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A Month in the Mountains and a Day in the Desert

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It’s been longer since my last post than I like to let pass between blogs. I hope it’s a fluke and not a developing pattern.

Settling [back] into Aspen has been great. Familiar friends, familiar hang-outs, and a familiar job. It’s a lot like coming home, but home usually has more snow… When there’s no snow in Aspen, usually summer, lots of locals check out Moab, Utah. Since the ski conditions stink and we’ve never been to Moab, Kate and I made the drive out to Utah this past week and had a good time in the desert.

Night time temperatures were originally predicted to be around 30 degrees on Thursday night. Based on Friday’s reports and the layer of iced formed on the inside of the tent in the morning, I estimate a low more like 5. I feel like the extra money to get the zero degree sleeping bag 4 years ago was finally worth it. I knew I would need it at some point!

After waking Friday morning, we chipped as much ice off the tent as we could and headed to Arches National Park. The trip was very cool and the land was beautiful, I’ve included some pictures you can click on below. We bought our annual pass for the National Parks while at Arches, so hopefully I’ll have lots more (at least 80 bucks worth) to share with you from the National Parks System over the next year. I definitely want to hit either Yellowstone or Yosemite. I’ve never been to either and would like to go to both.

Meanwhile, back in Colorado…

We got in total close to a foot on the mountains this week. In addition to the snow, I’m all revved up this week to watch the Broncos take on my New England Patriots. It will be an emotional and hopefully happy Saturday night. I’ve found that even the real Coloradans find Tebow a bit of a joke, so I hope we can put the Kabbash on this 2011 passing fad. Tebowing!? Seriously… GO PATS!

That is all, I’ll try to write more frequently! Enjoy my pictures below, I think I got some good ones.

James

 

Forest Gump and a New Clinical Prediction Tool

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Firts, let me first start with 2 (two) apologies:

1. I apologize for writing so sporadically. I’m getting married next month and promise to be more consistent in August.

We passed this couple while hiking on the N Shore of Kaua’i. She was wearing the same shirt as me from Jack Quinn’s Running Club who we used to run with in Colorado Springs.

2. Sorry the comments don’t work on the blog. In addition, if you click around, you’ll find the entire blog portion of this site acts funky. If you wondering why I haven’t fixed this already, please see apology number 1 (one).

On we go:

I do like running in different places. I especially like finding a body of water on vacation (lake, ocean, river, irrigation ditch) and running along side it. While running on assignment, I learn my way around the neighborhoods I live in and see interesting things along the way. On a recent wrong turn that took me 6 miles out of my way, I realized how quickly I could get into vast farmlands and have beautiful valley views (it didn’t seem so close on the way home). I also got an up close look at a roadkilled-porcupine. The porcupine was pretty interesting, but more than I had bargained for.

The last time I went running a small happening that I think most runners can identify with inspired the creation of a new predictive rule for the field of psychology. So, the moment you have all anticipate, my first independently developed objective measurement tool:

The Spencer Societal Startle Test (SSST)

The subject should be sent out for a casual walk on a public street. The investigator should dress as a recreational jogger and begin running from a distance behind the subject. As the investigator approaches the subject from the rear, a cough and foot shuffle should be performed at a distance of 20 ft to alert the subject of an approaching person. The investigator should continue to run alongside and past the subject.

Scoring: Score 1 (one) if the subject yells out audibly in surprise. Score 0 (null) if there is no audible reaction. A score of 1 indicates the subject will likely benefit from professional psycological intervention.

Clinicians interested in studying the SSST should note that it should be expected that the test will have strong specificity, but fairly poor sensitivity. Meaning, a high percentage of subjects who test positive under the SSST will benefit from psychological counseling, however, a negative score may not truley indicate that a subject would not benefit from psychological counseling.

Enjoy the open road…. some day I’ll write about this whole barefoot/forefoot running thing, it’s really been driving me nuts.

James

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James R Spencer, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS

Current location: Skowhegan, ME