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Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

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Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#11

Post by aezell »

mankash666 wrote: post #9

Research suggests a genetic preponderance towards physical fitness. With self control, you can make it to what your body can maximally achieve. But no amount of self control can guarantee the finish of an ultra-marathon if you're genetically not designed for it. PBS/Nova [1] took a shot at the question - "Can anyone run a marathon?", and found a certain lot more likely due to their genetics. [1] http://www.pbs.org/wg…

It seems to me that the piece of data always missing in these kinds of challenges is time. I think anyone probably can run a marathon given enough time to change their lifestyle and build the appropriate strength and endurance. If that time is 10 years, then so be it for that person. The human body is designed to adapt to stressors and environmental conditions. The time it takes to adapt is where this genetic predisposition seems to come in to play.

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#13

Post by TheAlchemist »

Willpower or not, I feel like running is really a great thing to do. Will Smith once said (or quoted, don't remember) that one should two things - run and read books. I definitely agree with that. I used to practice sports a lot, football and basketball and that had a positive effect on my teamwork ability.

However, only when I started running I noticed how much this sport can influence one's life. There are no shortcuts, talent has almost zero influence, and it depends only on you how well you perform. I started about a year ago, more seriously about 3 months ago, and I already see how much I'm improving in other areas of life.

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#14

Post by anbende »

pkghost wrote: post #4

The willpower hypothesis is one of the larger tire fires in the disaster that is reproducibility in psychology research. https://www.google.com/search?q=willpower+reproducibility

Easy, the tire fire is specifically in social psychology research. Other areas of psychology (e.g. cognitive, developmental, personality, etc) have their problems but in most cases no more so than other disciplines.

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#15

Post by HorizonXP »

I'm a bit evangelical about low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diets nowadays, especially keto. Personally, I'm not at the fitness level where I could conceivably run a marathon. Maybe a 5K or a half. But the article mentions him hitting walls as he hit certain mile markers, and having his wife help him reach the finish.

This guy: https://youtu.be/96VZFklUM_Q runs ultra marathons, using fat for fuel. He leaves his fellow competitors in his dust because he doesn't have to carry glucose packets to keep his body fed. Instead, he finishes his race with an avocado and bison jerky.

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#16

Post by bbarn »

gruturo wrote: post #8
mchanson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A much better article.

Third excellent nautil.us article in the span of 7 days for me - I'm starting to really like their style and subjects. Whitelisted on my ad blocker, and gave them my five bucks (well, 4.54 eurobucks). Other 2 articles I had found interesting (both found on YC): http://nautil.us/issue/50/emergence/how-the-oil-pipeline-beg... http://cosmos.nautil.us/short/161/how-much-should-expectatio...

I actually subscribed to the print version last year. They're very high quality magazines, if a bit infrequent (every two months).

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#17

Post by Grustaf »

”Bill Gates spent thousands of hours learning to program”

Sure, and so did thousands of others. Bill Gates clearly didn’t become a modern Croesus because he was a better programmer, this is just trying to shoehorn Microsoft into the at once self-evident and ludicrous 10000 hour idea.

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#18

Post by Danihan »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

Willpower or not, I feel like running is really a great thing to do. Will Smith once said (or quoted, don't remember) that one should two things - run and read books. I definitely agree with that. I used to practice sports a lot, football and basketball and that had a positive effect on my teamwork ability. However, only when I started running I noticed how much this sport can influence one's life. There are no short…

How does talent have almost no influence? There are many genetic factors that would impact how strong a runner is.

You mention football and basketball, which are essentially a series of short sprints. Sprints are _much_ healthier for people than 100-mile marathons that will essentially bathe your body in cortisol.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-evidence-continues-to-mou...

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#19

Post by jackmott »

HorizonXP wrote: post #15

I'm a bit evangelical about low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diets nowadays, especially keto. Personally, I'm not at the fitness level where I could conceivably run a marathon. Maybe a 5K or a half. But the article mentions him hitting walls as he hit certain mile markers, and having his wife help him reach the finish. This guy: https://youtu.be/96VZFklUM_Q runs ultra marathons, using fat for fuel. He leaves his fellow comp…

>He leaves his fellow competitors in his dust because he doesn't have to carry glucose packets to keep his body fed.

How do you know that is why he leaves others in the dust, vs him just being more talented, or training more, or training smarter, or just setting higher goals than the last generation of endurance runners?

Also you should keep in mind that while there is at least a plausible story you can tell about > 5 hour endurance efforts benefiting from some kind of fat burning approach, from 5k to marathon, you absolutely want to be burning glucose if you want to go as fast as you can go. This is unambiguous.

Re: Learning to run 100-mile marathons thanks to the science of self-control

#20

Post by paulpauper »

Grustaf wrote: post #17

”Bill Gates spent thousands of hours learning to program” Sure, and so did thousands of others. Bill Gates clearly didn’t become a modern Croesus because he was a better programmer, this is just trying to shoehorn Microsoft into the at once self-evident and ludicrous 10000 hour idea.

a book that states what is otherwise obvious: a person with innate biological talent will get more 'mileage' from their 10000 hours won't sell as many copies as one that promotes the lie that 10000 hours will turn anyone into an expert at anything
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