Ultrarunning...and Sirius (the star, not the radio)

Tuesday the bride and I walked together 2 miles at 5:30 am, then I peeled off to run some additional miles.

When we first started out, coming out of our development the street runs east, and there hanging low in the sky was Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens.  It was twinkling fiercely, so much so that the bride swore it was an airplane, but I knew from prior experience that it was indeed "only" Sirius.

I blogged about Orion and Sirius about a year ago, in a post entitled Running Towards Orion, where I wrote:

Ah, and Sirius! This is the brightest star in the sky. You find it by locating Orion’s belt, then drawing a line from his right side (viewer’s left) “down” some 5 or so belt-widths, where you can’t miss Sirius. It unmistakably twinkles. Per the Crystalinks website,

To the naked eye, it often appears to be flashing with red/white/blue hues when near the horizon.

 Sirius is some 8.6 light years away, meaning that the photons sent our way from that star take over 8 years just to reach us. I cannot imagine the number of photons emitted…figure that Sirius radiates in all directions, not just towards Earth.

 

Earth’s diameter as a percentage of the arc of space into which Sirius radiates is vanishingly minuscule. Then what light reaches earth is spread over the entire Sirius-facing surface of our planet. Some of those very photons enter my eyes (as well as those of all other observers), stimulate my retina, and create the brain image I've been taught to recognize as Sirius. That chain of events is almost too much to fathom.

 

So, by all means get yourself outside, pre-dawn, for some Ultra training.  Get a good view of the eastern sky, and look for Sirius...but don't be surprised if you first think it's an airplane.

 

Another Reason to Like Clint Eastwood

"The more insecure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudices."

Besides this quote I've seen attributed to Clint, wonder if you recall the kitty scene from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:



 

Health Care...and Ultrarunning

Via Canadian Ian Welsh on 12 Aug 2011, Hard and Complicated Aren't Synonyms, where he brings to bear something sorely needed in the health care discussion: empirical facts.

See, stopping smoking isn't complicated. All you have to do is. not smoke. But it's hard as dickens, which is why so many people fail to do it.

Now a lot of US problems are like this and health care is one of them. The US spends about 16% of its GDP on healthcare, clocking in at 2 trillion. Changing to a single payor universal system will slash about a third of that. Savings: about 650 billion dollars. Everyone knows this who isn't paid not to know it - every other country in the world that has universal health care pays about a 1/3 or less than the US and when Canada switched, its costs dropped by a third.

This isn't complicated. But it is hard. It's hard for the same reason that quitting smoking is hard, or that losing weight is hard - that 650 billion dollars extra is something the US is addicted to. That money pays for jobs and profits at insurers, drug companies and to hospitals and to some doctors.

That's a lot of money, and the people who are currently making a living, or a huge profit from it, don't want to lose it. So they'll fight tooth and nail to not end the gravy train. The 20% to 30% administrative margins in health insurance companies as opposed to the 2% to 3% margins in Medicare are money that someone is getting. The price is that 50% of bankruptcies are caused by medical costs; that 43 million Americans are unemployed and that American companies like Ford and GM have huge medical costs that companies like Toyota don't have.

Ian's entire post is worth a read.

Oh, and the link to Ultrarunning?  Well, yesterday I had my annual physical and was pronounced fit.  While I realize that could--literally--change in a heartbeat, I already knew I was fit.  And I have no doubt that my fitness is due to the vice of Ultrarunning.

 

Cats in Art: Children Teaching the Cat to Read

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.

Image credit Zuffi (scanned from his book, pg. 158).

Click on image to enlarge.

Children Teaching the Cat to Read, Jan Steen, 1663, oil on panel, 18" x 14", held by Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland.

Zuffi's description:

The cat is the "victim" of a children's game, which makes it the center of attention.  Let us have no doubts about the animal's reserves of patience; however, the game will certainly not last long.  The cat will soon make clear its annoyance, springing free and perhaps scratching the children's hands.

As always, even though it may seem otherwise, the cat is in charge.  Oh, and they make out perfectly well in this world not knowing how to read.

 

More Sirius/XM Radio: The Coffeehouse

A couple weeks back I was listening to XM channel 31, The Coffeehouse, during a work road trip to Pittsburgh.  The are self-described as playing acoustic, singer-songwriter tunes.

Usually I listen to Classic Vinyl, plus the 60s and 70s channels, but that day I was more interested in the wistful, the painful, the playful, and the bittersweet, and opted for 6 solid hours of The Coffeehouse.  I was rewarded by a thoughtful blend of passionate and expressive lyrics, with emphasis on the intellectual rather than the visceral.

As a result I'm now a committed Edie Brickell fan, and have even bought her latest album (simply called, Edie Brickell) for my iPod.  I can’t get enough of Waiting for Me, a catchy, perky tune that keeps playing in my head.  I was unsuccessful at snagging a clip of it, although you can find it on the iTunes site as a preview.

Next trip, my mood may well be quite different, and classic rock will float my boat.  That's the beauty of music--you can always find a style to match your mood.

 

Conventional Wisdom Is Wrong Regarding Running Surfaces

I am convinced that trail running extends one's running longevity in two ways.  First, the walking breaks that are necessitated by uphills or rough footing. But what I want to focus more on is the running surface--it's a no brainer that running on dirt is easier on your body than running on roads.

Which segues into the real point of this post: the hardness of the two main types of road surfaces. I think conventional wisdom is mostly all wet when it comes to the hardness of running surfaces.  Sure, as I just pointed out, running on dirt or pine needles is clearly softer than running on a road.  But beyond that I disagree with the conventional wisdom, which is that macadam (blacktop) is easier on the body, impact-wise, than concrete.

Sure, you could drive a nail more easily into macadam (just ask the carnival guys who pound tent stakes into macadam parking lots), but I submit that there is no appreciable difference when it comes to running.  For there to be a real difference in impact, when your foot strike happens, the macadam would have to give in a measurable way.  Your running shoe would actually need to leave a discernible footprint...and of course, it doesn't. 

My opinion: Think placebo effect.  Macadam may seem softer, and mentally we want to think that if we can't run on trails, macadam running is the next better choice, but it really isn't any softer than concrete.  Nor would I think that running on a boardwalk would be any better than macadam or concrete, either.

Of course, this would be a perfect doctoral thesis for some aspiring physics major.  And I'd be willing to be proven wrong.

 

Otters are Back in England...and Ultrarunning

A piece of good news, small but encouraging.  Here in the U.S., I have seen wild mink but never a wild otter.  The bride just loves otters in zoos (well, the concept of seeing otters, not necessarily the fact that a particular otter is in a zoo), and in any zoo we have ever been to, she makes a beeline there to see them.

From Grist (also the photo credit):

Once nearly extinct in England, otters have now returned to every county, indicating that rivers are at their healthiest in decades. Conservationists had predicted that it would be another 10 years before the otters reached this level of repopulation, so it's a real triumph for the little dudes. Not to mention an overwhelming stroke of good fortune for Brits, who can now watch otters play from the comfort of their homes, the lucky bastards.

Otters have reappeared in places where they have not been seen since the industrial revolution, including Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester, and even on the Thames and the Lea in north London. A recent survey on the river Ribble, in Lancashire, showed a 44% increase in otter numbers since 2008.

Once in an old Marty Stouffer Wild America TV show, he says something like, "If it isn't fun, an otter won't do it," meaning that they are one of the most playful of mammals in the wild.

Plus, they are cute!

Way back in my formative outdoor years I did some hiking in the Otter Creek watershed in northern West Virginia, and hope to go back there to do some trail running someday.  I don't know this, but if otters are not there presently (having been exterminated), I only hope that the WV Department of Natural Resources will re-introduce them...and that I will see one there in the wild.

Then I could die a happy man.

 

Earthquake!

Well, cross that one off my bucket list.  I’ve now experienced an earthquake, a pretty rare occurrence here in Pennsylvania. 

News reports tell us that the magnitude 5.9 quake occurred at 1:51 pm Tues 23 August, was centered about 40 miles northwest of Richmond VA, and was felt throughout the northeast.  I was home on my regular telework day, leaning against the island in my kitchen, and felt the island and floor shake strongly for a couple seconds.  Nothing fell and there was no damage to the house.

I have traveled extensively to the west coast, Hawaii, and Japan, and always wanted to experience (in a non-threatening way, of course) an earthquake.  I guess it was meant to be here in my own home, I guess.

Speaking of natural phenomena, I’ve been up close and personal with flowing lava from a few feet away, and that was a scary experience.  Now, if I could only see a tornado….

(Note: This is old hat to many of you, but not to me, so pardon me for thinking it was a big deal. And if any of you have had a negative personal experience with natural phenomena, please don’t think I am being cavalier or insensitive to possible death and destruction.  It was the perfect benign way to experience an earthquake).