Y’all listen carefully to Mr. Thorn up there. He tours relentlessly, was knocked out by Roberto Duran, and worked in a chair factory. He knows what he’s talking about…
I’m Busy, What’s In It For Me? It’s a cliche to observe that something difficult and long should be treated like “a marathon, not a sprint.” Most people intuitively understand the suggestion that we should start slow and conserve our energy. Even if you’re someone who only runs when being chased, we can still learn from this.
Main section: ca. 1100 words (5-7 minute read)
(Hat tip: The study here comes courtesy of Dr. Shawn Bearden, of the Science of Ultra podcast and site, in his weekly “Three Things Thursday” email for July 30,2020.)
Very Modern Dilemmas
“You can hit the ground running like you’re shot from a gun /
But going the distance is the hard part, son”
--Paul Thorn, Everybody Looks Good (At The Starting Line)
Ever felt like your job or life was a giant, endless trip around a hamster wheel? Never ending exertion but no sign of a finish line? It’s exhausting.
Being tired, physically and psychologically, takes a terrible toll on us. The Japanese even have a word for working oneself to death: Karoshi (過労死, Karōshi). Frighteningly, this was coined to describe what was happening to office workers, not miners or fishermen or soldiers.
Most of us won’t actually die working, although it might feel like it. The more worn down we feel, the lower our performance and the greater the urge to drop out of whatever we’re doing. What’s necessary to compete in the short term can wind up doing long-term damage.
One way to prevent that from happening is to look at lessons from learned by high performers in other areas, in this case accomplished endurance sports competitors. (Or, for those who hate sports, think of the tortoise and the hare — substitute “tortoise” for “runner” as you read through below…)
These high performers have learned a lot about sustaining themselves under intense pressure, and it’s worth seeing if they have something to teach us.
Staying Strong Through The End
This is what that saying about marathons and sprints looks like in a real race. (Also, why raw science is often not so inspiring.)
Everyone gets slower as they go on; what’s important is how you do it. If you plot out your speeds over time, you want the slope of the line to be as gentle as possible. You want to stop moving at the finish line, not a couple of miles before it.
This is why pacing is such a big deal for anyone who has to do strenuous things over long periods of time.
What does it mean when we hear “it’s a marathon, not a sprint?” To answer, researchers recently looked into strategies of runners doing 50 and 100 mile ultramarathons. These races, especially 100 miles, are exceptionally demanding. Researchers wanted to know how successful and unsuccessful runners managed their energy levels.
Reading the study, I see four lessons for non-runners:
Pacing ourselves is necessary, but we need to do it in a way which makes sense in our particular situation. Just “taking it easy” isn’t enough.
The longer we can stick with a strenuous effort, the greater our chances of successfully finishing.
We’re most likely to quit when we’re worn down. If we can predict this, we can try to prevent it.
Sleep is a super-weapon in the fight for high performance.
How we apply these will be different depending on who we are what we’re doing, but they’re worth a closer look.
Discussion and Details
This is a minor chart crime, but worth looking at because it sums up some takeaways. (“Zeitgeber” is timing clock time, the “hours” on top are apparently roughly the circadian day, which is not the same.)
1. Average speed is a little over 4mph, although that’s for an entire 24 hour day.
2. The error bars show relatively little difference in speed early but a huge difference at the slowest times (circadian hour 14/ZT20 and 17/ZT25). This is where the stronger runners make their money.
3. 18% of the field dropped out in just 3hrs before circadian “sunrise”; if you made it past that you had an excellent chance of being one of the 42% who finished the race.
The study starts with a warning: “History tells us that one of the first marathoners died at the finish.” This is karoshi, ancient Greek style: the runner was a soldier carrying a military message back to higher headquarters. (Keep this in mind the next time your boss asks you to take a ‘little trip’ somewhere.)
Unfortunately, modern marathons are actually pretty well-controlled and don’t offer the drama they used to. So the researchers looked elsewhere. In dry, research language:
We [used the] 100-mile ultramarathon in order to have an internally controlled field study of total sleep deprivation under extreme conditions. Our primary aim was to dissect time-dependent patterns of human endurance capabilities under extreme homeostatic load.
(Translation: “The university told us it would be unethical to make undergraduates do this for extra credit so we studied some masochists who were paying to do this for ‘fun’ instead.”)
Peeling back the dry academic jargon, this what they found:
All runners paced themselves, but successful runners adapted to the circumstances. (“Pacing” here means managing energy by strategically varying running speed. It doesn’t help to be in first place 25% of the way through only to run out of steam halfway and not finish.) 100 miler finishers slowed down earlier and sped up earlier than non-finishers. They also slowed down and sped up earlier than their 50 mile colleagues.
What that means: Everyone used the same basic strategy, but the most successful competitors adapted theirs to their circumstances. Anyone can do this in their own personal setting. It requires being aware of, really understanding, and being willing to flexibly respond to the environment. The pacing and strategies for an “all out emergency” lasting 5 days will be different than a 12-week tiger team, for example. Don’t be afraid to xeperiment with what works best.
The longer one ran, the less likely it was they’d drop out. For 100 milers, “Dropouts were few past 75 miles, indicating some level of psychological motivation of 'almost being done'.” This speaks to the power of grittiness -- perseverance in the face of stress.
From my own limited ultra experience this was absolutely true. During my first 50 miler, I was unsure about whether I’d finish until roughly 40 miles in. The last ten miles were not at all enjoyable: I was exhausted, it was dark, very cold and there was ice everywhere. But that was my body’s problem. In my mind, I knew I could finish. It was an incalculable weight off my shoulders.
Dropout rates were highest and performance lowest in the middle of the night. This is mid-way through what are often 24 hour-plus efforts. “If an ultramarathoner chose to run past 50 miles, the dropout rate was highest in the middle of the night when human alertness are predicted to be most vulnerable to time-driven physiology.” The middle of the night was also the time when runners were slowest. With the sunrise, runners sped back up to their average paces.
Despite having ”trait-like phenotypes of pain tolerance, emotional regulation, and habitual resting/sleep strategies” on their side, the darkest part of the night was hardest on the runners. Even the best-prepared was at their weakest point. The good news is this is predictable. If you know that slump you’re feeling is a natural result of being tired and stressed, you have a better chance of riding it out.
Sleep counts. Need for sleep increases with effort. Baseline sleep levels were roughly similar but 100 mile runners were more likely to nap than 50 mile competitors. The study also found the 100 mile runners reported much higher rates of sleep disturbances, which may have been evidence of overtraining. (This is when an athlete’s efforts out paces their ability to recover.)
As a society, we’re in danger of collectively overtraining. Studies show that we are getting less and less sleep over time, even as we work more. This takes a strong toll on our mental abilities, stamina, and general well-being. It’s worth remembering that progress in any area comes from stress plus rest; without resting, we don’t learn and we don’t grow our capabilities.
Last Words
All of this may sound overwhelming. There’s no reason to despair, though. Looking closely, there’s a lot here to work with. In particularly, if pay attention we can predict and then recognize the signs we getting psychologically or physically worn down.
Think of this as like having this guy guide you through a long project at work.
Image: ftw.usatoday.com
This lets us prepare to respond thoughtfully, not react blindly and risk falling out of competition. The successful runner here don’t try to avoid the inevitable, but they do prepare for it.
So can we!
References
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nbYpY48O24
Study: Earlier shift in race pacing can predict future performance during a single-effort ultramarathon under sleep deprivation. Allison J. Brager, et al. Sleep Science, Jan-Mar 2020; 13(1): 25-31.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7347363/