YouSaid · the spoken record

Zach Bitter

lines on the record: 227
first: 2021-07-29
most recent: 2021-07-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Thanks a bunch, Lex. It's been an honor to come on your podcast. I've been a fan of it for quite some time. And I thought about wearing a white suit.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Falling on the other end where maybe it's really difficult for them to be able to read at the speed of other students. But if you give them this specific direction, they can just thrive in certain area. And just seeing that like the, you know, like that there's multiple ways to do stuff and there's not necessarily one path to the end is I think such an eye-opening thing to learn, especially if you learn. Maybe that's what I should answer the question that you asked me with is keep an open mind as to what paths there are forward and know that maybe just because even if you look to your left and you look to your right and all your classmates are successful doing it one way it doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be the way for you”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, you know, I saw that all the time when I was teaching, I was dual certified. My certifications were in history and broadfield social studies. So like econ psychology history, all that stuff. And then I also had a certification of special education, which was, you know, people think of special education a lot of times as like, oh, it's the, you know, the kid who is not smart enough to do the regular thing when reality, it's like, I mean, there is some, you know, there's obviously like, you know, like certain things like Down syndrome and stuff like that, but like there's also like a huge population of groups of both like gifted and talented on one end of the spectrum where they're incredibly smart and they're like the geniuses but for whatever reason the standard method of learning does not click with them, does not work with them and then they just need a slightly different path or maybe a drastically different path and they're going to just flourish and you have kids that end up”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think nowadays we're getting to a point where your reachability from even a really small unmonetized thing previously is now an option where if like you live in a city where there's only two other people interested in your topic avaria so you're not going to be able to turn into a job now with the internet you have the world at your disposal so that two to three people in every town can turn into thousands tens of thousands hundreds and millions of people and if you really focus your time and energy into that thing then you know who knows where you can go and how much more enjoyable your life can be if you're able to turn your career into a passion of yours so i think like that is something i would tell tell people um folks on that”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think one thing I was always interested in when I was teaching was you'd have students who had like interests, they had what they were good at, and sometimes those ran in unison with one another. Other times they didn't. And it was always interesting to me when you'd have a student who's like, I'm really into guitar or I'm really into skateboarding or something like that where it's like pretty small like success rate on that avenue versus what you can maybe accomplish by focusing on just something like a little more standard. And I think really like besides the likelihood of it becoming something you can turn into a profession or not, you should just ask yourself like, is this something that I want to spend my free time doing? And because if it is, then you want to keep that in your life because that's something that's rewarding, motivating. It might be the catalyst that gets you out of bed in the morning and, you know, go to another job in order to go do that thing after.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it's like, what kind of pressure is that to think, well, if I'm not literally one of the best players in the NBA in 10 years, I failed. It's just mind bogging to think if I'm not one of the best at one of the most competitive sports on the planet in what is an athletic, I think an athletic state of an NBA basketball player is probably one of the most athletic human beings on the planet. And to know in a teenage year that your success bar is being the best, one of the best in the league or the best ever in that conversation is floating around everywhere you look and see versus being able to kind of quietly fail and go back to teaching makes it a little more digestible, I think.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In some regards, it's a blessing in the sense that failing would have been fairly predictable. Whereas if I always wonder, I mean, I think of these like, especially the big sports, like baseball, football, and basketball, and you get guys who, guys and girls who are identified in early high school as being the next.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What are you waiting for? Just go. Why are you here? After I told him that every time I'd come into I'd come into school the next day and he'd be like, why are you still here? But there's a tongue in cheek for sure.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because I mean, I went to school to be a teacher and I really loved that profession. I taught for about five years and then I got to a point where some of it's just perfect timing too, like the sport gain enough popularity where there was enough money in it where like I could start a coaching business. I could get sponsorships and things like that and actually look at it and say financially I can make a go of this or at least risk it. There's such a fine line between like deciding to do that or kind of staying comfortable because I mean, I was at the perfect teaching spot for me. I was at this like project-based learning school and just outside of Madison, Wisconsin loved it. One of the hardest decisions in my life to make was to step away from that, to pursue running it more holistically. And I mean, I almost didn't. I had a co-teacher who was, I was thinking to myself, I knew that was like a decision I was going to have to make in the next few years, but it was such an easy decision to say, well, wait one more year. And he was just like, he was a little more of a free spirit than I was certainly at the time. He's like, dude.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I'd be more inclined just because it stands out to me much bigger than any one hard decision or outcome ahead from a particular race is just like the trajectory of like you know doing what I'm doing now is so much different from what I would have ever expected you know I mean I was a talented enough runner where I could make the state meet by my senior year at a small Division III school and you know compete at a Division III college and be pretty modest talent comparative to my peers at the top level of Division III to think that like I'd be doing anything that was revolved around running as an occupation is I still second guess that that's actually occurring makes me wonder about the whole simulation theory thing it's like who's got my joystick and what in reality”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, go out to a track. And run one lap as fast as you can, and then reflect on what time you get and realize the world record for the marathon is that lap at just over 70 seconds per lap. So minute and 10, just over that, but you're doing it 26.2 miles. So over a hundred times. It's mind boggling”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For folks, for some perspective, they're the current world record is in the 440s. Per mile Just to add a little flavor to that.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think Ultra for sure because that is a fastly growing sport and there's There's a lot of potential for much bigger pool of talent to pull from that could really push the needle down on some of these performances and things like that, especially as it becomes more popular. If people start realizing, or I shouldn't say realizing, but if a scenario happens where like, oh, I'm one of the best endurance athletes in the world, I make more money running ultra marathons than I do running the marathon. Then all of a sudden we see every record get broken in a matter of a couple of years. For the marathon, I mean, it's going to get faster, I think, but like to what degree is so hard to know.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Negative with that and say, like, hey, this is terrible, or this is super nefarious when in reality it's like, you know, you have a company that has, you know, billions of dollars and is interested enough in the sport that otherwise doesn't generate a ton of revenue to pick up a big tab and support like track and field and things like that. But with that, you want to be the guy who says, yeah, thanks for the millions and millions of dollars, but we're going to all those years and money you spent on that phone, you wasted it. We're not going to let you use it. But if you're another company who revolutionizes the sport and potentially a negative way, maybe you say no to them. So it gets interesting.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Prototype he had since then they put in a regulation where you can't stack a shoe for the roads more than 40 millimeters. So you can only have so much of that energy returning foam. And you can only have, I think, one carbon plate in there now. So that puts a little bit of a ceiling on that technological thing. But who knows what else will come out in that? And to be honest, who comes out with it? Because the fact that Nike came out with this technology is the reason why it's being allowed to be used if it would have been like another running company that came out with it. I'm sure the regulations would have been slapped down on it immediately. And there would have probably. Yeah, oh, yeah. Well, and I mean, you can go super like.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I think there's no question about it regardless of technology. He's world-class, if not the best. I think he could go under two or someone equivalent to him could go under two hours with the shoe technology. What it'll take is it'll take a fast course, a course that has very few tangents because turning on a course, they estimate ads about a percent to the distance. So when we're talking about a marathon, you're getting up to like a quarter mile extra running. You know, that alone could potentially put you down near too flat based on what we're seeing. Because, I mean, Kipju Geese got a, was it 2014, I believe, is his actual world record where it's actually like, you know, certified. So, I mean, he's right on the doorking on the door there.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And in reality, we've been dealing with this problem in other areas just with the performance enhancing side of things with drugs and all that stuff too. That conversations flared back up with track and field too, where we are seeing a lot of records get broken. A lot of it probably is to shoot technology. But in 2020, with the COVID stuff, you have all these out of competition testing protocols that a lot of these top tier Olympic athletes are getting to try to eliminate. If you just do indirect competition testing, there's potential for people to do things that are going to give them a performance advantage, but not going to show up on that test on the day of or after their race, where now you have these limitations of being able to test. So do we have a group of athletes now who decide, oh, I'm not going to get tested in 2020? Do the COVID restrictions? Is it the time to dope up? And then hit some stride and some records and then taper back off when they get this thing fired back up again.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. We may be coming on the precipice of human-powered sport performance is no longer being something that we look at as this pinnacle of, like, I don't know, maybe entertainment's the wrong word, but like, is that a pursuit? Do we end up just going a different direction? I mean, I think it's like it's so hard for us to think about that right now because it's so part of the culture and the lifestyle of the average person where like sport is a hobby of theirs as well as a passion to follow. And it's like how complicated does it need to get before people lose that interest?”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably closer to that lower end. So, is it fair to have a piece of equipment that has that big of a range when we're talking about less than a percent determining these races when all is held constant?”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where it's a transition, right? So there's going to be bumpy road and there's going to be people that get caught in that transition that it's unfortunate for. But it's also like, you know, once everything does catch up and every shoe company has a version of this, there's still problems. I mean, these are incredibly expensive shoes. It's like a $250 shoe. So it's like at what point do you tell a wealthy family with a high school kid that you can get that $250 shoe but then you go and this kid's family can barely afford a pair of shoes for them much less a $250 pair of shoes like where do we draw that line and that sort of stuff also just here's the other big one like let's I mean two to eight percent is a massive range what if you're on the 2% versus someone's on the 8 percent no chances are if you're you know blowing a record out of the water you're probably closer to that high end percentage versus someone who's maybe getting incremental gains”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But we had a huge transition phase that impacted the Olympics big time. I mean, here's an example of it. There was an athlete, Kara Goucher. She was a Nike athlete, wasn't when they came out with this shoe. And she ran the Olympic trial marathon and got fourth place, the first person out. And two of the people had ever had that shoe on. And she was maybe a minute or two. I'd have to look to see exactly. But it was within the performance advantage range. And so you could argue that she was the first person in modern running to lose an Olympic spot due to a technological disadvantage And it's like, I mean, it's one of”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Yeah. So, what makes it kind of controversial or difficult is Nike came out with these prototypes. So a prototype for people who don't understand shoes, like these companies, they'll develop a shoe. And it usually takes somewhere in the neighborhood of like probably 18 months to hit the market. So if you're like a sponsored athlete or work for the company, you can get your hands on these shoes before they actually come to market. So we had an issue, I think this wasn't necessarily as big of an issue in the ultra running community, but in the track and field Olympic distance stuff was a big issue because you had Nike athletes having these prototype shoes before anyone could get them. And then you had athletes who are sponsored by these other brands who couldn't wear them even if they did come to market. So then we had this like chase to catch up where other companies are starting to make their own version of it. And now we're getting to a point where most companies have a version of that shoe.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so they can definitely go much more advantage. They put a cap on it essentially. So there was also a carbon plate element to this too where they put like this carbon plate in there in between the foam. So like I believe when Kipjagi broke, well, when they did that kind of the sub two hour project, he actually had on a shoe, if I'm not mistaken, that never got to market because they put down some parameters on it after that one came to market where it was actually like stacked up to I can't remember how many millimeters it was an insane amount and they had like I think maybe even three layer plates in there and”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Yeah. I think there's probably other things that come in mind too. Like now that people know there's a performance advantage from a mechanical standpoint, it's also a confidence thing where it's like, oh, now I can probably try going five seconds per mile faster. And maybe they could have anyway. And they just now they think they can. So they are. So there's probably a little bit of that that's just adding to it. Do you think”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Basically, yeah, yeah, I think from at least from the 5K up through the marathon, and I mean, we've seen some insane improvements in the marathon, I think like the women's marathon went from what was considered relatively untouchable like 216 to a 214. And I mean, like it was like 218 was like just world class. Like if you could run a 218 marathon as a woman, that was like, I mean, it still is to a degree, but then now you have someone run a 214. Like that's a huge and you attribute.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wear these flats is because they're trying to take out any of that lost energy into the foam in the shoe. Well, this foam that Nike came out with is so good that it actually returns way more energy than the average foam did to the point where when they test these things on like forced plate treadmills and things like that, it's like depending on the person's gait and some of the things it's like a two to eight percent improvement in performance. I mean, we've seen records just. Across the board get broken since this came out”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would say in ultra running, it's had much of a less of an impact because ultra running is still heavily skewed towards the trails. So the technology, at least from what we know, isn't necessarily translating over to these like massive very terrains, certainly not the technical terrain and things like that. Now on road races, flat stuff like the track stuff, the roads, the, I guess, a runnable trail where it's just like basically crushed limestone, more or less, you definitely get an advantage from it. And essentially what happened is in this probably dated back actually before 2015, Nike decided their development team was ahead of the curve. They developed this new foam call like a P-Bock foam. And they realized that when you step down into a shoe, the reason there's a lot of times will...”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, yeah, and it makes life like a movie almost. Yeah, exactly. If everything's all sunshine and rainbows and it's not as entertaining to watch, there's no adversity to overcome.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like that he didn't Yeah, when he was fourth place at the Olympics, his first go of it, and it was kind of one of those things where it's like fourth place at the Olympics is the first man looking out or the first woman looking out. And for a guy that had as much hype as him, I think like a medal was something he really wanted to take home with him there.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, explore the unknown. Explore the unknown. I think it's like a pioneer spirit, right? Yeah. The next frontier kind of a thing. I mean, Prefontaine, also there's other angles with him too where he was like in the amateur era where to be an Olympian, you couldn't be pro. So he's turning down. I mean, the guy was on food stamps and living in a trailer because he wanted to run at the Olympics. And there was a lot of like politics involved with not being able to take sponsorship money and things like that, which has changed since then. But so he was huge in the movement for that to kind of like have a situation where now as an athlete, you can finish, in most cases, finish college, sign a big contract with, you know, a sponsor, and then also still compete in the Olympic Games and go to the events that are actually ones that are going to likely catapult your career in most of the Olympic distance endurance events. So he just revolutionized the sport. And then to add even more flavor to the whole thing, I mean, he died a very premature death.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is a very important, I think, lesson for the average ultra runner is just knowing what you're capable of is going to be an important piece to the puzzle because you can try to say, I want to run faster than I'm capable of in an early part of a 100 mile or then you're going to pay for it at the end. So really unless you're trying to go for the win and that's a tactic that you think is going to produce a win versus trying to run your fastest time, you got to run within yourself, within your parameters. Obviously, there's a big question about where those parameters are in a lot of cases, which makes Ultra Marathon even more interesting because it's like there's so much unknown about it. It's like, well, maybe you can go faster and we just don't know yet.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know, I think this is really different. Some people thrive under it, where it's like for them, like I talk about Jim Walms before, I think he loves being in the front. If he's in the front, he loves it. That's where he's excited. That's where he knows he's doing what he's doing, where he's pushing his limits and things like that. Pre was probably the same way. And then I think there's other...”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or I shouldn't say national, but at the competition level, the championship level, where it's kind of more of a sit and kick approach a lot of times where everyone's kind of waiting for someone to make a move, like Pri was going to make a move really early.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there's a few things. I mean, there's a lot of things, which is why he is who he is. One was just his attitude about it where he wasn't like this picture ask runner. I mean, he was obviously talented, but you have the perfect story of like he wanted to be good at something. Like most American kids tried football, no hard work was going to get prefontained starting in varsity for football. Starts running. fell in love with a mile. His college coach told him, no, you're not going to be a miler. You're going to be a 5K guy. And he popularized the 5k in the United States or three mile in some cases. And I mean, the way he would race, I think, is what really made him interesting for folks where he would just like all guts runner, where he's like, he's like, I mean, one of his famous quotes was like if you beat me, you're going to have to bleed to do it because he's going to be an all-guts race in a sport where it gets very tactical at times, especially at the like.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Yeah. So just incredible. I mean, I could go a totally different direction too. I think like Steve Prefontaine stands out as an American runner just because if you look at it outside of just like performances and stuff like that, I think he basically like you can't find an American male runner who probably didn't get some motivation or some catalyst into their running journey from a prefontaine story or”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, he did everything. That's why I pick him, I think, because he went everywhere, everything from the 800 and his at a national level. 800? Yeah, at a national level. He wasn't competing at like Olympics or anything in the 800, but he was mostly like 5k to marathon.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so he did that with the old shoe technology, which essentially dates back to anything. If you were a Nike athlete, it could date back to as early as, I think early 2016 is when the first prototype started showing up. So if you're before that in your career, you were using, you're guaranteed to be using the old shoe technology. And I mean, just the range of it too. Yeah, it's hard. I mean, it's a...”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a good question Think I'd probably go maybe two directions here. I think Hallie Geberlassie is one of the best, in my opinion, because just, I mean, 27 world records, like not all the different distance, but like breaking and rebreaking and that sort of stuff. I mean, he ran 2, what was it, 2039 before the shoe technology came in that is estimated at anywhere between a 2% to 8% performance advantage.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I sent him a note a while back because he was the first spot I mentioned it on. So I think he knows I'm not sure if he's followed along about the exact starting date or not”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. I mean, the reality is always there where I don't have to do it. Like, they do have to do it. So, you know, but I think just keeping that perspective, it puts us back to the beginning where this is one of those situations where I think it's like a no-quit situation. You have to put yourself in a no-quit situation here because it's just bigger than you.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They weren't even considered humans by the local government for quite some time. And the people that really pay the price in some of these situations are the women because they're the ones that get saddled with like the water gathering and things like that. So the reason that Justin picked Wells to build was because he thought to himself, if we can get them wells, then now these women don't spend all day walking and carrying water. Now they can just get that water. And now we have half the population freed up for other things. Now maybe they can start farms. They can build some housing and stuff like that. And it just exponentially improves once you take care of some of those big key early things. So when I'm thinking about like, you know, do I really need to go out here and travel another 12 hours a day? My mind's going to hopefully go to, well, if one of those women woke up in the pygmy tribe one morning decided, you know what? Do I really need to go get water today? It's like, well, yeah, you do. You really do have to.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, what I try to think about is the reason Justin identified the pygmy tribe was because they were super forgotten where, you know, we think about just like some of these third world countries where it's a scenario of some people it's easy for us here in the US to think to ourselves, well, why don't they just industrialize? Why don't they just like, you know, start to innovate a bit? Why are they so primitive? What's wrong with them? And in reality, like when you take you down to the degree where you need the entire day because of the situation you're in just to take care of your basic needs of water and food, you never get the opportunity to even build a real establishment or build on that. You need the free time or you need a portion of your population to have the free time available to innovate. And the pygmy tribe just hadn't had that historically.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and one thing I'm going to definitely try to leverage to my advantage, and one of the reasons why I think fight for the Forgotten was the charity that really triggered.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For you. And then you think about, oh, you know what? There's Courtney DeWalter, one of the best female ultra runners to ever exist, is taken 30 minutes to an hour out of her day to come on in two hours to help me amplify this event. And do I really want to be sending emails out to these people saying, hey guys, I know you were gracious enough to block out time of your day? You know, I think there's a little bit of that to do where you're like, you're jumping in with the community that is following along and saying, here's how things are going. Show them the best, the worst and everything between. And then ultimately have that hold you accountable a little bit too. It's like hard to get up in the morning and not go back out.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, Instagram is going to be a big one. I think I might do a few YouTube stuff along the way too. Yeah, I'm still ironing out exactly how much. I think at minimum I'll do some Instagram stuff. I think I'll go live on Instagram a few times during the day when I take like walking breaks partly just to kind of I think keeping people in, I mean it stays true to the goal of raising awareness, but it also I find when you bring people in There is an added pressure to that, but there's also this sense that I've learned from the treadmill experience since we had like a pretty big production for that in the sense that I mean as much as you can turn on a camera in your own house but like the I remember thinking we had like 30 people lined up to come in and guest speak during that and there was points of that where I was like you know you get that voice we talked about at the beginning where it's like you know maybe you could quit like do you really need they'd run 100 miles on a treadmill is this really going to be valuable”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's actually interesting because if I did, let's say I did the simulation now, the problem with that is the adaptations from just like the breakdown and the strengthening would likely be gone unless I did it again. So I want to inch up to it so that and get close enough to the starting date so that I'm still kind of like holding on to that adaptation when I start it. So then those first few days maybe aren't quite as miserable.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I would like it to be in August, like early August would be ideal. I think like maybe the first week in August, because that gives me kind of three weeks to let things kind of settle down from that. But then.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Within this environment and be fine, whereas I'm going to try to get to a point where some of that is already kind of cleared up before I start, but not so much that I'm like adding an extra essential week to the trip worth of running.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's enough precedent with this sort of an activity where everyone I've talked to so far has told me there is going to be like this kind of like gradual decline in the early stages where you're just like okay it's getting worse it's getting worse it's getting worse and you hit a point where you're just like Hits kind of rock bottom, and then it starts to kind of gradually improve. So you kind of have to let yourself get, it's weird. I think I can maybe eliminate, I'm trying to find a way to eliminate some of that by doing the simulations. Whereas from what I've seen, I haven't seen a lot of people do the simulation route yet. I've seen people just do like a lot of training and then Say, like, okay, I'll spend the first seven to ten days adapting to this, and then I'll get comfortable.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Haven't yet. I'm going to build up to it because that's the other thing, too. Is I don't think you want to be so aggressive with that where you get injured trying to figure out how not to get injured. So what I'm going to start, what I just started last week is I've, it looks really weird on my training schedule because last week I ran almost 150 miles, but I took two days off. So it's like usually for me to get to 150 miles, that's a seven-day training week. So that's the way I'm doing it. Like I did a day where I did two like just over 20 milers separated with by just a couple hours and within that couple hours I did like a three mile walk. The following morning I woke up and ran, I think it was like just over 36 miles first thing in the morning just to get an idea of just like kind of like what is it like to be I mean this was in Phoenix too so it was 100 degrees for the majority of that”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source