WHAT IS FIMCETS HAHA
WHAT IS FIMCETS HAHA
Prescriptive, not Directive, effort management
Let our bodies do the deciding. A radical idea, it would seem. Yet with a simple examination of the various internal and external stressors and influences with which our bodies have to contend with every hour of every day, it seems to us a rather logical way of approaching training. There is a caveat or two (dozen) which must be considered when basing one’s training strictly on numerical values (such as heart rate). These are easily remembered with the simple acronym:
“WHAT IS FIMCETS HAHA”.
- Weather - Illness - Fueling - Heat
- Humidity - Sleep - Injuries - Activity
- Altitude - Moon Phase - Hydration
- Time of Day - Cold - Allergies
- Terrain
- Stress
OK, so the acronym thing is a joke. But all the things listed are not; ALL of these things, individually and especially in combination, can markedly affect our heart rates (and consequentially, our lactate levels) throughout the zones, sometimes positively, most of the time negatively. When training is based exclusively on heart rate, these things need to be factored in. How exactly a runner is expected to do that, however, remains — for us, at least — mysterious. We have not been able to find the formula(s) which gives the appropriate correction factors for these variables.
What we at Breath Runner have discovered is that by syncing one’s breathing pattern to one’s cadence, the body will naturally and effectively apply its own “correction factor” and settle into an appropriate pace and heart rate for the given effort. The more time spent in these appropriate “zones”, the more efficient the body becomes at motoring along within those effort levels, meaning: less effort to do the same amount of work. Meaning: we get faster.
There’s been a lot of attention lately given to VO2max. What exactly is VO2max?
V = Volume (of)
O2 = Oxygen
max = maximal
VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen our bodies can utilize during exercise. What’s important to stress here is that VO2max is NOT how much air one can move in and out of their lungs. That’s Lung Tidal Volume. A normal uptake of air by a person at rest is usually around 6 liters per minute (6L/m). During exercise, pregnancy, illness, or other conditions with increased metabolic demand, the need for oxygen increases because the body’s cells need more oxygen to function under those conditions. At peak ventilation, healthy adult males can move well over 100 liters per minute (females over 90L/m) in and out through their lungs. VO2max is determined by how much oxygen muscle mitochondria can pull in and utilize for energy production at maximal exertion. As a general rule, the higher one’s VO2max, the better the performance of which they may be capable. Also, VO2max has been shown to be among the best predictors of longevity in humans. VO2max usually declines with age, approximately 10% every 10 years after the age of 30.
So what does all this have to do with our fictional acronym? It’s again to point out how nebulous some of these metrics which society latches on to can be. VO2max is important, no doubt about it, and we need to do our level best to keep it up as high as we can. But its upper limit is genetically determined. It can be influenced by exercise up to a point, but once it is at its genetic limit, it’s not going any higher. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. As the saying goes, Hard Work beats Talent when Talent doesn’t work hard. World class endurance athletes have been shown to “max out” their VO2max and yet continue to get faster year after year. How? Economy of movement. Their bodies just become evermore efficient in its uptake of oxygen and deployment of aerobic power.
And that’s the take-away message here. Avoid the Red Queen fallacy.
The Red Queen Fallacy is essentially a mistaken belief based on unsound argument. It suggests that unless the Latest Greatest Thing is employed, all gains will be lost. In the endurance world, it goes something like this: We want to develop our fitness quickly; there are companies selling computerized gadgets that promise to make us more fit, quickly; therefore, we need these gadgets in order to develop fitness quickly or we won’t succeed!
To be clear, Breath Runner neither favors nor opposes computerized gadgets. We have some of them, and we use the ones we have. For instance, we have a watch — very good quality, made by a well-known and reputable company — which tracks all kinds of metrics while we run. By and large, we find these metrics very helpful for post-run analysis. But our watch also likes to do things like try to tell us our VO2max numbers, based on parameters given and algorithmic modeling. We don’t pay attention to these kinds of numbers, because as good as this company is at what they do, we know that those numbers are more a product of the Marketing Department than derived from exercise science. Without a full metabolic assessment done by an actual exercise scientist (or at least a very conscientious coach trained by an exercise scientist), there is no possible way they nor we can know what our VO2max actually is. And unless we get tested regularly, it’s impossible to track if it’s improving or not.
And more to the point: our bodies don’t care what the algorithms say. Our bodies do not operate on Artificial Intelligence. Our bodies utilize Analogue Intelligence! We have a squishy grey supercomputer between our ears that has millions of years of product development behind it. It’s really good at fine-tuning data input to achieve remarkable things. As a species, we’ve figured out how to play with numbers, and so numbers have become our ‘thing’. Which is not a bad thing! But like most things in life, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
Every moment of every day, our bodies are in constant conversation with our brains, sending information on everything (EVERY single thing) that’s happening within and around our bodies, to the limits of our five senses, and our brain is compiling, processing, and analyzing all this data at light and chemical speed. Then it’s sending out instructions, corrections, and/or alerts throughout our system; instantly, relentlessly, and without regard to what imagined parameters the imaginative side of our brains have come up with as a way for us to understand what is happening. It has been said that Albert Einstein once said, “We only use 10% of our brains.” Well, not only didn’t he say that, it’s not even close to being the truth. Our brain accounts for only around 2% of our total body mass, but uses around 20% of our total metabolic energy. Research has shown that upwards of 90% of that energy usage is devoted to the operation of the sack of plasma we call our bodies, leaving the remaining 10ish% for “specific” activities, including exercise and thought.
As good as our computers are, they’re still no match for the processing power of our brains. And computers will always have one immutable flaw: they were designed by us, using that tiny, tiny fraction of our imaginative brains. We know that our imagination, the “thinking side” of our brain is flawed; we’ve identified over 140 logical fallacies to which we are prey. Which means, when it comes to computers: GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. The slightest error of a percentage, the tiniest transposition of numbers, an insignificant detail left out, and that error will exponentially propagate throughout the computer, which by the time the information sought reaches us, it’s distorted in ways we will never know. Error corrections can account for basic numerical deviations in spreadsheets, but not fundamental flaws in the architecture of the computer’s design itself.
The 90% of our brains which seek systemic homeostasis, however, rarely experiences this kind of computational foible (disease or injury notwithstanding). Our bodies, brains and all, know what they need, and primary among those needs is the Need to Move. We instinctively know concepts like Easy, Medium, and Hard. What if we allowed our primary vital signs to regulate our exertion into the “bucket” which we know will allow us to best adapt and improve our performance?
Welcome to Breath Runner. We think we’ve figured out how to do exactly that.
