interesting trail

[marmot]

oh, btw, math games zippety? i play math games all the time, after taking differential equations and partial differential equations, and some topology, i feel great! i always think about math when i hike!

[zippetydude]

You're ahead of me . . . when I play with equations, etc., I use paper. On the trail I play more simple games - how many steps til I reach the top?, What percent grade is the trail for the first 4 miles? the next 4.5 (which are kinda level), the last 2.5 (ugh!) How many miles do these shoes have on them? Stuff like that.

Here's an interesting phenomenon. I wear a heart monitor when I run, and I find that my heart rate is correlated not just to exertion, but also to the ambient temperature. If I do the trail from museum to tram in almost exactly the same amount of time, but on one of the trips it is 10 degrees warmer, I will burn more calories and maintain a higher heart rate throughout on the warmer trip.

I'm not a doctor, but my latest trail theory is that blood serves not just as oxygen and nutrient transport, but also performs the function of transporting heat out of the core to the surface to avoid overheating. The hotter it is, the more my heart has to work to move the "coolant" around and transport the heat out of my body. That's my latest theory anyway.

See why I'm delirious on the trail?

z