But in these conditions one was not only trying to climb but also trying not to slip back down; it was a complete mess. Part of the reason is that we had 7 extra inches of rain than normal (January-March) so the ground was already saturated.

I tried to keep the old ego in check and eased through the first loop in 3:02; this was my slowest start ever, but it was to be my fastest loop.

I didn’t eat; I figured that I could go 6 hours or so sans food and I wanted to spare my stomach the upset.

The second loop was a bit slower (3:26) but still featured mega slipping; in fact I’d say that the course had actually gotten worse.

The loop from hell This was loop number 3. It was 6:30 when I started it so it was starting to get dark. The course was drying IN SPOTS; basically we had tacky mud (ok), slick mud (sucks) and shoe sucking mud-holes (about a dozen of these per loop). But there were spots where one could get moving.

Still I was starting to feel miserable; I had ate after loop 2 and it just wasn’t agreeing with me. The nausea was back. I stopped at the totem pole aid station (2.5 miles) and rested for 10 minutes; that perked me a bit.

Then when I got to the first major stream crossing; I lost my balance. I didn’t fall all the way in as my arms held me up. Then when I left the creek my foot got tangled on a vine and I almost fell down.

The brutal stretch between the hills after the creek crossing until one hits the prairie all but finished me off. I fell twice on the last big uphill.

By the time I got to heaven’s gate I was spitting up, nauseated and shivering.

I sat by the fire and eyed the “first to DNF at Heaven’s Gate” plaque that someone was making from a slab of wood; he was burning the letters into it.

The volunteers (from the Buffalo Ultra Runners Club) gave me soup and persuaded me to do the 1.1 mile loop. I finished it and puked just a bit. I asked about getting a ride to the start; the 3 miles to finish the loop may have well have been 30.

But they told me that they had a tired runner’s tent with sleeping bags! What a life saver that was; I took a 2 hour rest there and was revived enough to get going afterward. I figured that I may as well get 30 miles.

It was now 14:27 and if I didn’t have the early start, I would have been doomed. But instead I ate a grilled cheese sandwich and then crawled into my car (wagon) to sleep (I had prepared for this).

I was down for about 2:20 prior to starting my next loop, which took 6:03 (3:43 actual walking time). I had started at 5 am and so by 4 miles, the first of the 50 mile field caught up to me. In fact, I was passed repeatedly on that loop by the new starters.

Loop 5 took 3:47 and was going smoothly. I was eating mashed potatoes and drinking soup, Ramen noodles and grapes. It seemed as if I could hold stuff down.

As far as trail conditions: they had gone from “atrocious” to an ordinary “lousy” condition; some of the surface slick mud had gone away put the huge mud puddles had gotten worse.

But then came loop 6; once again I was having trouble digesting my food. In fact I took advantage of the sunny day to lie down next to the trail for 10 minutes at a time. That loop took 4:34; I needed a longer rest.

So I went down for another 2-2.5 hours. I figured that I’d do another 2 loops, rest and do another 2. I knew that I had 25 hours to get in 4 loops. But I’d have to start at close to 7:30 pm.

So I did and the 2-3 night loops were interesting.

The frogs were chattering all over the place and one could hear the great bared owls just hooting their little hearts out.

I wasn’t going that fast (4:15′ish per lap pace) but I was going fast enough to get there but not fast enough to make me sick.

Loop 8 came at 39:18 (walked the end with Ulli, who was finishing his race) and felt good enough to go ahead and start loop 9. The sun lifted my spirits and I was able to chat with others here and there. But I was slowing.

When I got to 90 I told myself “do a 4 hour loop and get it over with” which is what I did.

Analysis:

1. I was hurt by my lack of training mileage; but that couldn’t be helped as I was rebuilding.
2. I was helped by being tapered and by bringing my gear.
3. A tired runner’s tent was a lifesaver!
4. Soup, mashed potatoes and grapes worked as food; my power ade zero and green tea worked fine as drinks.
5. I never blistered up (mud?) but my feet were very swollen.

Race Analysis:
Here is the data from the various races:
98 people finished the first loop of the 50, 85 finished the race.
74 people started the first loop of the 100, 27 finished the race, though 65 made it to 50 miles.
47 people started the first loop of the 150; 12 finished though 45 finished 50 and 27 finished 100 miles.

Impending Doom: Mc-Not-Again 10 April 2009

I’ll check back in on Sunday, I hope.

I should be spending a few hours here over the weekend.

The idea: I am starting at noon today (4.9 hours away) and will attempt to walk 10 ten-mile loops at McNaughton Park and finish prior to 4 pm (1600) on Sunday.

Weather: we have light rain now but it is supposed to clear up this afternoon and the trail dries off very quickly; it should be dry by the evening and perfect tomorrow.

Post Race UPDATE You’ve got to be kidding me! This was a massive mud pit that gradually got better.

Downsides:
1. I don’t have the training mileage that I prefer for these.
2. I haven’t solved my upset stomach (food digestion) problems as yet; these come on 10-11 hours into long races.

Upsides
1. I’ve done a ton of volume when one includes cross training and I have lots of 20 mile walks.
2. I am better rested; no all out 50 K races two weeks prior.
3. I am lighter than I’ve ever been (183.5 pounds).
4. The early start will enable me to go out moderately and to take naps if I need to.
5. Stomach: my being lighter means that I have to eat less and an examination of my past records shows that I have about an 8 hour “gas tank”; hence I will try to eat less this race and give my stomach less to do.

Goals:

1. My “A” goal is to finish in 34 hours; this is the official cut-off for those who don’t take the early start (early start is offered because there is a 150 mile race going on). My course PR is 34:16.

Post race update BWAAAAHAAAAHAAA!!!! Talk about being delusional!

2. My “B” goal is to finish without napping; 36 hours is a nice target.

Post race update BWAAAAHAAAAHAAA!!!! Talk about being delusional!

3. My “C” goal is to just finish even if I have to nap a couple of times to do it.

Update: check.

At worst: I have budgeted 40 hours of walking time (easy 4 hours a loop average) and 12 hours of nap/recovery time (two 6 hour naps or three 4 hour naps).

Update 3 10 minute breaks, three 2 hour naps.

Minimum schedule: get 30-40 miles by midnight tonight, sleep, get 40-50 more from 6 am to midnight on Saturday, finish up on Sunday.

Post race Update: 27 miles on Friday, 46 miles on Saturday, 27 miles on Sunday.

Best schedule (all goes well): 40 miles in 12 hours, next 40 in 14, last 20 in 8 = 34 hours.

Update: I did take 8:27 for my last 20; the rest was completely wishful thinking.

Well, the time for talking is over and the time for walking is here.