Relax for the same result (2015)
52 points by andreynering
52 points by andreynering
Are we all just going to ignore this masterpiece of a paragraph:
I saw two dolphins in the water. A pelican flew right over me in Marina del Rey. When I looked up to say “wow!” he shit in my mouth. I can still remember that taste of digested shellfish. I had to laugh at the novelty of it.
I realize this is one of those anecdotal life lesson posts that shouldn't be taken seriously, but the person gave us numbers.
Air resistance is proportional to velocity squared, so effort increases quadratically.
15 mi in 43 min = 20.9 mi/h
15 mi in 45 min = 20 mi/h
I don't know man. I just don't know. And that seagull story.
People, I think we've been set up. And it's off topic on top of that ...
I’m not an expert, but in my experience with endurance training such as running and cycling there can be a huge difference in perceived effort with very little increase in pace due to lactate levels. If you are below a certain lactate threshold you can hold the pace «for ever» but if you go above it, you quickly get drained. 45 min to an hour is pretty much the sweet spot for finding your threshold pace, so I don’t think this sounds too unreasonable.
Likewise, I got down to a 21 minute 5k, that would have required an impossible amount of effort when I started at ~34 minutes. But by the time I hit 21 minutes 23-25 minutes was a leisurely pace that I could have a conversation at, while 21 minutes was giving it absolutely everything I had in a way that I needed a couple days to recover. A 24 minute 5k though? I could go for another one of those in a few hours.
FWIW it matches my subjective experience on my 25km home-to-office bike ride. It takes me about an hour. Some days I'm like "yeah today I feel great I'm going to give it all I have", which end up in me being twice as exhausted on arrival, for about 2 to 3 minutes gain. Wind direction and strength have more influence on these rides than anything else.
Even though I enjoyed reading it, and the anecdote happens to be applicable to my computing journey… yeah, the article is off topic.
(But as long as we're on the topic of calculating things, you also have to take into account any mechanical resistance that the bike itself presents. I'm pretty out of my depth here, but I can imagine a speed-limiting bicycle that severely ramps up resistance above a certain speed. Why someone would buy such a bicycle, who knows. (Maybe the rider hasn't jailbroken the DRM on their bike, nor paid for the software "upgrade". (Please don't be an actual thing that exists.)))
I can imagine a speed-limiting bicycle that severely ramps up resistance above a certain speed
Those stationary air bikes do that, they provide more resistance as you go faster, to essentially "match" the user's level of fitness. Of course with those, the point isn't to go anywhere, like it for actual bikes, but to provide a strenuous workout.
Honored that Andrey posted this. Thank you fellow Lobster.
Someone made a fun animation of me telling this story to Tim Ferriss:
No problem fellow Lobster friend!
I love this concept. I read your post many years ago and never forgot about it.
I'm the one who posted this on the orange site back in 2020.
I genuinely love cycling at my limits, but this holds a lot of truth
After a few months, I noticed I was getting less enthusiastic about this bike ride. I think I had mentally linked it with being completely exhausted.
I think some of us masochists can forget which objective we're chasing on a given day. If I need a hard ride, I should be riding hard. But if I need a nice day on my bike, enjoying the scenery, taking time to mull over a difficult problem in my head, then that's how I should spend my time on the bike.
Great reminder!
GCN made a great video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub5yppqaKEQ
Genuine question from a young lobster:
This post is only tangentially related to computing. Should I also be posting "life advice" posts like this, or is it an oddity?
Edit: just noted the off topic comment below. I guess I'm looking for a more clear yes/no answer.
Thank you, Andrey, for posting. Reminds me a lot of "The Slow Way is the Fast(est) Way": https://www.mark-samples.com/learn/2021/2/11/the-slow-way-is-the-fast-way
It's indeed a good strategy, which, when practiced and sustained over a long period of time, works magic.
This matches the famous saying "slow is smooth, smooth is fast", often attributed to the Navy SEALs.