Adarq.org

After getting a headache 2km into my intended 3km test today I got frustrated. My result, 2km in 7:46, translates to a 20:30 5k by pace, which means essentially zero improvement over the last year. I haven't been the most consistent with training but I haven't been a complete slouch, either. Zero improvement would be depressing. So I did a bit of research about running the heat. Turns out, humidity is worse than heat because it impedes sweating. That makes sense. It has been super humid here this summer.

Humidity is measured by % or by dew point. This article - https://runnersconnect.net/dew-point-effect-running/ - from Runners Connect showing the dew point effect on running. Forgive the fucked up formatting, hopefully it's legible at least.

Dew Point in °F (°C)                 Performance Adjustment   Easy Running   Hard Running
<55 °F (12°C)                         0%                                   Unaffected           Unaffected
55°F (13°C) to 60 °F (15°C)      1%                                   Unaffected           Slightly difficult
60°F (16°C) to 65 °F (18°C)      2-3%                                Slightly difficult   Difficult
65°F (18°C) to 70°F (21°C)      3-5%                                 Difficult           Very difficult
70°F (21°C) to 75°F (23°C)      5-8%                                 Difficult           Very difficult
75°F (23°C) to 80°F (25°C)      12-15%                             Very difficult   Not recommended
Above 80°F (25°C)                      Just run                         Not recommended  Not recommended

Anyway the dew point here today is 75 degrees, and air temp 90. According to the chart that means easy running should be difficult and hard running very difficult, edging into not recommended. Calculators should always be taken with a grain of salt but it's a bit of a relief to see how much of an impact the dew point is expected to have.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I can't wait to run in cooler and less humid weather. Only one way to find out how true this all is.

Also, adarq, for the love of god: Get yourself to some autumn races where it's cool and dry. Like go as far north as North Carolina at least, in October or November. I'm tryna see you run 16:20.

Some other stuff I found in my researches:

cool multi-output estimator: https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Running_Calculator
dew point calculator: http://www.dpcalc.org/
race time estimator: https://www.chicagoendurancesports.com/racepredict.htm

not strictly training related but this is so cool: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/stimulating-spinal-cord-helps-more-paralyzed-people-walk

Paralysis is becoming less permanent — at least for some.

There’s now more evidence that stimulating the spinal cord can restore voluntary movement in paralyzed patients who haven’t recovered after other treatments. After five months of training coupled with targeted stimulation of nerve cells in the spinal cord, three people who had a severe spinal cord injury regained the ability to walk with varying degrees of support, researchers report online October 31 in Nature.

incidentally my mom used to edit that publication, science news, when i was in high school.

For me, Penn and Teller: Fool Us is the greatest TV show of all time. Simple premise: Magicians try to do tricks that fool Penn and Teller, and the prize is that they get to appear in P&T's act in Vegas. Three reasons I love it:

1. Many of the tricks are incredible in their own right. Even the ones that don't fool the hosts are usually beautiful or amazing or both.
2. Penn and Teller are always kind and positive. The whole atmosphere on the show is one of supporting and sharing love for a weird, niche craft that is ultimately a really hard way to make a living for most of the people doing it professionally. Everybody feels good. It's wonderful. It's similar to the British show QI for that reason: everyone is rooting for each other. Watching people be generous is extremely gratifying.
3. When they get fooled, it's because the magician did something stupefying. Cases in point:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjau-xR4RaM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjau-xR4RaM</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVkmibfFbVI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVkmibfFbVI</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCFXV6o7cro" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCFXV6o7cro</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8L3EBJhXU4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8L3EBJhXU4</a>

on a related note, i have become obsessed with david blaine, who is a genius.

Holy shit! First time in 108 years! Somewhere, wherever he lives now, Steve Bartman is weeping just a little bit harder than everyone else around him.

26 days until Michigan's defense rips Hawaii's still-beating heart of its chest and eats it raw. The D was so nasty last year until Glasgow went down. We're going to be even better this year.

I just watched this video and got so hyped at my desk I started breathing audibly.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fZheB820c4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fZheB820c4</a>

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Weightlifting/Features/2016/July/18/Pyrros-Dimas-Joins-USA-Weightlifting

Maybe we'll finally get good at weightlifting?

My cousin is an actor and writer and she is destroying it right now. I am really proud of her and excited for her! And feel like bragging a little to all y'all quasi-strangers! She's about to be in another play on Broadway, with Nathan Lane and some other famous people. And the most influential and famous theater critic in New York (and therefore probably the country) gave her play that just opened a raaaaaave. Jesus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/theater/review-a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-gynecologic-oncology-unit-blends-rage-with-gallows-humor.html?_r=0

There’s a raw spot — one of the tenderest places on the continent of human emotions — that exists between laughter and pain. Make that between laughter and everything that feeds pain: rage, hatred, desperation, hopelessness, fear, even physical disease.

Such is the location of Halley Feiffer’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City,” a play that is as deeply felt as its name is long. To be literal, its setting is a sickeningly pink double room in the hospital of its title.

But as anyone who’s spent much time in similar rooms knows, antechambers to death are incubators for those guffaws that it’s hard to distinguish from sobs, places where you find yourself fighting a close battle with the urge to giggle madly. To give in to such an impulse, in such a context, would be very, very inappropriate.

Or would it? “Funny Thing,” which opened on Tuesday night at the Lucille Lortel Theater, makes a convincing case that hard laughter is an absolutely appropriate response, if not a socially sanctioned one, to those moments when life seems like too bad a joke not to respond otherwise.