Training Log Archive: iansmith

Event: Skyline Trail Run
 

Despite my injury, motivated by a desire to get outside and enjoy the company of others, I attended the Blue Hills Skyline race. I was chagrined to not be running the race - which I missed in 2009 due to a Pawtuckaway Training Camp - but it was a pleasant way to spend the morning. I bonded with Presto, took pictures of the group, helped out by handing out popsicle sticks to record the order of finishers, and chatted with meet organizers Paul and John. I also met a Serbian woman with whom I discussed my impending trip to Croatia, though I forget her name. Afterward, Lori, Stephen, Presto, Andy and I went swimming in Houghton's Pond.

As seems to be an invariant of my life, I have been wrestling with many difficult questions about life in general. I am dialoging with a good friend from high school about the nature of morality and happiness, and I have been reflecting on social convention and patterns. Answers are fantastically elusive, and conjectures are very difficult to test. I think the only way to function is to make assumptions to provide some logical foundation for our decisions and daily activity. Completely abandoning all assumptions invites madness.

I am reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and in a section on circumstances under which he reasoned to violate his resolution to be a vegetarian, I found this remark amusing:

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

It is not necessary that I find the answer to the question why a proposition is true, but it is necessary that I ask. This, of course, assumes that the proposition is true.

Lori and I went to Breakheart Reservation to train on the 2m band for ARDF. We each set two transmitters and set off to find the other's two. I had well-founded concerns about my left calf, which gave out after about five minutes of running when I was setting the transmitters. By the end of the session, I was in agony, and even limping back to the parking lot was painful.

I don't know what the nature of the injury is - perhaps a muscle strain or tear - but I have complete range of motion when I am not putting weight on the foot. Contracting my hamstring causes discomfort. When I put weight on it or try to run, the sensation is like there is a vertical metal rod in my leg that heats up. At its peak, there is a burning sensation up and down my calf all the way to the foot.

Today's session was very frustrating; in addition to my physical hindrance, I had difficulty finding the controls and extracting information from the receiver. Nevertheless, I am glad to have gotten out, and Lori and I urgently need training time. Even wrestling with the equipment is somewhat useful. I will take at least five days off and refrain from significant physical activity (which unfortunately may include stairs).

C • Leg 2

1. While walking to the grocery store, I was thinking about my emotional responses to stimuli. I like to know the answer to the question "why," though there is the risk of circular argument. I want to understand why I feel the way I do in response to stimuli chiefly because unlike thoughts and actions, feelings are not completely within the realm of my control. I then asked myself the obvious question - why? I think it is because understanding things makes me happy or increases my utility. I then asked myself the same question - why does understanding increase my utility? The circularity of my thinking amused me greatly and I burst out laughing in the grocery store, casting my sanity into question among my fellow shoppers. I suppose I must assert axiomatically that we are a curious species (or I am a curious individual), and that mysteries compel our attention.

2. My utility increases when I increase the utility of other people. In general, I like people; I particularly enjoy helping people solve problems. When others are confronted with an obstacle - even one as simple as a task, like moving - I derive great satisfaction from aiding them. Camaraderie and sharing life with others also brings me similar satisfaction, though I am more selective about the individuals that bring me satisfaction than with my problem solving efforts.

I was pondering why that is - why my utility increases with that of others, why I enjoy helping people, and why people matter so much to me. I can arrive at many different explanations - that this is an evolutionary behavior, that it is a social convention, that I have been taught to love, and so on. One of the core tenets of Christianity is to love your neighbor as you love yourself; this was very consistent with my empirical observation - that general compassion greatly improves the utility of society.

Ultimately, I have concluded that while there may be a very complex justification for why I care about people, I have promoted it in my own consciousness to an axiom. I axiomatically care about others, and that understanding is kind of cool. Ironically, it is a very self-centered train of thinking particularly for me to share with others, but after all, this is my log. I hope it did not decrease your utility to read it. :)

I have restricted myself from running until Saturday. I intended to take a complete rest day, but I was feeling antsy. I figured an easy bike ride would give me an opportunity to relax, think, and enjoy. I was careful to take it slow - mostly staying in the 2-6 gear. My left calf felt excellent during the ride, though my left knee started to ache slightly. Apart from two traffic-motivated instances, I stayed below 30 kph.

To and from Fresh Pond. On the way home, unencumbered by the 2m receiver, I stopped at Anna's and procured burrito sustenance. I also ran into my second old MIT friend of the day - Dwight Chambers. We talked briefly; he is leaving Boston in 9 days and entering an MD/PhD program at Emory University.

Lori and I met up for a quick training session at Fresh Pond. When there are only two of us training, we each set one band and then run the other band. This can be repeated indefinitely within time constraints. I had prepared all the baggies, transmitters, batteries and receivers earlier today. I had put a streamer with each 80m transmitter so we wouldn't lose the bags if we dropped them, but Lori thought the streamer was intended to mark control locations. In the future, setting streamers is a good idea; even on short, sprint courses, it's very hard to find the tiny transmitter within 1 minute.

To start, I set a tricky 2m control set while Lori set the 80m band. While I was running Lori's course, I noticed very loud interference, probably from Ham radio users. My left calf also started hurting considerably during my run, and I was limping at the end. I reset the 80m controls while Lori finished the 2m course and retrieved SGB; she then ran the new 80m course while I picked up the 2m controls. It was a reasonably productive session, but I am incapacitated. I will RICE it for the next several days.

I ran into an old high school and MIT friend, Daniel Armendariz, who was lounging in the park with his girlfriend Melissa.

Fierce:
Ross, Patrick, Mike, Eddie, Eric; and, perhaps my favorite, Ross cheering

C • Capturing "l'essence" 8

To and from Bellevue Pond. I arrived about twelve minutes late (ugh).

Brendan set a training course at the Fells starting from Bellevue Pond. It was a bit novel since we don't regularly use that region of the map. I am clearly out of practice - about the only action I was habitually doing was using my right hand to take splits on my left wrist (though I wasn't wearing a watch). I completely neglected reading ahead and planning my exit for the first few controls.

It was a productive training session, though; the woods were reasonable passable, and the marshes were dry. I was attacked by some mosquitos, but most of those encounters were in the parking lot rather than the woods. I plan to run the course again - possibly this weekend - and retrieve streamers. My lower left calf was hurting considerably at the end; I have upgraded the discomfort to a formally logged injury.