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

“I say that, but there's a caveat with endurance sport, and I think maybe even more specifically with things like our ultra marathons or 100 milers, where you want a really strong aerobic foundation or like a base before you really start, I think structuring things towards a specific one. So for me, I think like a target for me is oftentimes like, you know, getting really fit at like what my pace would be at like my aerobic threshold or what a lot of people maybe call like a maximum aerobic function. I mean, the running world is kind of weird where we have like these terminologies where there's sometimes multiple words that essentially mean the same thing, but one is from like just an actual physiological reaction and one is just like a feeling and stuff like that.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I think if we were looking at it from like a philosophical level or like an approach level, I think there's some things that carry over from regardless of the distance. So I think working on your weaknesses and things that are least specific to what you're going to do on race day, but are still going to be important things in terms of improving your ability to perform on race day or maximizing your potential with the things that are specific, you do first.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a lost opportunity, too. Like if, I mean, when I look at even my 100 mile race of 1119, I can find spots in there where I was like, you know what? I could clean that up a little bit. Maybe if I do this differently. And I mean, that's going to get me, you know, Little bit faster if I sat back and said, Hey, well, things went great that day. Cool, let's see if we can replicate it. Then I probably run 1119 again.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now the enjoyment becomes okay, back to the drawing board. Now I need to find out what do I do when that happens to me next time. And that's where I think the why comes in again. Same thing with running. Like maybe I make a mistake and, you know, like. Eat something I didn't really want to eat or thought was going to work but didn't work, and it costs me more time than I gained by having it or something like that. And then I go back to the drawing board and say, okay, well, I can't do that. That didn't work. Or if I'm going to do that, I need to be more prepared to be able to do it. And I love that part of the sport. Just the rearranging of things and adjusting and tinkering.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think that's a really cool way to look at it. And I think it's when you really open up the perspective of that too, it's like even obviously having a great day, like winning the tournament or getting further than you were expected to or beating someone who you've never beaten before or something like that or in the running perspective, like achieving that goal time, that sort of stuff. Obviously, those are kind of like the ones you, when you're honest with yourself, you really want and you're going to probably get the most satisfaction out of. But even when they don't go wrong, like maybe like with your grappling tournament analogy, maybe the guy you're grappling against does a move on you and you're like, I was not prepared for that move.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's something about just finding improvement. People love to see improvement, I think. So that's where I think you can also get some value in it. We're saying like I started here and I got there. And then I think there's also just like what I would call this maybe more the cherry on top, which is like where you express your work, which is the race itself, where that's going to be kind of the thing that kind of like shows up on the end result and where it kind of identifies whether you did things right or wrong.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and I think that's one of the drivers from just a quality of life standpoint, just an in the moment, immediate gratification standpoint. But then there's like, I think the bigger picture stuff or the longer-term stuff. And for me, that enjoyment is like just the process, like of, okay, I'm starting at this fitness level. And I'm going to do these workouts. And by doing these workouts, I'm going to see incremental progress from them. And then that's another kind of like kind of short-term gratification that's maybe a little longer than the day-to-day, but still like shorter than like a career or a buildup for a particular race where you're saying you're seeing yourself like, okay, maybe I'm focusing on short intervals right now. And on week one, I covered this much distance in three minutes. But by week four, I'm covering this much distance. And you can just see that progress. It's almost like in elementary school when you get the gold star for reading a book, it's like, did that?”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Necessarily recognize it because for them, it's the complete opposite. They're like, if I can get away from not having to run today, that's going to be a good day versus. But it's one of those things that I think gets more addictive the more you do it so uh”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there's kind of a couple directions to look at it through or lenses to look at it through. There's like the in the moment, right? There's always going to be that run where you're clicking along and things just feel great. You get some endorphins and you get the quote unquote runners high and that sort of stuff. And that's like just like this great feeling that you can kind of tap into on the like real like in the moment type of level. My wife and I talk about this because she's a competitive alter runner as well. We'll have a day where we'll take a forced day off or something like that. And it's necessary, right? It's going to allow the enjoyment to continue. But you get into this like routine of I wake up in the morning, I do this run and that kind of gets my day started. That gets my energies up. I get that runner's eye afterwards. You remove that from the equation for a rest day and you just sort of like, oh, man, I don't feel like I never got started.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and it's the other thing is just like, if you're honest with yourself, too, I mean, we're seeing this right now in the running world where, you know, new innovations come in, new technologies come in, new nutritional approaches come in. And then we see the new crop of folks have advantages that the old crop didn't have. And it can be easy to look back on that and say like, hey, well, if I would have had that product or if I would have done that, I would have run this. But then you're getting into that negative thought process again, which I generally try to stay out of.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Contribute again or not is kind of besides the point. What you want is that your performance or your contribution brings new people into the sport who are excited, motivated, and they can make their contribution. And then we can ultimately see, well, how fast can someone run a controlled environment 100 miler? And that's what I really want to see because I think I've gotten so much enjoyment from the sport. I mean, I've gotten so much enjoyment from the sport. I've been able to turn it into a career. I think there's other people who can do the same thing. And it's not necessarily going to come at the expense of my career, but it's going to bring more attention to the sport. It's going to bring more interest in the sport. It's going to open the sport up to people who maybe otherwise would have never thought about it, seen it, considered it. And to me, I think that's like a much more rewarding goal than saying, I want to break this record and I want to hold it for decades or I want to die with this record. So I never have to see someone go faster than me.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because it's going to get broken, right? I mean, I could run 10 50 tomorrow and in 10 years, chances are that's no longer going to be the world record anymore. Someone's going to run faster than that. So if you're living to hold on to a record,”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. I mean, I would be lying to you if I said I didn't want to be the first person to break 11 hours in 100 miles. I think that'll be would be a cool barrier to be the one to usher that in. But with that said, I think I'm much more motivated in seeing it done from the sense that like I think when we're talking about records, it's something that is inevitable that it's going to get broken. So we were talking about happiness before this, right? I've contemplated this in the past where I was thinking to myself if my motivation is to break a world record or any record for that matter, course record and have that be my defining reason or my defining motivator, I probably need to do an assessment of what I'm kind of where my mind is at and where my focus is at and just reflect on how I'm behaving in life.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You get someone whose gait is just a little bit different. So, like, for me, I supinate, which means I kind of come down on the outside of my foot. And I'm kind of more of a mid four foot striker. So that's going to kind of impact my cadence to a degree. Whereas you might have someone who is kind of more mid to rear their foot or heel striker and they might pronate where their foot kind of rolls in. So that person may have a little bit of a different cadence as well. So you get someone, and I think you see this in elite marathoning too, which is going to probably just be a much larger data pool, much, much more probably precise from just a number of opportunities to study this. And I think even their ranges from one person to the next can be, I wouldn't say drastic, but to the degree of like 10 to maybe even 20 steps per minute or something like that from one person to the next. But most people, the faster they go, the higher their cadence is going to be, the slower they go, the lower their cadence is going to be. But there's going to be probably a ring.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Quickly. I think my guess would be that at the individual level, it's going to be pretty precise, assuming the pacing is consistent. So you get, so my pacing on that day, I ran two minutes faster the second 50 miles than I did the first 50 miles. So my splits were very even most of the day. I actually ran some of my fastest miles at the end. So there's going to be probably a slight variance from my fastest miles to my slowest mile in your cadence or your foot strike, but probably not by a huge margin, but you might have a pretty big variance from one person to the next.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We have the same definition of fun when I've got myself on a track for all day and you find yourself counting foot strikes”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Gosh, you're making me wish I would have strapped him like a foot pod to my. But like, yeah, so I think my guess is it's pretty precise. Is there video?”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, they'll switch directions at most events every four hours. So you'll do four hours one way, and then they usually put a cone out. And once it hits, like let's say it hits four hours, you finish the lap you're on and then you do a loop around and then you start your next lap. Would you say?”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you can break it down as tiny as you want. I think when you take out the outlier laps where I stopped to use the bathroom, which would have been that like three to four minute non-moving time that I talked about before, my splits were really tight. I had a couple that were, it was weird because that track that I did that on was actually like 400 some weird number like 438 meters or something like that. So I actually like ran like my numbers based on that. So normally I'm dealing with 400 meters and then it's a little more like clean as to like what my lap splits are going to range from one event to the next.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so if you're talking about someone, let's say that there's someone. Well, let's just take me, for example, let's say that we could just like, we had this infinite knowledge and we knew for a fact a perfect performance for me would produce a 1059, but I'm not going a second faster. And I need to do everything right in order to run a 1059. I would definitely want to either have a slight negative or a slight positive split. And I think there's, I think there's a range in there where being a little bit faster the first half and the second half isn't going to necessarily change your outcome or being a little bit slower the first half and a little bit faster the second half isn't going to drastically change your outcome”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sub 11 would be, I think it's like 635, right about per mile. You're moving quick but not so quick that you're void of being able to think about everything as it's happening.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The day I actually did it. And through that five to six years, I think I merged from just like my number one goal was to try to break the world record to my number one goal is how fast can I run this thing? And then ultimately what needs to be done for a human to break 11 hours in 100 miles because I think that's going to be, I think that's going to happen soon.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That world record that I broke actually just recently got rebroke. By a guy over in Lithuania, Alex Sorkin, phenomenal race. I mean, he's won the 24-hour World Championships. He's won the Spartathlon, which is another big historic ultra marathon race. It's 153 miles. So it's getting a little more lengthy than some of the stuff that I've traditionally done. He ran 114, I believe it was 56 or 57. So his pace was 645 per mile. Mine was 647 and a half in terms of just like the pacing strategy. It's just really cool because for me, the motivation.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I don't account for that three minutes of stoppage, then I might run the exact pace I had planned on, but then I'm a minute off of the world record.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did a race just recently. It was the U.S. track and field 100 mile road championships, and I did not stop once other than like, I guess I technically stopped in the aid station for like a few seconds to like grab bottles and get myself wet because it was like 94 degrees that day. But I didn't stop at all during that race from like what I would say is like a long period of time where we're getting up to like a minute but that's pretty rare even on the track like when I ran 11 hours and 19 minutes I think I stopped three times for maybe a total of like, I believe I'd have to look back for sure, but I think it was like three to four minutes or something like that. So you got to figure that into your pacing strategy, especially if you're chasing a specific time. Because, you know, if I'm pacing for, you know, at the time the world record was 1128. So if I'm pacing for, say, 1127, 30 or something like that.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, it evolved a bit. I think as I learned more about just what is required to kind of really do that stuff. So there's some variables you can control for. I try to control for as many as I can. The big one that kind of stands out that you can't necessarily control for is it's pretty rare where you get an event where they're just doing 100 miles on a track. It's usually like an event of like a series of different events where they might be like some people out there doing 50k, some people out there doing 24 some day like the event I did there's six day folks out there. They're trying to see how far they could get in six days. So you have like this much wider range of pacing just due to like the distance. So track protocol is always like you pass on the outside. So if you're running one of the faster paces of the day, which when you go on up to six days, and you're doing 100 miles, you're probably going to be running faster than most people out there. Then you just end up running.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Comrades is going to be very comparable from one year to the next because that's a road race. And that's where you get, you maybe get like the split in the sport from people who really want that kind of like, I want to compare myself to someone who ran this course in 1970 versus like someone who just says, I want to be competitive today. And, you know, maybe the weather is going to be 30 degrees different from one year to the next on this course. But if I beat everyone on this day, then I'm the champion of that big name race like Ultra Trail Mont Blanc or Western States 100. And my legacy will be cemented because I won that big race and it doesn't matter when or how the course was or what the time even was to some degree.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, it's definitely hard to compare. I mean, there's events that take, for example, I would say the best ultra marathoner in the world today on the men's side is Jim Walmsley. The reason I think Jim Walmsley is the best is because he is the most versatile and not only the most versatile, but he's arguably the best at almost everything up to 100 miles. So there's a race called the Angelus Crest 100 Miler. The trail has drastically changed from when they originally had that event. And it's a different time of year, so it's much warmer on that course. And Jim's not the kind of guy who would sit back and say, like, I can't chase that record. But I think Angela Kress, when he looks at the segments and the pacing for that one, he's like, that one is maybe not even the same event anymore. So you have that. You have some that are a little more controlled and a little more kind of like preserved, I guess you would say. But I think it gets really rare on the trail side.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, yeah. So the Western states 100 is actually 100.2 miles, which isn't that big of a deviation when you think about it, especially when you figure like tangents are going to probably account for more than 0.2 miles on a 100 mile race. But also trail mountain blanc, you know, that's listed as 100 mile or it's actually, I think, like 104, 105 miles. So, you know, it's more, there's different cultures too. So the United States is definitely more motivated, I think, to try to get as close to the exact distance. You're going to hear maybe a little more grumbling if someone says, I signed up for this 100 mile and it turned out to be 103 miles. Versus like over in Europe, they don't really care too much about the distance. They're more interested in like a specific route or a loop.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Five kilometers, 10 kilometers, and all that stuff. And then you get into the ultra-running world, and it's like sometimes it's the event. So like the Western”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. So there's a few that really stand out. I would say the three biggest ultra marathons right now, even from a historic, maybe not necessarily a historical standpoint, but in modern day ultra running is going to be the Western states 100. That's the biggest, most competitive 100 miler. It's on the trail side of things in the United States. Then there's Ultra Trail Mountain Blanc, which is probably the most competitive 100 miler on the planet right now. In previous years, it's been debatable as weather western states or ultra-trail Mont Blanc's more competitive, I think, in the most recent few years you're just seeing a lot more of the bulk of international talent on the trail side of the sport heading over that way. And then you have the road running side of things where the comrades marathon, which is technically 56 miles, but they call the comrades marathon, is going to generally be the most competitive ultra marathon. The weird thing is the distance thing, right? Because most people in the think of endurance sports, they're thinking about precise distances.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, I think you probably have to focus on that specific event. I mean, the interesting thing about ultra running where it maybe deviates a bit from just other endurance sports is there's such a wide range. I mean, we talked about a little bit when I talked about the San Diego 100 versus kind of the flat runnable stuff.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's another thing. I mean, you're running slow enough when you're doing 100 miles, where if you make a mistake, you can sit there and just fixate on that mistake and say, why did I do that? That cost me 10 minutes, blah, blah, blah, blah. When in reality what you need to do is that happened. Everyone else out here is going to have a situation like that at some point. Mine happened now. I need to figure out how I can move forward at the fastest sustainable pace and not think about what happened back there.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's almost like moving from checkers to chass, right? You have, or maybe even connect four to chess or something like that, where it goes from just kind of like, well, one foot in front of the other. And when I get to the next aid station, I'll just eat whatever looks good, drink whatever, you know, crunches my thirst, and then move on to the next one to like, well, which one of these food products is actually going to make me move a little faster to the next aid station? Or, you know, which one of these pacing strategies is going to get me to the finish line faster than the other one and that sort of stuff. It gets more complicated, more interesting. And in my opinion anyway. Also, I mean, but there's a breaking point with that too because, like I said, there's an endless number of variables you could account for. And as a distance gets longer, that list gets longer too. So you find yourself in this position where you have to at some point say, okay, I've accounted for everything I can reasonably account for. Now I need to be in a mental space where when something happens that I wasn't able to account for.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Always going to be more variables on the day than you are able to account for. So at a certain degree, you have to kind of find yourself in a position where I'm going to make sure I take care of the big ones or the ones that are like, obviously I need to be ready for like. My fueling strategy, my hydration strategy, my pacing strategy, what workouts are going to put me in a position to physiologically have this process go as well as possible? How am I going to like hold myself accountable in AIDS and transition so I'm not like having a ton of non-moving time versus moving time and things? That's so cool.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think once you start putting marks or goals on outside of just finishing, that's where I start getting interesting because now you maybe go in with multiple goals where if one falls off due to something that you didn't expect, then you have another one to target. But you can always build those up and try to think like, well, I want to run faster than last time, or I want to break a course record or an age group record or something like that. That, I think, is just going to be a little bit of a different mindset because now you're looking at every little thing from what do I need to do to prepare as well as what do I need to do to be efficient on the day itself. So like transitioning aid stations and things like that, or do I want to pacer or not? Or does this race allow someone to hand me a bottle at a certain spot? Or do I have to be in specific areas to get that type of stuff? And what ends up doing is it ends up bringing a lot more variables to the table. And I think it's interesting because there's a”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can only do it if you're optimally prepared to. Well, I can do it and maybe not meet my full potential if I'm going to like not do much training, which I wouldn't necessarily advise. But I mean, I've talked to people who basically run 100 miles, sometimes almost off the couch. And it's like to me what that says is just the human body is incredible and what it can tolerate above and beyond what it's been exposed to if it has to or if it feels like it has to.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I think people probably overestimate what it takes in terms of just getting it done. I think this is consistent in just running in general. I think the marathon was always a big one with that where people thought like, well, you have to do this training or you just literally won't physically be able to complete a marathon. And then we got into an era of kind of like running as more of an enjoyment thing versus a performance thing. And then you'd have people running granted much slower. I think if you look at the Boston Marathon average finishing times, it goes from like, or maybe it wasn't the Boston Marathon. It might have just been marathons in general, went from like three hours to five hours or something like that. So it's like people, I think, got past the fact that”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it's like when I started doing that again, I just felt like I was super motivated to go out there Saturday and Sunday and do those back to back long runs and see the progress and then head out again the next week and do it again. So I had some of my more enjoyable long runs, which are going to be the most specific to race day environment that I had in quite some time. And I think that was really beneficial in kind of putting me in a right spot to be able to push through barriers on race day and put me in a position where quitting was going to be much less of a likelihood given the enjoyment I had in the months leading into the race itself. Yeah.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I recognize that just every workout I did, I was like, I did this workout a year ago, and it was not nearly this much fun, or then the interesting thing about these track hundreds too is like you find yourself doing like your peaking phase where you're running your long runs, which for me are usually like, you know, around 30 miles or so, and I'll do them on back-to-back days. And I try to replicate the environment I'm going to race on. So I find myself on a 400 meter track.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But afterwards, I recognized a few things just about kind of pacing and how to maybe pace the first half of a hundred mile or versus the second half. I also recognized shortly thereafter, once I finished, recovered and decided my next event was going to be a flat runnable race, that, wow, I really was way more excited to do the workouts that I needed to do to get ready to run a fast flat 100 miler. And I don't think that would have been the case had I just tried to do another flat, fast 100 miler during that year and end up in a situation where like I maybe had normalized a suboptimal outlook on like something that I just done so many times already.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think I recognized it so much while I was doing it actually. It surfaced afterwards. I mean, the enjoyment of the race itself is like when you find yourself in a position where you're sitting in basically second place all day long and then you take the lead at 90, I think it was like 91 or 92 miles. It's like, yeah, that's kind of a cool way to race”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or I'm getting better at descending this technical trail. It was one of the most fun races I've run actually, so it was kind of a cool experience. I ended up taking the lead at like 93 miles.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Added an extra five plus hours to the day. So it's just a different experience, different skill set. And what it did is it allowed me to kind of step away from kind of focusing on like splits on a track, running flat stuff, like preparing for things specifically for a flat environment and start training for something that's more climbing and descending, more technical running skill sets and things like that. And the cool part about it was, first of all, you know, when you step away from something and But there was a much higher range of potential improvement for me. So through the four plus months I spent preparing for that race, I noticed, oh, wow, I'm getting faster on this climb”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. It has a trail 100 miler, actually just kind of just outside of San Diego. And yeah, it goes through, it goes over part of the Pacific Crest Trail and stuff. So it's very different than running on a runnable surface. So to give you some context, I ran, was it, I think just under 17 hours for that race. Whereas on a flat surface, I can run 11 hours and 19 minutes. So just the environment alone.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Fades if you don't step away from it for a little bit. So I took essentially half a year away from runnable stuff and just decided I'm going to prepare for the San Diego 100 mile, which is like much more elevation technical trail type of an event.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Well, and here's the example. I love running in trails too. Most people would consider me a flat road track runnable ultra runner. But I like to do trailer runs too. So at the end of 2018, I recognized that I had been kind of pushing the gas pedal on trying to run fast 100 milers for quite a while without really a break in that where it was like, okay, I did one. Now I'm going to take a brief offseason, but then I'm going to ultimately build up and peak for another one. I might introduce some fun trail races in the context, but they're going to be B races. They're going to be training races, time on feet type of stuff that are going to kind of mimic like a long run essentially. But the main focus, always in the back of my mind was like getting on the track and seeing how much faster I can run 100 miles. And that just kind of that energy that it takes to continue to think by that, I think the motivation to keep that stope high enough to really meet your full potential.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A 400 meter track running 100 miles But for me, the important part of that is that I can control the environment enough where if I come back year after year, I can retest myself and have a decent ability to kind of say I improved or I regressed or I stayed stagnant. And I think that's a big driver for me. But one thing I've recognized within that is if you just keep doing that, like if I could probably pick three flat runnable 100 milers a year and optimally prepare race, recover, and repeat without like burning myself out. But one thing I think I learned also in 2019 was that sometimes you kind of need to step away from some of these really, really kind of important markers in your like your performance or in whatever you're trying to do and take a step away from it and try do something a little different in order to kind of hit the reset button on just like what I”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so there's probably a couple sides to me with that kind of a thing where for one, I think when we talk about the why. So I think the why can kind of shift a bit and it probably will if you do something long enough or evolve maybe is a better way to put it. And for me, one of my big drives and one of my big passions within Ultra Running is to, first of all, find an event that I really, really love to train for and participate in. So for me, I feel like I've kind of identified that to a degree. And that's kind of runnable 100 milers. So once I found that, it became more of a driver for me to see like, well, how fast can I run 100 miles in a very controlled environment? So let's eliminate weather. Let's eliminate elevation. Let's eliminate like having to wait extra long to get crewer support and that sort of thing. And that's how you find yourself.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think people need to get that in their life. I think they need to have situations where that becomes kind of the reality for them so they can see that avenue, experience that avenue. Where I think it's maybe to the extreme as if it becomes like your entire life philosophy where like every little thing you do is never quit.”
2021-07-29 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #205 – Zach Bitter: Ultramarathon Running · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source