Official Zach Bitter 100 mile treadmill WR discussion thread

Music? Do you mean, was Zach listening to music. Yeah, he had earbuds in and his wife said he was listening to music. I thought she said some Billy Joel!?! Ugh. Zach should get hazard pay for that.

Seriously? Billy Joel? For 12 hours??

That would be more impressive than running a hundred miles in that time. I could literally run for longer than I could listen to Billy Joel.

If someone forced me to listen to Billy Joel until I had run 100 miles, I also would probably set that record?

BITTER SETS TWO WORLD TREADMILL ENDURANCE RECORDS

By David Monti, @d9monti

(c) 2020 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

(16-May) -- Zach Bitter set two pending world treadmill endurance records today, covering the longest distance ever for 12 hours and running 100 miles in the fastest time. Switching back and forth between two NordicTrack Commercial X22i treadmills in his Phoenix home, the 34 year-old Bitter covered 158.8 km (98.6 miles) through the 12-hour mark, the pushed on to 100 miles in 12:09:15. The previous records, both held by Canadian Dave Proctor and set last year, were 153.8 km (95.5 miles) for 12 hours and 12:32:26 for 100 miles. Bitter averaged an astonishing 7:12 per mile (4:28/km).

"I was feeling pretty good by the end," said Bitter who was accompanied by his wife, Nicole, throughout today's effort.

Bitter took several short breaks to use the toilet, and at the 87 mile point he felt mentally defeated and hopped off for two minutes to collect himself. He said he sat in the bathroom for two minutes, before getting back on the treadmill to finish.

Bitter said that his record run went mostly to plan, but that he ended up needing more fluids than he thought. He tried to keep the room where he was running at a cool temperature, but it was 98F (37C) outside and the air conditioning set-up could only do so much.

Not a big deal, but am curious about all this talk about a/c and how much he underestimated his fluid needs due to conditions in his house. Yeah, it was hot outside, it's Phoenix, it's always hot this time of year. His house has a/c. He said he had it pegged at 60 degrees. He supplemented with a large portable a/c unit in the room. Had a fan on behind him and a ceiling fan overhead. What's the problem? Seems Emily Sisson had a way more legitamate 'excuse' than Zach.

kmaclam wrote:

Not a big deal, but am curious about all this talk about a/c and how much he underestimated his fluid needs due to conditions in his house. Yeah, it was hot outside, it's Phoenix, it's always hot this time of year. His house has a/c. He said he had it pegged at 60 degrees. He supplemented with a large portable a/c unit in the room. Had a fan on behind him and a ceiling fan overhead. What's the problem? Seems Emily Sisson had a way more legitamate 'excuse' than Zach.

excuse? he broke the WR on his first attempt

kmaclam wrote:

Not a big deal, but am curious about all this talk about a/c and how much he underestimated his fluid needs due to conditions in his house. Yeah, it was hot outside, it's Phoenix, it's always hot this time of year. His house has a/c. He said he had it pegged at 60 degrees. He supplemented with a large portable a/c unit in the room. Had a fan on behind him and a ceiling fan overhead. What's the problem? Seems Emily Sisson had a way more legitamate 'excuse' than Zach.

Overheating is a very big deal on treadmill. Last winter when I would plan to run something longer or harder than a recovery jog in the morning, I would put the heating to low mode (60 degrees) overnight. In the morning I would open the door to the porch (2 feet in front of treadmill) and put a fan in the doorway to blow cold air in. Still I would suffer from overheating a lot! I didn't expect that so I made several controlled measurements. With outside temps ranging from 12 to 18 I would run exactly one hour of 7 minute miles. Starting from 60, ambient temperature in the room would actually increase to 65-69! For reference, my treadmill has a 3 hp motor and 7 minute miles are a moderate effort for me (as in, feels easy enough to run a 10-miler at this pace every day, but if I actually do, I'm not likely to feel strong enough on workout days)

I think the solution might actually be creating more air movement, as in using more and larger fans. 60 should be ok to run for hours on end, but you're surrounded in a cloud of 'sticky' hotter moist air that won't go away. Indoor track won't have that as you're leaving your evaporated sweat behind and it doesn't prevent yet more sweat from evaporating.

With a/c, he probably kept windows closed.

Also, looks like a small room.

Central air or a window unit?

What about oxygen depletion? The fan and an open door would help a lot, of course, and it didn’t seem to be a problem for him—but it would be interesting for someone to determine the mass of oxygen and volume of normal air he used, and compare that to the size of the room or rooms that he was primarily in.

I guess if it was central air then fresh air was being pumped in all the time.

lol treadmill "WR".....every treadmill is different, how do you know that each record is the same "distance" (in quotes since he literally moved like 50 actual feet the entire time, not 100 miles

jhlkjhlkjhjlkhkl wrote:

lol treadmill "WR".....every treadmill is different, how do you know that each record is the same "distance" (in quotes since he literally moved like 50 actual feet the entire time, not 100 miles

The military allows treadmills for semi-annual physical tests (I've done a couple out to sea where actual running isn't possible). They have a list of approved models and calibration procedures. Not sure if there's any ratification process along those lines.

I looked through the stream and randomly saw the comedian Bert Kreischer was on there - at about 3:32 into part B (9:37 on the clock). Did not expect that. Though Zach was on the Joe Rogan podcast so there's a connection there.

Also the TAILWIND FAN! was there an official there to witness and calibrate the treadmill too? what about a drug test?

jhlkjhlkjhjlkhkl wrote:

lol treadmill "WR".....every treadmill is different, how do you know that each record is the same "distance" (in quotes since he literally moved like 50 actual feet the entire time, not 100 miles

He has run significantly faster indoors. His post-race comments were interesting: he said this was more difficult mentally. And not because it was indoors or on a treadmill, per se, but because of the weird "control" issue, with the treadmill dictating what happens in the run. Hell of a performance.

He said he only listened to music for about 1/3 of the run; the rest of the time, he was listening to the online commentary. The music was a mix; I think near the end it was the new Ozzy/Post Malone collaboration.

All very valid points with regards to WR ratification.

-Was the fan tailwind factored in to his favor?

-Is the treadmill calibrated?

-Was he drug tested?

Some caveats to ponder regarding this ‘record’.

Howisthisevenlegitimate? wrote:

-Was the fan tailwind factored in to his favor?

-Is the treadmill calibrated?

-Was he drug tested?

Some caveats to ponder regarding this ‘record’.

No

No

No

But Zach Miller is a great athlete and I have no doubt that he did it. Also this is not a real World Record of course, just one of these Guinness thingy's.

How is it established that he actually ran 100 miles? How accurate is the measurement?

It's not as though he ran a certified course.

Here he compares a couple of things between the indoor track records and treadmill records: https://athleticsillustrated.com/zach-bitter-breaks-two-world-records-twice-in-10-months/

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Awesome, I love this sht. I kind of want to see someone from northern Canada or Siberia take a shot at this some February when it’s -40 outside.

Excellent!

Music?

Agreed. Super cool. Wonder how letsrun has been covering these kinds of things?