Grandma's Ninja Warrior Diary: The Mathematics of Fitness Training
As my fitness training intensifies, I find that I am as overwhelmed with math, as I was as a humanist, in math classes as a child. I got the "necesssary" A in all my courses, but I took only the routine high school college-prep math courses and nothing fancier. Sometiimes, numbers become completely meaningless. So, trying to put meaning into what is a good heart rate has become a nightmare of numbers rolling over me, of a cloud puffed high like a thunderhead, spewing showers of unrelated digits down upon me at night when the sorting out should happen during my sleeping hours, but it does not. This past week I was at a conference. The fitness center had little equipment other than treadmills. And, the treadnills had just too much information: BPM at 65% for each decade, ages 10-90 (guess not many centenarians find their way onto that moving belt) BPM at 80% for each decade). I had been operating with one figure, which is a comforting way of operating. No need to