A good read on Finnish Olympic ski legend Eero Mantyranta. Dude had naturally occurring crazy hemoglobin levels.
Great read from Magness on randomness of adaptation and how it ties into Crossfit. I am definitely more of the “jogger syndrome” he describes.
Brownie posted this on FB, and it is worth cross posting here: you can choose what to make your life one of maximum enthusiasm.
New building conversations kicking up again for Pikes Peak summit house.
Armstrong is apparently now a Biblical character.
Scott Jaime is rounding out his posts on his FKT on the CO trail.
Yes, the six day race is still going on. Yes, the three day (72 hour) race is concluded by the time I have posted this but the back and forth between Fejes and Kourous in the six day has outpaced those guys by a 100 miles. At the end of three days, those two guys have done more miles than I have done in the last four weeks.
I have a ridiculously long post chambered that is a list of disconnected unedited thoughts and goals that I am considering for 2014. I don’t see them as resolutions for the purpose of the new year, but more an outcome from the extended time off I have had. It is a bit more coincidental that I came to this at this point (unless you recognize that it is no coincidence that I have this time off like this towards the tail of each year). I am debating if I post this or not, but I probably will … even though I am less inclined to keep those resolutions that are not really resolutions anyway.
10 miles in the mid day. Windy but warm.
Year end stats:
54 Green summits
22 days off
51 days of business travel (hotel’d somewhere)
21 camping nights (ish)
3493.6 miles
272,300 feet vertical climbed
512.06 hours run
hence averaging: 67.18 miles a week or 9.57 miles a day, and 9.85 hours a week.
When taking out the 22 days off (365-22=343), I end up with 10.19 miles a day.
…and … zero treadmill runs.
The mileage is both impressive and inadequate, and also represents my strength and my weakness.
December is 254.7 miles, 35.87 hours and 21900 vertical feet, 2 days off and 5 Greens.
Happy with how I was able to recoup on December a bit after a subpar November where things seemed to drive a required break. This past week was nice in a combination of consistency in miles, but also getting in some turn over work (will look to extend on this between now and Feb XC Nats). Altitude kicked my arse in the middle of the week for sure and my climbing gears have been ground up and lost some where.
Set up a slack line for the crumbgrabbers in the backyard today.
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ReplyDeleteRIP, Eero -- that was an interesting story in Epstein's book.
ReplyDeleteThat TED talk the other day was quite interesting, too. Not so much "money making people mean" by itself -- because that same advantage can also irrationally lead to envy and unhappiness among other people, even when it doesn't actually negatively affect them -- but mostly people rationalizing arbitrary and random advantages.
While not a perfect experiment, I do think its provably common for humans to ignore their advantages and rationalize success or advantage (Humans in fact rationalize "patterns" to justify results, see Nate Silver's "The Signal in the Noise.") Interestingly, Eero himself (at least in Epstein's book) was adamant that his incredibly rare genotype and resulting phenotypic advantage wasn't that big of a deal in his success, so we see this in sport and business/economics. I definitely saw this in the corporate world (sometimes my success was partly enabled based on being on the "right" project at the right time instead of the wrong one, and vice-versa). Most scarily, I think we see this as part (not all and not for everyone) in religion at times, where advantage and favoritism is justified and this maddeningly ignores very real suffering and disadvantage. Some prayers are answered, while others are not.
There's nothing wrong with having advantages: make and do the best with them! Just be honest with yourself.
Perhaps a bit extreme down that thread...but anyway, I think it's a bemusing look at human nature, and it's actually liberating to step back and count our own blessings and advantages, and admit our limitations, so as to realize the best with what we're given. Happy New Year GZ!
I sort of expected more stuff on the TED talk but then thought it might be something a lot of folks don't tune into (18 minute videos).
DeleteI had a bit of an issue with the Monopoly game. If I recall, in the game, there is zero incentive to do anything charitable. I am not sure that comparisons are really valid.
This whole conversation seems to get lost in emotion, regardless if you are talking about sport or economic or some other advantage. Tell any guy that is in the NBA that they have an advantage because they are 6'8" and they are likely to be irked because you are implicitly ignoring the hard work that they put in on the playground to get to the parquet floor of the Garden. Tell a person that is economically well off that they got there because they were born white and male (as an example of that fires up emotions), it also ignores the time they put in, and maybe even their hard scrabble background.
So the natural reaction is to fire back or at least defend.
Sort of all brings me back to running and racing. Who cares if there are types of humans that have skinnier ankles than me and hence are more likely to be better runners?
I will check the book out you recommend.
I enjoy lots of TED topics but don't have the patience to watch the videos.
DeleteThe Monopoly idea that I caught was that people, when asked how they won, credited their strategies before/without mentioning the incredible advantage of starting with more cash/rolling two dice instead of one.
Definitely a conversation that gets lost in emotion...which is too bad, because I think the interplay between "advantage" (perhaps more palatable as "circumstance") provides the most honesty and inspiration, rather than a detraction. Eero had a distinct hemoglobin advantage, AND he was skiing across a lake to school at a young age AND worked hard at training/racing -- how cool is that? Kilian (as narrated by Rickey Gates) may have some distinct but not overly uncommon genetic advantages, AND he grew up in a great place and time for his passion and abilities. We all tend to look "upward" and bemoan the advantages that we lack, but forget/take for granted the fortune that we do have. And rather than any sort of "guilt" for having advantages -- I don't think apologies are necessary -- but being honest about it can ideally prevent people from *wasting* opportunities. People live here in relative health and security, but never travel or play sports or read free books from the library, and instead watch 20 hours of TV per week? Really?
You're right, there are faster runners than you (and the list is longer for me), but you have that combination of talent, a lot of hard work, desire...AND you live in a fantastic place for all of it. The terrain (Pikes, etc.), the competition, the climate/altitude, and the culture are fantastic...and they're an advantage for all of us. There are runners that salivate at the opportunities we have, and those with better genetic gifts that may not get to use them fully, but other parts of the country/world have better opportunities for other things. Not only is that OK, but it keeps the world more interesting.
So I like your 2014 list -- getting after the good stuff that we have around here. Hope to see you on some of it!
(And I admire you for keeping your Blog up-to-date...)
Mike
DeleteYour replies are always thoughtful and well articulated.
What jumped out at me the most though was "the list is longer for me." That is clearly not the case. As you have a greater natural advantage having trained with Clarkie for so long. ;)
The guilt thing is clearly part of the equation where things get emotional. Okay, so I have an advantage and I am working it to my benefit. To what end however should then be obliged to help those less fortunate than me? Arguably, or in some circles, any answer I give that is less than giving my all to help those less fortunate is one in which I am probably not giving enough.
Obviously I don't do that. We give to some level that we deem is appropriate for us. But is it enough? We think so but if we state that we are working hard, making these choices, and still acknowledge that we are advantaged and working hard - that makes us mean? In comes the guilt.
I think people then get defensive about that - particularly guilted, because they feel judged. They turn the equation around and state - hey, have you worked as hard as I have regardless of the advantage I have? And it becomes the emotional argument.
I think the ATY 72-hour is not over yet. You can pick the days you want to run for the 24, 48, and 72 hour so someone could still be running the 72 hr starting later. I think Fejes and Kourous were at 300ish miles at 72 hours...which is solid and I doubt anyone will actually beat in the 72 hr.
ReplyDeleteHappy 2014!
Good point Nick. I had not realized that.
DeleteCrazy watching Fejes and Kourous. They seem to be averaging a 100 every 25 hours through 4 days. That is nuts.