Saturday, July 07, 2012

Revising the Don Tyson

An interesting idea came to me during my little Independence Day ten-lapper: What if I were to revise my measurement of the Don Tyson from 1.355 miles down to 1 1/3 miles? What functional difference would it make in understanding the quality and value of my training?

My sister no doubt had this idea instantly, without having to run thirty or so laps of the road as I have done, but she kept her mouth shut. She knew my overly-cerebral nature and rock-star perseverativeness would eventually combine, enabling me to lift the fog of my own idiocy and see the obvious that she saw right away. She also knew I would learn the lesson better and grow as a mathematician more if I discovered the obvious myself rather than hearing it from her. She is a good educator that way.

The measured distance from the lightpole at Johnson Road to the used car lot at Kent Dobbs Hyundai, and back, is revised from 1.355 miles to 1 1/3 miles for all training and competition purposes. For obvious reasons.

5 comments:

carl duewall said...

Well at least you aren't using the metric system.

Jen T said...

Yes!! He sees the light! And finally understands that writing a quantity with many significant digits cannot nullify inherent limitations in the accuracy of measuring equipment.

(Whew, what a jawbreaker that "sentence" is!)

And of course, it's much easier to do mental math while running on 1 1/3 than on 1.355.

I'm still puzzled about why you're running the Don Tyson at all. I thought you only liked to run outdoors?

Anonymous said...

Carl, I'm still saying 23 laps is 50k even though it computes out to less than 50k. I can't be any more confident it is less than 50k with my new measurement any more than I was confident it was more than 50k with my previous measurement. 23 laps works.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Dave

Anonymous said...

The second reason is the big one. It's nice that nine laps comes out to an even twelve miles.

I am a world traveller, Jen. I run where running takes me. Right now it has taken me to the Don Tyson Parkway. But trust me, with the air at 100 degrees and the running surface at closer to 125 degrees, it feels very much outdoors.

You rock!

~Dave

bulletholes said...

"…because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars….."