Originally Posted by
FrenchFit
You know, I think it is somewhat remarkable that people don't often speak from personal experiment & experience; the argumentative references are to scientific study, anecdotes, urban myth and logical rhetoric. "I know best because...[enter 3rd person credibility]". This is not a slam about the BF, this seems to be the modern condition -- everyone has an opinion, an argument, but few have given these opinions the real world test. Our culture uniformly discounts experience as so subjective and unscientific and capable of falsehoods they are not worth anyone's serious consideration. But, some fringe study feeding rats a ridiculous amount of sugar, or carbs, or fat, or protein...now that's meaningful!
This is probably why podcasts have gotten so relevant for many people,(first person direct experience); I thoroughly enjoyed listen to Z. Bitter talk about how he prepared to run a 100 miles at a 7 mile an hour pace. Super-human accomplishment in my book, ( a low-carb, high fat guy...and IFer btw
https://zachbitter.com/blog/2014/04/...rance_athletes ).. Hack?
I think you're looking at it backwards. If one only speaks from personal experience, that's really easy to discount. It's just one data point, no controls, and a great possibility that uncontrolled factors could have confounded the result. Plus everyone is different. There are no scientific studies of anything using one one person, or even one trial person and one control person. Makes no sense. You're missing the whole power of the scientific method.
A good practice, and what I do, is to read scientific studies of training or diet methods which produced the sorts of results in which I'm interested. Then I try those methods on myself and see if they work for me. Usually I report my results. I don't randomly experiment on myself with dietary or training programs which have no support in science. Why would I do that, when almost any result one could wish to attain has scientific methods for its attainment already established? Want to increase your FTP? We know how to do that. Want to lose weight? We know how to do that. Usually there are several approaches, all supported by scientific studies. Pick an appealing one and go at it.
I would also like to offer another method for getting ideas which might work for training and diet: see what the largest number of top practitioners of your sport are doing. What do TdF riders eat? How do they train? What do most ultrarunners eat? How do they train? We may not be able to do what they do in terms of volume, but our dietary and training distribution can be similar. You know, there's always one runner who eats bacon, but what's at the aid stations? Piles of bacon or carbs? Did the bacon eater podium in Western States? IOW what's most likely to work for one individual is what has worked best for most folks. See my motto: "Most folks aren't idiots."
So if there's a person out there who says they get great results from some method which has been found by studies
not to produce said results, I figure that the person reporting the unusual results is probably unusual or is not actually doing what they say they are doing.
People would rather listen to podcasts or watch videos rather than read scientific studies because it's easy, brainless, and everyone loves them some hero worship. One picture is more powerful for many than a thousand words, see stills of UFOs, etc. And note your data-free photo of a runner. What's that about? I must say, his form is excellent, but you didn't mention that, just stuff about his diet. The diets of ultrarunners may be varied, perhaps their form not so much? See:
https://www.americansportandfitness....-ultra-runners
Or maybe not so much variation, eh? Piles of bacon or carbs?
I suppose I should mention that one of the greatest ultrarunners of all time, Scott Jurek, is a vegan and therefore a high-carb athlete, like most ultrarunners, ultracyclists, TdF riders, etc., etc. Might be something to consider when talking about experience.
And then see form:
https://ultrarunning.com/features/tr...cs-and-drills/
Not much variation in what works best, eh?