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Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 4:00 PM
Subject: Incline Club V5 LR #13
Well last week I managed to pick up a bug. A flu bug that is. I am convinced that I got it from reading Dave S’s email about getting the flu. I have been hearing a lot about e-mail viruses lately but had no idea they were that contagious. I shall have to ask Dr. Rocket about this! It came and went in the space of just a couple of days but it made for a rather short Sunday for me. I knew I was in no state to continue up Ruxton when I started weaving all over the road and thought I saw a black truck coming straight at me at 35 miles per hour. Turns out I was hallucinating but the relief was short lived in that it was a dark blue truck doing 45. I turned around and bee-lined it for home setting a slow PR in the process. But I got my “*” and a couple of short running days later I felt good as new:-) A valuable lesson learned from 4 years ago when I got the flu and tried to keep doing 2 hour days and speed workouts. A week into that routine and I could not get out of bed:-( The stunt managed to lay me out (as in NO running) for 3 MORE weeks!!! Who says you can’t teach an old runner new tricks?
####
Sunday, February 18, 8 a.m. meet at Soda Springs Park.
Run out the Ute Pass Trail and turn right and then cross Hwy 24 and do the
Waldo Canyon lollipop loop clockwise. Cross back over Hwy 24 (be careful)
then go straight and head up Longs Ranch Road. Go straight at the “J” pipe
to the top of Incline and down Barr Trail to finish the run. Run down the
Barr Trail to finish the loop. 2.5-3.5 hours. If it would take longer just
do the Waldo loop!
####
Matt C writes:
A Camelbak has been sitting at Yvonne’s and my house for several weeks now.
It is not ours and we can’t figure out how it got here. If you lost a
Camelbak we may have it!
####
Nicole R writes:
I loved the screwy-shoes humor! :-)
Seriously, now, do you have a good procedure for applying the screws to the
shoes? I bought a pair of rubber “overshoes,” with little metal studs in
them, at Mountain Chalet for $30.00. After one trip around Waldo Canyon,
they were pretty much shot. Needless to say, I got my money back. Now I’m
going to try putting screws directly into the shoes, and would love to hear
any tips you have, so I don’t ruin too many shoes in the process!!!
(Matt C adds: Just go here: www.skyrunner.com/screwshoe.htm)
####
Neal and Teresa said:
Sometime real soon we will do the annual Neal and Teresa T Volkswagen Van
Breakfast Run (NaTTVVBR). Stay tuned for details:-P
####
Dave S writes:
Volunteers are needed to help with the USATF Indoor Track Meet on 2/25/01.
The meet is at the indoor track at the Air Force Academy. This is the
Colorado Indoor Championship for the Open and Masters divisions. Events
include various running and field events. Volunteers are needed for hand
timing the running events (to supplement the electronic timing), for helping
with hurdle setup and teardown, and a few volunteers are needed with the
field events (pole vault, long jump, high jump). Help is needed from 9:30
am to about 3:00 pm on 2/25/01. If you can help out, please e-mail Dave
Sorenson at (e-mail address removed for www posting) and he can get you in touch with the meet
organizers. Thanks!
####
Tom K writes:
Laura and I had an abbreviated run on Sunday. As most everyone who did it
knows, Barr trail was pretty icy. Since I haven’t had the chance to follow
up on Dr. Rocket’s advice, I ran in my shoes without the screws which made
it even more of a challenge. We turned around shy of our goal, with not
much regret. It was not one of our funner runs, butt, we got it out the
door.
Some of us ran the Winter Series #3 10 miler on Saturday on the new course which took us on an out and back route on the Sante Fe trail. It started and finished at “Sheppler’s,” and covered one of the nicer sections of the trail on the USAF Academy (i.e. hills and trees). The weather was nice, and between the snow on the ground and the hills, the course was challenging. I liked it, and I finally feel like I’m getting used to racing again (check out www.pprrun.org if you are interested in the results). I had an interesting conversation with Larry (Hey, he’s pretty fast for an old guy) M after the race, where he gave me a quick (verbal) lesson in the art of “Clligrapee.” So, next time you’re on a club training run, and you see “T+L” etched in yellow along the side of the trail, you’ll know I have finally mastered this skill.
####
Teresa T writes:
I got to break trail on the run out to Mountain. View as I started an hour
early on Sunday. While it was beautiful running through the virgin snow -
so quiet and peaceful — it was WORK! Now I know why it is nice to run a
little slower and back in the pack! Thanks to all of you who go before and
break the trail! I appreciate those tracks a whole lot more!
####
And now, Incline boys and girls and every thing, it’s once again time for “Ask Doctor Rocket,” where each week we feature a perplexing running
related question that requires rocket science to answer. Ask Doctor
Rocket (he’s got a PhD... in Rocket Science).
Laura L writes:
Dear Dr. Rocket,
I was so hopeful when I saw your column in the Incline newsletter. Your
advice to Tom K was so “creative” and insightful that I thought, “This is
just the man who can help me.” You see, I sprained my ankle about six
weeks ago when I rolled my foot over a piece of frozen horse poop while on
my daily early morning run. Yes, it is still a bit swollen and I have some
decreased range of motion, but that is not my concern here. Somewhere in
your vast storehouse of knowledge, I just know you have the answers these
two questions: (1) Do you know at what temperature horse poop freezes (to
the nearest nano-degree please)? Then I will know when my favorite running
trail is safest. (2) I know rockets must have some kind of device attached
to them so they can avoid all the space junk floating out there on their
way to their destination, so I was wondering if you knew of any devises or
equipment that I could wear or carry that would help me avoid these
certain nasty obstacles in the future? If it’s big, my running partner
can carry part of it; I know she’d be glad to help. You know, this can be
quite embarrassing when telling people how this injury occurred. You should
hear all the snide comments I’m still getting from people: “You better take
a break, you’re looking a little pooped,” and things like that.
Please help!!!
Signed, Sh**!!??t Happened
ps: If you could attach a skunk detector too, that would be a big help!
Dear Laura L,
I recall reading about your close encounter of the “poopy” kind in a previous Incline Club newsletter e-mail. I thought it was hilarious; I couldn’t stop laughing. However, I do feel your pain, both emotional and physical. Situations like that stink! The good news is that ankle sprains, if treated promptly and correctly, will respond well. Be thankful it wasn’t a rocket sprains, as they are much more difficult to deal with. If you follow Matt C’s excellent advice of alternating hot water with cold water on the ankle, with 12 aspirin every 4 hours (or is it 4 aspirin every 12 hours?), you should see positive results. (WARNING: Do NOT attempt this treatment for a rocket sprain. Extreme thermal variations will act on the monomethyl-hydrazine/N2O4 propellant and the rocket will explode!)
But to address your first question, at what temperature does horse poop
freeze? Well, this does not have a straight foreword answer, so permit me
to skitter around this issue (a linguistic technique taught me by my two
cats “Hyperbola” and “Delta-V”). The answer depends on several factors:
the thermal mass of the stuff, how recently the dirty deed was dung, the
ambient temperature, and whether or not the horse ate Mexican the night
before. It would probably be safest to give you a relative measure to go
by. You can safely assume that horse poop will freeze at the same
temperature as a PowerBar (roughly, zero nano-nano-degrees Celsius). It
is interesting to note that the theoretical ambient temperature of space
is around “absolute zero,” or -273 degrees Celsius. Given this fact, one
can only imagine what would happen if, say, the Horse Head Nebula
(located 1,100 light years away in the constellation of
Orion), weighing in at the equivalent of 300 solar masses, decides to drop
a big pile of cosmic matter. All I can say Laura L is, watch out! This
could be the next Big Bung to rival the Big Bang. If that ever happens, you
will definitely want to keep your eyes on the trail when running in that
neck of the universe.
You are correct in noting the large amount of space debris that now orbits our planet. The U. S. Space Surveillance Network is presently accounting for 9000 pieces of man-made debris over 10 centimeters in size that they can detect, and it is estimated that there are over 1000,000 pieces of debris less than 10 centimeters orbiting the earth that can not be detected by present radar tracking technology. There are no known horse-made object orbiting the Earth. Several schemes have been considered by NASA scientists (I promise, I am not fabricating this from thin air) such as attaching “bumpers” to space vehicles to intercept debris, and orbiting huge space sponges to absorb the debris, which would be sent into the atmosphere to burn up. None of these technologies has yet been proven, and so I believe that the most appropriate remedy for you is to simply have someone run out ahead of you with a shovel, and scoop the stuff off the path. You can try your morning running partner, Phyllis D, but I doubt she would do this for you as she does enough of this (both figuratively and sometimes literally) at her job. And in any case, that’s what boyfriends and husbands are for.
Ever since the first prehistoric Neanderthal was made to go out and pick up the Dino poop in the yard, men have evolved with the physical and mental skills necessary to shovel poop. It comes naturally, it’s in their genetic makeup. And by a fortunate fluke of nature, he is also nearly the best thing (next to your dog) for ferreting out skunks.
Keep in mind though, Laura L, that running is never safe. Between the frozen horse poop, every automobile driver on the road, and bovines with an attitude, you just can’t be too careful. I hope this has been of some help. You will find further details on many of the above topics in a reprint of a talk I delivered at the 1999 Swiss Academy of Cheese Conference on Space Debris, entitled “Going Number Two in Zero-g: A new perspective on floaters.”
Got go,
Dr. Rocket
Go out hard, when it hurts blast off.
(Matt C adds: While on the subject it turns out a typo last week on the word “T-shirt” made things rather poopy. Do not worry however because the club will not be wearing poop on our bodies! In fact, Yvonne C has come up with a concept that she will show off this Sunday for some feedback.)
####
Diane C writes:
I have launched an all-out assault on networking for a new/different job
here in Springs. I presently work for a software development company out of
Albuquerque and travel 100% of the time. Which is causing me pain and agony
in several areas of life including running at altitude!
So, I would like to network with the club since I love the IC e-mails.... cliff notes version of my background is: project management of implementation of software programs, training of software, writing technical and how-to manuals for using software. 21 years working with attorneys and lawfirms in one capacity or another, the last 12 of which I have consulted with them. Want to work in Springs full time and can continue management, writing and training with little to no travel. Or I can shift gears and use the skills in similar but different ways.
If you know of anyone looking to talk to someone with my skill/knowledge bank, I would be appreciative of the network. If you want to view my resume, I’ll can send to you. Diane M. Cahalan (e-mail address removed for www posting).
####
WWW Post:
2/11/2001 A big group of 51 headed out on one of the nicest weather days we
have had in a while. However this was a double edged sword as some sections
of the Barr Trail were fairly icy. This did not stop some from running all
over the mountain with a report of at least one forging on to the A-Frame!
Coming back down via Bob’s road was a little better and that section is not
traveled as much so there was not as much ice. Definitely a “be careful” time of the year for the Barr Trail!
####
Go out hard, when it hurts speed up...
Matt Carpenter
www.skyrunner.com
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