Smash Notes
10 - EXTREME RUNNING
Just how fast and how far can a human go? This week, the physiology and stories of extreme runners. Ultramarathon Man, Dean Karnazes tells us his extraordinary story. We find out about Diane Leather and we get some answers from sports writer David Epstein, and Sports Medicine Physician Dr Matt Baird.
Notes
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It was 23 days later when Diane Leather broke the record for running a mile under 5 minutes by running a mile in 4 minutes and 59.6 seconds. Unlike Bannister's race, there was no video footage to capture Leather's race. When she retired, she had a personal best of 4 minutes and 43 seconds.
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On This Won't Hurt a Bit's Extreme Running episode, the hosts say the men's one-mile record stands at three minutes 43 seconds, 18 seconds faster than Roger Bannister's four-minute mile. The women's record stands at four minutes 12.57 seconds, run by Russian athlete Svetlana Masterkova in Zurich in 1996. They call that 48 seconds faster than Diane Leather's five-minute mile. Leather's record, they say, stood untouched for seven years, and women's records at the distance were not recognized until 1967. David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene, adds that once Bannister broke four minutes, runners who had stalled at the barrier followed him through it.
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The reason why is because these records give people confidence to go out a little faster than they would otherwise. They now have something concrete to chase. Our brain is also responsible for holding back a lot of our physical capacity because its concern is more about us not hurting ourselves.
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The current 100-meter record is currently 9.58 seconds. From various recent work, speed is limited by the contraction speed of muscle fibers. You also have to weigh in the track surfaces. When considering both, the limit is around the mid 9.4 second range.
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In about one tenth of a second or less, elite sprinters will put 5 times their body weight worth of force into the ground as quickly as possible. The repositioning of limbs between strides is all about how much force you put into the ground and how quickly.
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A high level of lactate gives us this common burning feeling. Lactate acid is an acid that builds up with muscle use and muscle damage. If it gets to a high enough level, our body will shut the activity down.
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Exercise is muscle use. As we use our muscles, it requires metabolic changes and more oxygen as we’re going from not using our muscles to using them. Your heart becomes bigger and has to pump harder as your blood volume increases.
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In This Won't Hurt a Bit episode 10, Extreme Running, host Jess tells Dave that exercise is protective against strokes, heart disease, diabetes, and maybe even some cancers. She says it changes the body and it changes the mind. Just before that, the episode describes a runner's high that almost mimics the high people get from drugs, but in a healthy and natural way, through opioids and cannabinoids. Dave tells Jess he must not be making those chemicals, because he feels like a mediocre marathon man rather than a winner. The episode's guest for the long-distance story is ultrarunner Dean Karnazes.
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Runners eat on the fly. Usually, they’ll eat as they run. When it comes to going to the bathroom, he will go to the bathroom as he’s running with a kind of waddling technique. If he has to poop while running, then that’ll be about the one time he would stop.
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Dean Karnazes uses the basic technique of projection as a psychological tool to get him through the door. Oftentimes, the hardest thing is just getting out of the door. Then, it becomes self-fulfilling.