Last week, I ordered my first GPS watch. Yes, I have been ultrarunning since 2007 without a GPS. I use only a basic Timex. In fact, I've only changed the battery in it once. I also shower with it every night, sleep in it, wear it to work, use it in the dark, cook with it, drive to work with it, and even lift weights with it. Probably the best $35 I have ever spent.
However, I got to thinking last week that it might be interesting to play around with graphs and statistics and whatnot. I've never really tallied my mileage, how much time I spend on the trail, or any other statistic. I don't know how much elevation I climb/descend on a run, and I have no idea what my heart rate is or how many calories I burn. I've never really cared and I typically just listen to my body. So, I think I'll give it a shot. When my new Garmin 310XT gets in I plan to track mileage, elevation, and time on a daily basis for one year. All of this stemmed from the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell that I read a few months ago. In the book, he talks about the 10,000-Hour Rule...
Basically, Gladwell argues that you become an expert at something once you practice that particular skill/trade for 10,000 hours. The caveat is that you need to be given the opportunity to practice at an early age, because without an early opportunity you don't stand a chance at becoming an expert. He detailed cases related to men playing hockey, girls playing soccer, and even the Beatles. In the end, I took a bite of the cheese. It makes sense in the ultrarunning world as well. Think about it...what age group do the majority of the top ultrarunners fall into? My guess would be 30-39 (Ian Sharman, Nick Clark, Max King), with outliers in their 20's and 40's. This is probably because ultrarunners between 30-39 have practiced for 10,000 hours. Skateboarding or playing the violin, as examples, can be practiced at very early ages. This is why the U.S. has 20-year old snowboarders winning gold medals at the Winter Olympics, and 16-year olds playing in the MLS. However, the typical ultrarunner doesn't get into distances beyond 26.2 until their 20's or, maybe, in their teens. Thus, the countdown to 10,000 hours doesn't start until later in life, and the majority of ultrarunners don't "officially" start working towards their 10,000 hours until their early- to mid-20's. Obviously, there are outliers...
Those outliers in their 20's were given particular opportunities to practice and succeed at an early age. Kilian Jornet grew up in the mountains and his parents gave him the opportunity to cross-country ski on a daily basis. He lived high in the mountains, with slopes and trails in his backyard, and had supportive parents who practically pushed him out the back door and into the mountains every day. Therefore, he was given the opportunity to practice long distance endurance sports at an early age, and he had the opportunity to reach 10,000 hours of practice by his early 20's. Another runner, Scott Jurek, created his own opportunities in his early teens to practice endurance running. In BFE Minnesota, he began running up and down his road, to the store and back, away from his problems (as described in his book "Eat and Run")...he was also able to reach his 10,000 hours at an early age. Since then, runners like Kilian Jornet and Tim Olson and Tony Krupicka (all in their 20's, although Olson may have just turned 30) have followed in Jurek's footsteps. They started practicing ultrarunning at an early age and were given the opportunity to practice. They grew up in specific areas of the country/world that allowed them to practice their skill efficiently. Thus, they all reached 10,000 hours of ultrarunning practice in their 20's.
This was the main reason I purchased a GPS watch - to track particular statistics to work towards my 10,000 hours. I'm off to a much later start than the runners previously mentioned - I didn't really start practicing until 2011 at age 25. When looking at the big picture, however, that doesn't mean squat. Outliers in their 40's (Mike Morton, Karl Meltzer, Dave Mackey, Jorge Pacheco) are winning ultras left and right. Now, I am certainly not saying that I will be winning ultras when I'm 40. Quite the contrary...my career doesn't exactly give me the freedom to practice like I want to. In fact, I may never reach my 10,000 hours, but at least I can keep track with my new watch!
Also, I plan to steal a page out of Tony Krupicka's book...I noticed that he keeps similar statistics of his training runs and posts them on his blog every week. Unless there exists some weird copyright infringement laws that prevent me from taking someone's cool blog idea and using it myself, I plan to also post mine every week. Although, now that "Dumb Starbucks Coffee" opened in Los Angeles, I don't think I'll have any run-ins with law enforcement by copying someone's idea to track how many minutes I spent hanging out in the woods yesterday. I will also have a reason to run those extra few miles, those extra few hills, that final loop...because you all will be looking at my fancy graphs, filled with colors and lines and numbers.
That's all for now. Standby for bar graphs...
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