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

“And you put them on a low carb diet. If you can control everything else, like their entire lifestyle is based around training and racing. Then they may still have better potential by introducing carbohydrates at a higher level, but if that's not going to be sustainable for them as a person, then what's the point kind of at that unless they want to be like a kind of a spark in the pan, so to speak?”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I might be an example of this, actually, where you take someone where they, for whatever reason the carbs aren't working for them, like it's unsustainable for them to continue that path. Or if they do, they might have a shortened career. So they might be able to eke out a few really good years, but then they're not going to be the person they're like, wow, that person's 38 and they're still competing at the Olympics type of a person.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and that doesn't mean that if we would have taken, say, the gold medals and the 5K and put them on a low carb diet, they'd run faster. They probably wouldn't because we may have already selected that that person's thriving on carbohydrate. What I would be interested in is someone with equal talent but got weeded out along the way potentially because for whatever reason they just weren't able to tolerate like both the training and the nutrition requirements that they're being told to do.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Picture needs to be carried into the performance world or the running world too, where we may have just been identifying that Olympic distance athletes that can tolerate a very large portion of their diet coming from carbohydrate is going to just filter those ones towards the Olympics, filter those towards.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To reverse their type 2 diabetes. And I mean, that's an astounding, when you think of just any nutritional protocol, its success rate, they're all incredibly low. They're very, very low. And the big difference with his is the coaching aspect of it. Like they give support so these people have someone to turn to when they make a mistake or if they're thinking about doing something differently or they don't know what to do rather than just kind of throwing throwing it all up in the air and quitting they have a resource there. And that's probably a big reason why that's the success rate that they have with that is they put those support mechanisms in place that”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Both for the event you're doing and the intensity that's required for it, the training that's required for that event, and then also the individual component too, where I think this one often gets overlooked, where we tend to say like, well, we've got all these Olympic medalists at the marathon and below distance who are eating a moderate to high carbohydrate diet. So everyone needs to do that if they want to reach their potential in say the 3K to the marathon. In a perfect world, maybe that would be true, but there's a lot of other variables that often get forgotten then that could positively or negatively impact that decision choice. So I think Dr. Jeff Vollock has done a great job of kind of highlighting this in the sense that, you know, when he works with people, he works with people in the health sphere as well as the performance sphere. And he's one of the main guys at Verta Health who's, they've got like a 60% success rate with working with folks with type 2 diabetes.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I think where a lot of times things get confusing for people here is the context of it, too, where it's like they want an answer as to what do I eat for endurance sport. And it's like, well, endurance sport is quite wide-ranging, as we've talked about many times here. So there's going to be differences, I think, in just like what you want to maybe next prioritize.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But mix that up so you're not so at least you're getting enjoyment from some of it and not just getting complete disgust from the entire process.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But recognize that, like, there's not necessarily going to be one event that you want to lean on to get that from because you want to make that one event so miserable that you don't want to do it when it comes time for the challenge. So if you can possibly say like, okay, on Tuesdays, the push-up workout, I'm going to go 10 push-ups more than I want to. I'm going to get to that point where I'm like, there's no more. And then I'm going to do 10 more. And you're going to make that one miserable. And then maybe on Thursdays, you decide to do some of those sprints or something at the end where. You do a few of them, and you're like, okay, this is where I'd be comfortable to stop. Like, well, I'm going to do two more of them because I know I don't want to do two more of them.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One specific plan in its entirety could just be like the mix of things within it. So like rather than like if I just said, oh, we're going to do three minute intervals through this entire short interval process or two minute intervals or four minute intervals or 60 second intervals by that sixth week they might be so sick of that that they're not actually maximizing their potential within that because there's no flavor there and then they're also actually getting less out of themselves than they would if we just got a little more creative and said okay, let's mix this up and let's do four one minute intervals, then take like a little bit of a break and then we'll do three minute intervals or at least changing it up from week to week so that they have something different showing up even though we're addressing the same kind of physiological adaptation. So like I think what you want to do is you want to introduce the misery. You want to be able to test yourself to the degree where like when you can recognize these points of, I don't want to be here, but I can do it and push through it.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and here's the thing if you look at just like here's where the literature says on paper are like the dozen workouts you should do in a training plan. And this is how you should structure them right down to the minute. And you just say like, I'm going to give everyone this schedule and they're going to do this every time, rinse and repeat. My biggest concern with that approach is you are potentially putting them in a position where the training is so boring and so monotonous. That, like, if they hit a roadblock mentally, they're going to”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, what I would do with that is I would try to make the unpleasant thing be different from one day to the next, if you can. So the fear I would have with making running running unpleasant every time would be it becomes like a negative feedback loop. Your physiologically potentially as well as mentally, where if the entire running process is miserable, you're going to be miserable when you step on that starting line, whether it's a marathon or 100 miles. So you've”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Good chunk of the day, especially relative to most people. So that's going to actually be very helpful for you. The problem or the battle to get over is going to just be like the, you know, you're going to break down physically running 100 miles. I mean, you're going to break down physically running a marathon too. So like the you might just have to push through a little more discomfort from a physical standpoint compared to be if you decided I'm going to do everything I can in these next like 24 weeks to be able to run a full 100 miler”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I think for 100 miles, the biggest difference, I think, given your context is just like the more physical things you are doing, the better prepared you're going to be for the 100 mile. So it's almost given your context, I wouldn't say irrelevant. You want to be doing running, but you're going to be doing that once you put it in your program. It sounds like it's going to be pretty locked in. You're going to want to also view it this way, it's probably going to be more mentally beneficial too where Hey, today I did my run. I did my body weight exercises. I did some grappling practice. I spent three hours working out today. If you think of it like that, then, you know, you're moving your body, you're doing things that are active for a”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On being the best possible 100 miler or the best possible marathoner you could be. You want enough overall fitness that you can just do either one of them without absolute misery because you did the couch to hundred miles”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The big difference is going to be like you're dropping intensity significantly by going up to 100 miles versus the marathon. So the maximum rovic function, I think, is actually going to feed into that maybe a little bit better. It's probably going to be a little closer, depending on where, I mean, it all varies a bit because people will focus on specific distances and they'll get very efficient and very adapted to that. So like the it kind of like it's what makes running kind of messy where like you'll get for example like the average person can hit their like lactate threshold for probably about like 60 minutes or something like that whereas you get these elite marathoners who've been basically spending their entire life preparing for a marathon race they can push almost up to their lactate threshold and at their lactate threshold for almost like two hours so it gets a little messy when you start looking at it from that lens but you don't really have to worry about that too much because you're not really focused”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Higher than running. So you're checking that box there from just like a lifestyle enjoyment, fitness, overall fitness standpoint. I think you want to keep your running more aerobic then because you're getting that and you're probably getting it from like your grappling workouts too, I would guess. So there's just not as big of a need for you from an big picture standpoint to be doubling down on that stuff with your runs as well. And it sounds like you prefer not to.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I think you're going to get from if we're not looking at it from specifically training a pace in order to get both the skeletal muscle adaptations as well as the cardiovascular benefits, you're probably tapping into some of the higher intensity stuff with that body weight stuff. Unless you're doing, I guess.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You'll get it. So, like, for me, what I'll do is I'll do the run, and then I'll look at the heart rate afterwards and be like, oh, cool. I was right there. Or I remember feeling like I was speeding up a little bit there. And there are shows right there on the heart rate.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep, and that's exactly what I would use heart rate for then. And you'll get to a point probably by in the first couple of months where you can still lean on heart rate if you want, but it'll be kind of one of those things where you keep looking at you're like, oh, wow, I can guess it. And you play a game with yourself too. And you say, well, how close can I guess?”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You could do that. You could go perceived effort. I like to use them in tandem in the sense that early on I'll maybe look at my heart rate a little more often, especially for shorter length. There is, heart rate can get messy the longer you go. So I end up kind of maybe stepping away from heart rate a little more than some will at a certain point because ultimately I'm going to be usually training or working with someone to run like, you know, a race that's really long and they get cardiac drift, dehydration, heat, and things that are going to make the heart rate super messy.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Better off sticking to 30 minutes, then what you would maybe do is you would run underneath your maximum aerobic function for the first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes. Maybe throw some of those strides in there if you want to do that at the very end. And then that middle 30 minutes is going to be maximum aerobic function target. And then maybe after four weeks, you start noticing, you know what? This 30 minutes isn't wearing me out near as much as it used to. I feel like I could easily push past that. Well, let's up that to 40 minutes of that 60. You're always staying within that 60 minute parameter that keeps your schedule consistent, your routine consistent.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With those parameters, I think you actually probably would be a great candidate for a maximum heroic function training strategy. You want that consistency where I'm going to do the same thing each day. You don't want to beat yourself up so much any one day that you can't get out and do it the next one. That's the sweet spot with maximum aerobic function is the trademark there is that you can keep going and keep doing it again and again and again because as long as you're not going out one day and trying to do twice as much as what you're ready for for that one specific, the key for you is going to be picking the right starting point and then building from there on what that day kind of entails in terms of how much running you do. So where you could maybe get creative would be if you decided that it's a hard, fast rule that you run an hour every day, seven days a week, but we find out that to run your maximum rubric function means you probably are better.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But yeah, so they're going to do that stuff, those shorter intervals for probably about like four to six weeks. If they're doing a longer race, like 100 miles, if they were doing, say, a 5K, we'd start bringing those workouts in near the end of the plan because that's going to be specific to their race pace. That's going to be the intensity that maybe they're doing for, you know, like a 3K or a 5k or something like that. So it's just going to be more relative to what they're going to use. So it follows that philosophy, the plans follow that philosophy of weaknesses and least specific stuff early. And then we start phasing closer to most specific stuff and strengths as you get kind of near to the end of the plan. And then the distance of or the time that you're going to spend out doing whatever event it is going to dictate how those kind of get ordered in there.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's like, well, the Olympians are doing is they're waking up and they're living and breathing everything around this one race that they're going to do in four years. So it's like, we need to step away from that if you're working 10 hours a day and you got kids and all this other stuff too. So there's a lot of variables that make it more interesting to coach someone who's actually not an alert.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Looking for improvement over time. So, you know, we might spend four or six weeks kind of focusing on improving that. We're going to still include kind of foundational running volume where you're going to be running like an easy pace, an enjoyable pace kind of in the interim. And then there's going to be some rest days. And that's going to be where the levels come in. My like level one plans are going to be like four day a week training plans. Level two are going to be five day. Level three are going to be six day with one day off. And you can obviously operate outside of those, those are just the ones that I put up for the ready-made when I'm coaching people kind of personalize. We look at like what their history is with running, their schedule, all sorts of stuff. Because oftentimes people get hung up on like, well, what are the elites doing? What are the professionals doing? What are the Olympians doing? It's like, well.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I mean, really, like, you don't even need to do the time trial technically. A lot of times you can go off and feel like what we described with the threshold stuff. And it's a high enough intensity where you can start to kind of like your body's going to kind of limit you to a degree where if I said we didn't do the time trial and just started doing the intervals, we could figure out that, you know, if they're doing them right or not, if we see a scenario where, oh, it looks like these first two intervals were significantly slower than the last two, chances are we're still not quite dialed in in terms of what the intensity is that you should be targeting for those. And as you do a few of them, you just get to know the pacing of it a little better. And then you start seeing more even splits. So like, you know, their first two minute intervals pretty close within a couple seconds of their second or I guess we'd be looking at distance if we're doing time. So like you went approximately the same distance on that last one as you did the first one and then we're just”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, you can screw it up, I guess. You can go way too fast, and then you have this scenario where, like, oh, it looks like your first two minutes were drastically faster than your last two. And then it's like, we maybe screwed that one up.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, there's some newer formulas that are probably a little less brutal where you kind of, I haven't really dove into these that in depth yet. I know that you can kind of replicate it by doing a short, a very short interval and then a slightly longer one. And then like another one where at the end when that last one will kind of indicate what it is. And so you're doing less of it to get the same answer to the question. But sometimes I think when it's someone who's new, I'd rather them just do a 12 minute time trial because it's easy for them to execute in the sense that it's pretty clear. You do a warm-up, you do some strides, maybe some dynamic stretches, and you just run as hard as you can for 12 minutes, as evenly paced as you can manage. And I mean, if it's going to produce the data I'm looking for. And I mean, it's just also”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. So I'll use basically I'll use a basic 12 minute time trial and that's going to kind of like dictate for them what the intensity and the pace is going to be for some of those. When they're under a minute, they'll push past that a little bit. But usually when we're up to like above a minute and certainly up to four minutes, whatever pace or intensity that they get for that kind of 12 minute time trial where they're just seeing how far they can go in 12 minutes is going to be kind of like about where they're going to target for those intervals. So then those intervals are going to be structured. Let's say they're doing two minute intervals. They're going to do two minutes at that intensity that they could do for 12 minutes at a time trial. Then they're going to do a two minute real easy jog or maybe even walk just to kind of bounce back. And they're going to repeat it.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Once they really fit at that foundational level, then if they're doing, say, 100 mile plan, they might start doing some short intervals, which I would, on my plans, I usually range between 30 seconds up to four minutes is kind of that short interval range”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your aerobic foundation. You're going to be doing a lot of stuff that are kind of at, I call them base runs, but they're basically your maximum aerobic function or you're up to your aerobic threshold type stuff. And they're really going to really fit with that. And once they kind of have that foundation laid, then it's time to get into the specifics of whatever distance they're doing. So where it'll differ will be like if they're doing, right now on those plans, I think I've got 5k, half marathon, marathon, 50k, 80 to 100k, and then 100 miles. So if they pick a 5k plan, the order of operations is going to be different than if they pick the 100 mile plan. You're going to see some of the same workouts show up in that plan. It's just going to be different areas of it.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ready made plans. I definitely follow a philosophy, and it's going to be kind of like lockstep in that. So for those, there's just always going to be a sacrifice when you do a ready-made plan because you're removing the individual context there. So for folks who really want to get into the weeds, I usually do like a personalized coaching plan with them where we sit down and we actually look at their strengths, their weaknesses and really kind of go in from that perspective and fine-tune it. And it also like it avoids a situation where, oh, my ready-made plan says I'm supposed to do this run today, but I don't feel great today. So what do I do? Some people are fine with that because they're aware enough of like the process that they can adjust it themselves. Other folks just need a little more support. So that's kind of the difference there. But in terms of the structure of it, it kind of goes with an approach where we were saying you build this foundation. You're going to spend usually anywhere between eight to 12 weeks just building up.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Someone's just understanding, noticing the physiological responses when you cross over versus step a little bit too below it. You can get yourself daydreaming and forget I'll do this sometimes too where I'll be tart. Because I'm kind of like you two where when I'm getting really fit, especially with my foundation, I got to, you know, I'm moving pretty quick at my aerobic threshold. So if I start daydreaming too much, I can notice, oh, I'm drifting back a little bit. I look down at my heart, remind my, oh, yeah, I'm 10 beats under, you know, so you do, it does take a little bit of, I think, just awareness, but it's also not necessarily something where you have to be so exact that you're hitting an exact heart rate all the time. There's usually a range. And there's even some fluctuations where if you've been healthy for a year or two without any injuries and you've been fit, that you can probably add 5 beats to your maximum rate function if you're using that as kind of your target from the 180 minus your age formula.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay. Because you're already there. Well, I think too with feel running, and what I mean by that is that's kind of back to that perceived effort thing where you do enough of it and you start being able to recognize, like I can go out and if you said, okay, run 60 minutes at your aerobic threshold, I could go where that is on my heart rate. And I could go out there and just say, like, okay, I know what that feel.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I think once you, I mean, obviously, I think when you put a race on the calendar, if your goal is performance, it's a little harder to just say like, well, I'm going to run whatever feels good today because eventually you have to get around to doing what's specific. But from just a fitness standpoint, health standpoint, enjoyment standpoint, I think it's totally fine to go out and say, I'm going to run what feels good today. And maybe someday you will feel like at the end of the run, I'm going to do a couple sprints just to get some, you know, that because it does that one's a hard one to kind of jump start, but once you do it and you realize how kind of good it feels maybe to throw in a few accelerations at the end of a run and then you say, oh, wow, that feels pretty good to do that. I feel a little more accomplished.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The problem is most people have a hard time getting to that because they'll go out and they'll run with a friend and match their pace or they'll go out and they'll say, well, I want to run this pace or they'll target that pace or target a specific heart rate, which is not necessarily how they maybe feel good doing it.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of the research is going to say at some point in time you need to get around to practicing the pace at which you're going to perform and really fine tuning the mechanics, the efficiencies, how it feels, how to judge it, how to pace it at the pace you're going to try to compete at. So there's obviously like a large range of targets there when we're talking about the endurance world in general, where you have these shorter events like five kilometers, but you also have 100 mile races, which are going to typically be quite a bit below your maximum heroic function, especially on these trail races.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and it also simplifies it so much that you're forced to, right? You're forced to optimize within that real strict parameter versus Am I doing my short intervals right, but my long run's wrong, or am I doing my like long intervals right, but my short intervals? And then you just, it kind of complicates things when you start throwing a lot of stuff there. And for most people, especially when they're first getting started, you can't overcomplicate it or you're just going to like, you're going to do like a bunch of half right, half wrong things and then not really know where your progress or your deficits are necessarily at. So I do think this is an amazing approach, especially for people who are just getting into it and building that foundation where I think maybe you want to deviate from that a little bit, especially when you start to get to these events that are operating well outside that intensity. You take something like, let's say it's a race that takes you in the neighborhood of around like 12 minutes or something like that, then you're going to be running significantly faster than your maximum function pace. So most.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Running is maybe kind of that secondary activity versus the primary activity. But yeah, so what they would say is probably like maybe instead of doing that at, let's say you were doing that for like 30 miles a week or something like that and it was getting too hard to continue, they'd say, come back to 20. Get used to 20, get comfortable with 20. Then let's get you up to 25 and 30 and kind of just like inch you along.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can't just keep enjoying life. There's two ways to look at that, I think, and I think you're right on. I think the advice from that kind of process would say is either you're doing too much of it. So it's getting too hard for where your skeletal muscle system is currently at for that particular activity. So it can be different too. Like if you're cycling versus running, you know, that's a little bit of different mechanic where it can be different where you could take a super fit cyclist and then put them on the amount of volume they're going to be able to tolerate relative to what you're going to do when you remove like impact forces and things like that is going to be lower if they haven't been practicing that activity so for you like you know you're prioritizing like uh wrestling and mixed martial art or not mixed martial arts but jiu-jitsu type stuff so”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep, carry a conversation. Other people will say another way to kind of gauge it if you can breathe in your nose and out your mouth, that's not necessarily the best way to do from a performance standpoint, but it can be a good kind of governor that will allow you to, like if you can no longer breathe in your nose and out your mouth, you're probably going too fast to actually technically be at your math pace or under your math pace. Yeah.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the MAF 180 formula is about as good of a formula as you're. Like any of these things, I mean, it's more likely kind of on a bell curve where the bulk of that 180 minus their age is probably going to be a pretty good, at least starting point to kind of figure out where that is. There's some other things you can maybe use to kind of check it that I like to do. Let's say I did 180 minus my age and I went out and I started running and it was like I'm running along and I'm just like my breathing is labored. I'm struggling to get a sentence out without gasping for breath. Well, that's my body telling me I'm probably not actually at my true math number or my true like underneath my true aerobic threshold. Like aerobic threshold and maximum aerobic function, you should be able to do that for hours and you should be able to breathe pretty efficiently.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And here's the advantage of that. I think, like, with any of these things, you want to look at it through where the advantage is here. And I need to account for those and then where are the potential disadvantages and then decide for me as an individual do these advantages outweigh the disadvantages and what's the alternative approach and is that going to produce more advantages or less? So with maximal function, here's some advantages. It is low enough intensity where you can train pretty consistently at a fairly high volume with a very low injury risk, with very low things that are going to maybe lower your quality life like muscle damage and things like that. It's a more efficient way in the sense that you're going to be like prioritizing like fat metabolization, which I mean if you're looking at like Jeff Vollock and or Dr. Jeff Follock and Dr. Dominic Di Agostino, some of their research and things like that, like they're going to show that that's going to be a little cleaner.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How do you know you're in the right place? Yeah, yeah. And then that's where it gets a little tricky because unless you go into a lab and get your aerobic threshold tested, it's really hard to have an exact number on it. Dr. Phil Mafatone with the maximum function process, he'll say 180 minus your age is going to give you your.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Come down at that. So the rule there is basically if you're seeing improvement, that's the sign you're looking for, or which would just be your pace dropping at that heart rate or at that intensity. And if you're seeing that continually go down you're heading in the right direction, if you start seeing it go the opposite way, you're probably overreaching where you're trying to do too much of it. So that's kind of dictates how much the dose, I guess you'd say.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Distance and essentially, so I like to call it micro stressing because you're going to always start at a different spot depending on where your fitness level is at and depending on where you're at as an individual. I'm going to be targeting my aerobic threshold. I'm going to get right up to it, but not necessarily cross over it. It's been popularized with maximum aerobic function as kind of a training philosophy. That philosophy in itself, I think maybe is a little more like holistic where they're saying do this basically all the time. And by doing so, you're going to raise your aerobic potential by so much that, you know, you can kind of like race yourself in a shape at that point. And this would be maybe more specific for like shorter distance or endurance runs where you're not going to erase yourself in the shape with 100 milers. But for 5Ks, you might. You might do like a huge base building phase where you're going up to that maximum aerobic function or that aerobic threshold and you're watching your pace.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but I'm going to always try to work with those options on top of a massive aerobic base, which is going to probably be like 80% of the work.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Effort level and you're supposed to target a certain effort level in order to get a certain response. So to maybe simplify that a little bit or make it a little clearer, like I think I focus on essentially like short intervals. I focus on longer intervals or tempo runs. I focus on like race pace intensity, which is a lot of times what I'll build my long run around. But I'll also, like those are kind of like the small pieces to the puzzle.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would depend on the event, I would say, to a degree, and there's contradiction. Conflicting ideas about kind of how to structure it. I think a lot of times you do want to like time on feet in most cases is just going to be like, I'm running easy, whatever feels easy that day. And that can be different from one day to the next. Like I might feel great. And, you know, that produces a much faster pace than if I, you know, feel really miserable or something like that. So that's why I think a lot of times running, well, they'll do the whole perceived perceived effort or perceived exertion. You're looking at kind of understanding the response your body has to a certain.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source