Nels needed already 15 plus hours to get it done on day two. There is no way that he will get Pete's record. Most likely he will run himself into the ground in week one.
I will disagree with you there. Nels is intentionally using 15 hours more or less each day to get the 72+ miles per day in so that he doesn't need to run at a higher pace and thus limit the damage to his body from the impact forces of higher speed. He is pacing this better than Pete did, who went out way too fast in his transcon and had to slow down.
9 hours is just not enough recovery time. It doesn't matter how slow you are.
Pete is a much better runner and he ran just 12.5 to 13.5 hours on most days. That's a lot more rest when every minute of more rest is really important.
Come back to us in two weeks. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but to declare he is on track to break the record after two days is extremely naive.
If you look at Nels Strava data and his Instagram stories/posts, you will see that he basically only does a constant shuffling gait all day. No running at a high speed causing unnecessary body damage and then backing down to slower speeds in the same day like Pete did. If you were to present to me the plans of Nels vs Pete without telling their names, I would easily choose Nels as having the way better plan and much more likely to succeed.
This is like the tortoise vs the hare. Nels is the tortoise and Pete is the hare. And we all know who won in that race.
9 hours is just not enough recovery time. It doesn't matter how slow you are.
Pete is a much better runner and he ran just 12.5 to 13.5 hours on most days. That's a lot more rest when every minute of more rest is really important.
Everyone recovers at a different rate. And if Nels is smart, he will have way better fructose to glucose nutrition that Pete never knew about that greatly enhances recovery.
Pete may be a better runner than Nels over shorter distances but this isn't a marathon. Pete's transcon wasn't optimized, there was a lot of low hanging fruit he didn't pluck.
9 hours is just not enough recovery time. It doesn't matter how slow you are.
Pete is a much better runner and he ran just 12.5 to 13.5 hours on most days. That's a lot more rest when every minute of more rest is really important.
Everyone recovers at a different rate. And if Nels is smart, he will have way better fructose to glucose nutrition that Pete never knew about that greatly enhances recovery.
Pete may be a better runner than Nels over shorter distances but this isn't a marathon. Pete's transcon wasn't optimized, there was a lot of low hanging fruit he didn't pluck.
You obviously don't know what you are talking about. Pete ran 163 miles in a 24 hour race in 2015. That's an excellent result.
Nels has 440 miles at a 6 day race in 2023 and a 102 miles in a 24 hour race. The 6 day result is solid but the 24 hour result is rather poor.
Pete's transcon was the most optimized run I have seen in the last 40 years. There was no low hanging fruit to pick.
You obviously don't know what you are talking about. Pete ran 163 miles in a 24 hour race in 2015. That's an excellent result.
Nels has 440 miles at a 6 day race in 2023 and a 102 miles in a 24 hour race. The 6 day result is solid but the 24 hour result is rather poor.
Pete's transcon was the most optimized run I have seen in the last 40 years. There was no low hanging fruit to pick.
A 24 hour race isn't a 42 day transcon. Your post just further illustrates that Pete is the hare and Nels is the tortoise. Pete was never able to approach 163 miles a day in his transcon because he cannot sustain that kind of speed. Pete's overall transcon wound up at a pace slower than that of Nels' 6 day pace.
A 24 hour race isn't a 42 day transcon. Your post just further illustrates that Pete is the hare and Nels is the tortoise. Pete was never able to approach 163 miles a day in his transcon because he cannot sustain that kind of speed. Pete's overall transcon wound up at a pace slower than that of Nels' 6 day pace.
You make some not unreasonable points. We are at the equivalent of mile 1 of a marathon. Time will tell if the 15 hours run approach works or not. We know for sure that Nels can run 75 miles/day for 6 days; after that, it is uncharted territory. At least this looks like a serious attempt with reasonable pacing rather than the clown show of some of the previous attempts.
Looks like the Day 3 is done since the Garmin tracker hasn't updated in a half hour. The distance is less today since Nels is climbing the mountains, gained a ton of elevation. The Garmin tracker will have underestimated the distance travelled by several miles due to the 10 minute update time.
Looks like he ended the day on the road of Tioga Pass. Day 4 is also another day in the mountains but should then flatten out.
Did he take the day off because of diarrhea from consuming too much glucose based carbohydrates? Endurance nutrition has advanced a long since Pete's time. Nowadays for a transcon like this, I would expect Matson to be using a 1:1 ratio of glucose to fructose in his drinks along with electrolytes to enable him to consume 100-120 grams of carbs per hour throughout the transcon. In Pete's days, such an amount of carbs was unthinkable because he would have been consuming mainly glucose based carbs that give people diarrhea at high amounts.
“Table sugar (sucrose) is a perfect example of a 1:1 glucose to fructose ratio.”
(1) Why not keep it simple and just consume table sugar (and electrolytes)?
(2) If it is as simple as table sugar, how could it have gotten complicated over the years with all kinds of energy drinks?
Altitude gain shouldn't make much of a difference at this slow speed on roads. What is actually happening is exhaustion because of lack of recovery time.
Did he take the day off because of diarrhea from consuming too much glucose based carbohydrates? Endurance nutrition has advanced a long since Pete's time. Nowadays for a transcon like this, I would expect Matson to be using a 1:1 ratio of glucose to fructose in his drinks along with electrolytes to enable him to consume 100-120 grams of carbs per hour throughout the transcon. In Pete's days, such an amount of carbs was unthinkable because he would have been consuming mainly glucose based carbs that give people diarrhea at high amounts.
“Table sugar (sucrose) is a perfect example of a 1:1 glucose to fructose ratio.”
(1) Why not keep it simple and just consume table sugar (and electrolytes)?
(2) If it is as simple as table sugar, how could it have gotten complicated over the years with all kinds of energy drinks?
BTW, I’m not trolling; this is a serious question for folks that do endurance runs (not that I’ll ever do one.)
“Table sugar (sucrose) is a perfect example of a 1:1 glucose to fructose ratio.”
(1) Why not keep it simple and just consume table sugar (and electrolytes)?
(2) If it is as simple as table sugar, how could it have gotten complicated over the years with all kinds of energy drinks?
Table is indeed sucrose which is a 1:1 glucose to fructose ratio but the problem with that is that this is chemically bound together into a disaccharide that requires the intestine to break it down into individual glucose and fructose before it can be absorbed. This is the previous limit of how much carbs it was thought an athlete could absorb per hour at about 60 grams per hour before you get stomach upset and diarrhea.
By having actual individual glucose and fructose in the drink that are not chemically bonded to each other, we skip the previous sucrose breakdown absorption limit and your body can now more directly absorb up to 100-120 grams of carbs per hour.
Absorption and digestion
Your body digests and absorbs different types of sugars in different ways. For instance, you absorb monosaccharides straight into your bloodstream.
But you need enzymes to break down disaccharides into monosaccharides before these get absorbed.
Sucrose
Your body must break down sucrose into glucose and fructose monosaccharides before you can absorb these sugars into your blood.
The process begins in your mouth, but most of the work occurs in your small intestine.
Learn the differences between the main types of sugar and how the body responds to them. Also, discover how to reduce your sugar intake for a healthier diet.
Altitude gain shouldn't make much of a difference at this slow speed on roads. What is actually happening is exhaustion because of lack of recovery time.
9 hours is just not enough recovery time. It doesn't matter how slow you are.
Pete is a much better runner and he ran just 12.5 to 13.5 hours on most days. That's a lot more rest when every minute of more rest is really important.
Everyone recovers at a different rate. And if Nels is smart, he will have way better fructose to glucose nutrition that Pete never knew about that greatly enhances recovery.
Pete may be a better runner than Nels over shorter distances but this isn't a marathon. Pete's transcon wasn't optimized, there was a lot of low hanging fruit he didn't pluck.
There is some interesting discussion on this thread on recovery and sleep strategy, thanks. From Wikipedia, “Frank Giannino Jr.Giannino noted that he felt "nostalgic" watching Kostelnick break his record, and commented that he was impressed with how fast Kostelnick was running, nine and a half minutes per mile. Giannino had traversed America much slower, often walking, during his record, but only slept 6 hours a night, which allowed him to cover similar ground at the much slower pace of 11 plus minutes per mile.[6]”
Altitude gain shouldn't make much of a difference at this slow speed on roads. What is actually happening is exhaustion because of lack of recovery time.
Seriously? Have you ever climbed a mountain?
Actually I have. But going up 6000ft over 50 miles is not exactly climbing a mountain. 15.5 hours in and he is still moving. 56 Garmin miles so far.
Everyone recovers at a different rate. And if Nels is smart, he will have way better fructose to glucose nutrition that Pete never knew about that greatly enhances recovery.
Pete may be a better runner than Nels over shorter distances but this isn't a marathon. Pete's transcon wasn't optimized, there was a lot of low hanging fruit he didn't pluck.
There is some interesting discussion on this thread on recovery and sleep strategy, thanks. From Wikipedia, “Frank Giannino Jr.Giannino noted that he felt "nostalgic" watching Kostelnick break his record, and commented that he was impressed with how fast Kostelnick was running, nine and a half minutes per mile. Giannino had traversed America much slower, often walking, during his record, but only slept 6 hours a night, which allowed him to cover similar ground at the much slower pace of 11 plus minutes per mile.[6]”
There is no evidence that Frank Giannino did what he said he did. Let's not forget that that guy never ran any other ultra.
Looks like the Day 3 is done since the Garmin tracker hasn't updated in a half hour. The distance is less today since Nels is climbing the mountains, gained a ton of elevation. The Garmin tracker will have underestimated the distance travelled by several miles due to the 10 minute update time.
Looks like he ended the day on the road of Tioga Pass. Day 4 is also another day in the mountains but should then flatten out.
Started
4:05 AM
Trip Time
13:54:15
Dist. Traveled
50.8 mi
Average Speed
3.65 mph
Max. Speed
11.53 mph
Max. Elevation
7024 ft
How the heck is his moving time only 5 seconds less than his elapsed time? Saw this on Strava. Did he essentially move non stop for 15 hours? No bathroom break, never stopped to tie his shoes, change them, put on new socks? That’s pretty impressive.
This post was edited 19 seconds after it was posted.
How the heck is his moving time only 5 seconds less than his elapsed time? Saw this on Strava. Did he essentially move non stop for 15 hours? No bathroom break, never stopped to tie his shoes, change them, put on new socks? That’s pretty impressive.
