This morning I ran the Little River Trail Race. Consisting of a 10 mile and 7 km race, this event is held on in the Little River Regional Park in/near Hillsborough. Interestingly, I learned that my great-grandmother used to live just a few miles away, like 1905 (they moved to Durham... when Duke St used to be a dirt road). It was cold morning, staying in the 30s most of the day. Out in the sun, I thought it wouldn't be that bad, but it was pretty windy which made for a brisk day.
After running 30 miles last week, this was going to be a recovery week. I essentially trained as a recovery week. However, given my normal weekend long run would be 15 miles, and me being me, I felt compelled to run 5 miles before the race this morning. So I was up at 5:00am to get that in. It was a very relaxed pace, though I knew there'd probably be some detriment to the Little River. This race was also my dad's first trail run; he was doing the 7k. So I met at my parents house, and we all went up to the race.
The race itself was hard and difficult. The start of the run I could definitely feel stiffness in my legs. Also, within the first few miles, I had to stop for a pee break. Only a few strides later, I took a wicked branch to the face. It happens all the time so I thought nothing of it. But when I wiped my nose, I was startled to see bloody snot (snotty blood?), and when I spat, there was blood. That eventually stopped, but it was little peculiar. The first two miles of the race flew by, and felt I'd get by without too much suffering. But 4 miles seemed to creep by, and the middle miles slowed to a halt. I was passing many people - less as the race went on - but rolling technical hills were really taking a toll. In the end, I pulled out a 1:16:XX (don't know the seconds); within my estimations of 1:10 - 1:20, but definitely not near the faster end. My dad did GREAT for his first trail race (or trail run, period). Though he didn't have a basis for setting an hour goal, he came in at around 54 minutes.
Though I'm sure I could go right back into a build week, I'm taking another week at recovery mileage. There's not really a need to, except lines up the rest of my training pretty well.
After reading The Story of the Human Body (by Daniel Lieberman), I read The Sports Gene (by David Epstein). In this book, the author address the issues of nature vs nurture; talent vs training. I don't have as strong an opinion on this as I did Human Body. But it is a fascinating perspective. There's an interesting field of genetics called epigenetics. It's the study of how genes can be modified. This mutations are frequently causes of cancer or other maladies. And while I think the exact mechanisms for gene modifications from specific actions, I think the basic ability truly shows that nature and nurture are unavoidably linked. Your baseline influences your talents. But you can't really become great without some training that is persuaded by your talents. I think the great thing about the book is that it illustrates how different every single individual is. And really, some people get to be great by talent, some by training.
I'm not sure what I'll be reading next. I ordered two books online: So Others May Live about Coast Guard rescue swimmers, and Guns, Germs, and Steel about geographical and environmental influences on modern society.
Soundtrack:
"Listening to Freddy Mercury" by Emery
"Currently" by Keaton Simons
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
The Story of the Human Body
My training season has officially begun with the new year. This past weekend I began upping my long run to 25 miles; this weekend I will hit 30. This past week or so has offered some pretty spectacular challenges, namely the cold weather. My dilemma is nowhere near what people in the northeast and midwest are facing. But the temperatures are ones I have not had to tackle before, which left me both nervous and excited.
My 25 miles was WAY early in the morning; I had an EMT class at 9, so I was up at 2:15 am for a 3:00 (ended up 3:15) start so I could be done before the class began. While not as cold as today, the weather was brisk at 20 F with wind chill into the teens. Like most of these runs, the main discomfort was my hands. If you don't know, my trail name is "Mittens." Whatever the pathology is, the circulation to my hands gets pretty bad, so they get cold pretty easily. Even though I had used hand warmers under my two layers of gloves, I still had some painfully stiff and chilly hands. On a curious note: it came and went in stages, so at about 1:30 - 2:00 hours in I could hardly stand it, but half an hour later, it was no big deal. Probably the most concerning part is that the drink tube for my hydration pack froze even though I tried sipping ever mile or so. This meant a long time without water. Probably the most FUNNY part is that when I got done, the back of my jacket was FROZEN SOLID because of the sweat that had run down.
This morning (Tuesday), we had temperatures in the single digits, wind chill just below zero. Oddly enough, this run went GREAT. I was bundled very nicely, but I still expected to be frigidly cold. But not really. I used some heavy duty ski gloves and hand warmers (still got cold near the end), and there wasn't much to it. What I did learn about myself is that, at least down to those 0 F, I can't go very long with something covering my mouth. I felt much more relaxed after a pulled down a gaitor I had covering my mouth and nose, and the cold air didn't bother me.
I finished the book I mentioned: The Story of the Human Body, by Daniel Lieberman. In this book, the Dr. Lieberman details a lot of the evolutionary changes that led us from apelike origins to where we are today.
What I really enjoyed about the book is that the author isn't limited to the biological changes that took place. In the book, the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution are CULTURAL changes, but very much an evolutionary step. I will say his take on the role of these last two changes is a bit ambiguous. While including them among the evolutionary heritage of humans, he clearly sees them as detrimental. Yet he acknowledges that he himself lives well within the adaptions of modern life. He very objectively lays out the facts of this double-edged sword. As a scientist, I applaud this approach, but I kind of wish there was more insight/conclusion as to whether we are the better for it. One of my predicaments, particularly in regards to fitness, health, and nutrition, is how exactly modern advances play into optimization. Trends like the Paleo diet seem to concluded that recent advances such as eating grains are malicious and unnatural. My predicament, and one I think well-described in this book, is that modern behaviors (again, grains) do have disadvantages, but that does not make those behaviors unnatural.
A recurring proposal of Dr. Lieberman's is that evolution, via natural selection, doesn't necessarily chose traits that are the healthiest. Rather they select for traits that lead to the most reproductive success. For example, humans (rather they're ancestors) were once just foragers: LOTS of fruit and fibrous plants with little to no meat. When we evolved to be hunter-gatherers, it wasn't because red meat made us live longer, but rather provided more energy (from the protein and fat in meat) which was more successful for reproduction. Similarly, the Agricultural Revolution was a NATURAL progression to more stable food source via cultivated food. This led to greater reproductive success; however it decreased nutritional diversity, leading the decreased health.
Near the end, the more interesting subjects were on what Dr. Lieberman termed "cultural buffering." That is, modern culture, which includes medicinal, social, and legal entities, buffer the effects of natural selections. The authors classic example is diabetes: In a "culture-less" environment, it is probably this easily be purged from the gene pool since poor health is undesirable. However, medication mitigates the undesirable poor health, and diabetes doesn't present until after typical reproductive cycles.
While there is a lot more cool facts in the book, I'm going to stop here. Instead, I'll just conclude that it's a fantastic read, and recommend it for those who want an understanding of how we came to be, and why some modern illnesses exist.
BUT my real final note is some speculation on our evolutionary future. Our current "cultural buffering" wasn't a deliberate intervention. But what would happen if we deliberately could STOP it? What would happen? What would it mean? Ending social welfare programs? Would a sort of caste system re-develop? [If you've seen the movie (not the book) The Time Machine] could divergent species eventually develop? It's fascinating, but also scary to think about.
But also cool to think about the evolution of animal life to human. Here's what I think: image bugs that developed camouflage to look like their surroundings. I predict that one day we'll find bugs that look like straws, or McDonald's cups, or ketchup packets. Because if they look more like our products, they're more likely to be overlooks. If they're more likely to be overlooked, they're more likely to live and reproduce, and thus propagate looking like modern products.
Ok, that's it.
Soundtrack:
"Ambulance" by Eisley
"Pressure" by Paramore
My 25 miles was WAY early in the morning; I had an EMT class at 9, so I was up at 2:15 am for a 3:00 (ended up 3:15) start so I could be done before the class began. While not as cold as today, the weather was brisk at 20 F with wind chill into the teens. Like most of these runs, the main discomfort was my hands. If you don't know, my trail name is "Mittens." Whatever the pathology is, the circulation to my hands gets pretty bad, so they get cold pretty easily. Even though I had used hand warmers under my two layers of gloves, I still had some painfully stiff and chilly hands. On a curious note: it came and went in stages, so at about 1:30 - 2:00 hours in I could hardly stand it, but half an hour later, it was no big deal. Probably the most concerning part is that the drink tube for my hydration pack froze even though I tried sipping ever mile or so. This meant a long time without water. Probably the most FUNNY part is that when I got done, the back of my jacket was FROZEN SOLID because of the sweat that had run down.
This morning (Tuesday), we had temperatures in the single digits, wind chill just below zero. Oddly enough, this run went GREAT. I was bundled very nicely, but I still expected to be frigidly cold. But not really. I used some heavy duty ski gloves and hand warmers (still got cold near the end), and there wasn't much to it. What I did learn about myself is that, at least down to those 0 F, I can't go very long with something covering my mouth. I felt much more relaxed after a pulled down a gaitor I had covering my mouth and nose, and the cold air didn't bother me.
I finished the book I mentioned: The Story of the Human Body, by Daniel Lieberman. In this book, the Dr. Lieberman details a lot of the evolutionary changes that led us from apelike origins to where we are today.
What I really enjoyed about the book is that the author isn't limited to the biological changes that took place. In the book, the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution are CULTURAL changes, but very much an evolutionary step. I will say his take on the role of these last two changes is a bit ambiguous. While including them among the evolutionary heritage of humans, he clearly sees them as detrimental. Yet he acknowledges that he himself lives well within the adaptions of modern life. He very objectively lays out the facts of this double-edged sword. As a scientist, I applaud this approach, but I kind of wish there was more insight/conclusion as to whether we are the better for it. One of my predicaments, particularly in regards to fitness, health, and nutrition, is how exactly modern advances play into optimization. Trends like the Paleo diet seem to concluded that recent advances such as eating grains are malicious and unnatural. My predicament, and one I think well-described in this book, is that modern behaviors (again, grains) do have disadvantages, but that does not make those behaviors unnatural.
A recurring proposal of Dr. Lieberman's is that evolution, via natural selection, doesn't necessarily chose traits that are the healthiest. Rather they select for traits that lead to the most reproductive success. For example, humans (rather they're ancestors) were once just foragers: LOTS of fruit and fibrous plants with little to no meat. When we evolved to be hunter-gatherers, it wasn't because red meat made us live longer, but rather provided more energy (from the protein and fat in meat) which was more successful for reproduction. Similarly, the Agricultural Revolution was a NATURAL progression to more stable food source via cultivated food. This led to greater reproductive success; however it decreased nutritional diversity, leading the decreased health.
Near the end, the more interesting subjects were on what Dr. Lieberman termed "cultural buffering." That is, modern culture, which includes medicinal, social, and legal entities, buffer the effects of natural selections. The authors classic example is diabetes: In a "culture-less" environment, it is probably this easily be purged from the gene pool since poor health is undesirable. However, medication mitigates the undesirable poor health, and diabetes doesn't present until after typical reproductive cycles.
While there is a lot more cool facts in the book, I'm going to stop here. Instead, I'll just conclude that it's a fantastic read, and recommend it for those who want an understanding of how we came to be, and why some modern illnesses exist.
BUT my real final note is some speculation on our evolutionary future. Our current "cultural buffering" wasn't a deliberate intervention. But what would happen if we deliberately could STOP it? What would happen? What would it mean? Ending social welfare programs? Would a sort of caste system re-develop? [If you've seen the movie (not the book) The Time Machine] could divergent species eventually develop? It's fascinating, but also scary to think about.
But also cool to think about the evolution of animal life to human. Here's what I think: image bugs that developed camouflage to look like their surroundings. I predict that one day we'll find bugs that look like straws, or McDonald's cups, or ketchup packets. Because if they look more like our products, they're more likely to be overlooks. If they're more likely to be overlooked, they're more likely to live and reproduce, and thus propagate looking like modern products.
Ok, that's it.
Soundtrack:
"Ambulance" by Eisley
"Pressure" by Paramore
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