Good question because I have found the paper I had misremembered and it’s that the top chimp is way more stressed because no one wants to be number 2 but everyone wants to be number 1.
stronger than diminishing returns - negative returns
Depression
Four reviews42 44 57 58 presented analyses by weekly session duration (68 component RCTs, >5016 participants, online supplemental eFigure 12). The median SMD for ≤150 min/week and >150 min/week was –0.58 (IQR=–0.77 to –0.30) and –0.29 (IQR=–0.40 to –0.07), respectively.
Anxiety
One review58 provided analyses by weekly session duration (17 component RCTs, online supplemental eFigure 13). The median SMDs for <150 min/week and ≥150 min/week were –1.23 and –0.99, respectively.
I am inclined to agree with them. Things really started looking up for me when I was doing about 90 minutes of one exercise and 2-3 hours a week of a second.
I definitely got the impression that this was working better than when I rode 15-25 hours a week, and there were definite diminishing returns with walking for distance. Not unlike how the first few bites of a candy bar are most of your experience and then at the end you’re mostly just finishing it. After the second or third bite it’s all downhill.
15-25 hours a week? What the heck were you doing? The cumulative fatigue had to be insane, and if you were chasing a goal, it'd be easy for that to get in your head.
For me I find ~3 hours a week are what I need to feel good. As things ramp up (like they tend to in the summer) I tend to need those big rides, but if I do have to back off (say, winter) then as long as I don't go below an hour every other day, I'm good.
I get that, but that's like 3-5 hour days most of the day of the week. I ride a lot myself, but those numbers would start interfering with normal life stuff for me.
More like 10-14 hours on the weekend and 90 minutes a couple of weeknights (plus prep time, like riding across town to meet your club).
"Bicycle widows" is the term for spouses of cyclists who disappear at 7 am on weekends and don't reappear until after 1 pm, at which point they're stinky and exhausted, so they're useless until about 3 pm.
The thing with casual cyclists of a certain age (my club's demographic) is that they like to eat long lunches. So you might be making a respectable 16 mph for hours at a time and then a trip to a diner tanks your average mph. Club riders tend to go for distance, not speed. On a good day those guys would average 11+ mph door to door. Most days was closer to 10.
If you're prepping for a century, I believe the protocol we used for new cyclists was to ride more than 75% of the target distance on the previous Saturday and more than 65% miles on Sunday. And a lot of that is just ensuring your body can handle the amount of friction you're going to deal with in 100 miles. If it was just the serious members, it was more like 80/70. You're likely going to go slower on day 2, so however long it takes you to do 80 miles, it takes about that long to do 70 the next day.
I would not suggest anyone try to go much more than 100 miles (my longest day was 112, and my dad went out after to round up to 115). After I went to college my dad got into 24 hour challenges, which seemed properly nuts to me, and it turns out actually is. Ultra-endurance athletes can damage their heart, leading to atrial fibrillation, which he got. He's been living post-stroke for about 8 years now. He was volunteering some place and was fortunate the guy standing behind him when he went down was a retired EMT.
If someone finds the book helpful, it is helpful. No need to call it a meme if it does not cite studies. It is strictly a personal decision to read the book and use the system.
i'm kind of in agreement - i think there's an extraordinarily strong nocebo effect and dearth of belief in agency after being diagnosed with something like that. At the same time, nearly all treatments are effectively worthless. so what's even the benefit? at the same time, I do believe mental health issues partially exist to signal to the tribe that something is wrong with that member and it's a call for help. so there should be some way to triage and provide support. but idk if our current transactional system that exists to pay pharma is good
