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Written by Martin Mazur Martin Mazur

April 10, 2014

 

It was a most excellent Spring day, though a March wind was still breathing on our heels. Tom Cali, Lance Bland, Ken Davis, Michael Goldfine, Andrew Maguire, Mike Zimmerman, Jaimie Wright, Dana Todd, Rick Harter, David Lloyd, and Marty Mazur headed for the track under sunny skies and mild temperatures.

The turnout was light. Some of our grad school friends are buried in late semester work. The Boston Marathon crew has started their taper. Well, all except Tom, whose workout was more of a social call. And Jaimie, who ran a pretty ferocious “Last workout before taper. Promise!” Ken Davis suggested the Most Excellent Old Guys workout: 1 Mile - 2 X 800 - 4 X 400. Bwana protested that the “usual” workout is 2 miles or less, not 3. After a bit of back and forth about how to reduce the length of the workout and still keep the spirit of the thing, Ken and Bwana decided to call on a *really* old guy, the 5th century BC Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea. Zeno’s paradox denied the reality of motion by subdividing an interval of progress: Before reaching his goal, Achilles must get half-way there; but before he goes half-way he must go a quarter; but first, an eighth, etc. ad infinitum, so not only does Achilles never get there, he never leaves! Now, anyone without a PhD knows that, clever as this reasoning is, it’s obviously deficient, since motion is evident to anyone. It wasn’t until the 19th century that PhDs were able to clear up this paradox to their own satisfaction. Meanwhile, Greek shepherds continued to watch their sheep move about unhindered. Bwana, who has a PhD and (uncharacteristically) common sense, devised a workout that would get infinitely many intervals done in a finite distance and time: 1 Mile, rest, then half that (880), then half that (440), rest, then….all the rest of the infinite progression in the next quarter-mile with no rest between each rep!

 

So, all of you who showed up today did an infinite workout. Congratulations! Now you can taper.