Zach Bitter: 100-Mile World Record

Nov 17, 2020

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I welcome my old friend Zach Bitter to the show to talk about all things related to peak performance and endurance. Zach is the host of the Human Performance Outliers podcast and is definitely honoring the show title with his amazing ultrarunning performances. He is the world record holder at 100 miles with an astonishing time of 11 hours, 19 minutes, which equates to running 6 min, 48 seconds per mile all day long!

Go try running one mile at that pace, and then repeat 100 times! Zach also busted the world record for 100 miles on a treadmill, so don’t complain that you get “bored” after 42 minutes at the gym. Zach has also long been a leader in fat-adapted endurance training, having discovered that a nutrient-dense, low carbohydrate diet helps him recover faster and also gives him a performance edge during ultramarathon competitions because he doesn’t require as many on-board calories as when he was a high carb athlete.

Zach was a participant in the FASTER study (Fat Adapted Substrate utilization in Trained Elite Runners) where groundbreaking discoveries were made for the potential of humans to burn fat during exercise at a higher rate than previously thought possible. We get into a bit of science about athletic performance, but the best part of this episode is hearing about Zach’s methodical approach to peak performance and his evolved, process-oriented approach. He loves the challenge of ultrarunning, loves pushing the edges of human endurance performance, but has a healthy competitive disposition and strives to lead a balanced life.

Enjoy listening to this super informative show with Zach, and if you’re interested in connecting with him for coaching, check out his website here.

TIMESTAMPS:

Zach Bitter is a world record holding runner who ran 100 miles in 11 hours and 19 minutes. He’s going to talk about his training diet. [01:50]

As Zach got more serious about his ultramarathon training, he learned more about nutrition. [05:25]

Even a strong “healthy” young athlete has energy swings that are not good for him. [08:28]

There is not just one way to do this dietary journey. [10:31]

Look at the individual plan rather than the group plan for diet and training to see what is best for you. [14:59]

Zach uses his training as a school teacher in his coaching work. Treat people as individuals, not by throwing them into one group. [20:04]

What was happening in the sport of ultra-marathon in 2010 when Zach got into it? The sport has grown massively. [25:27]

Zach fills us in on his succession of breaking records with him amazing times. [31:11]

Running on a flat track, Zach was averaging 06:47:05 per mile when he broke the world record. [35:12]

If you have a bad race, don’t waste time with a pity party. Think about how to use that experience to help me improve for next time. [38:52]

In 2011, Zach started to examine his diet and wanted to see if he could enhance his diet to accommodate his difficult workouts. He talks about his race fueling strategies. [42:36]

Here in the year 2020, with so much sports nutrition information, we are still seeing many severe gastrointestinal problems in elite athletes. [51:26]

The diet transformation had a huge improvement in terms of his recovery. He had swollen ankles. [54:19]

Mike McKnight ran a hundred of miles with no calories. [01:03:37]

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