**** Official Rio Olympics Thread****

[eDave]

Opening Ceremony is Fri, Aug 5.

Website sucks so bad: https://www.rio2016.com/en

Schedule of events: http://www.nbcolympics.com/full-schedule

[alnorth]

Out of curiosity while researching the limits of human endurance, I came across the 24-hour ultramarathon.

If you think the marathon is for pussies, then many places hold events where they have you run around a course for a full 24 hours, (stopping anytime you need to for the bathroom or to rest/eat/drink) and you see how much distance you can cover.

Forget the elite athletes, routine ordinary people who have sufficiently put in the work and time and training to prepare for a 24 hour ultramarathon can usually cover well over 100 miles. Over 100 miles?!? That is ****ing shocking. Wow. But its well documented, that >100 miles seems to be no big deal in an ultramarathon.

Your feet and ankles are going to be messed up by pushing yourself that long, but if you are starving and desperate for food, then as a prehistoric high-endurance human you can probably do it if you have to. If you look up whether an animal can run over 100 miles a day in a hot climate, other than humans and a couple other creatures, the answer is no, not even close, they can't. Thats how we were able to get all our protein and evolved long ago, we became the plains running ape.

edit: from what I can find the human 100 mile record is 11:28:03, not even half a day.

[RobBlake]

Lol think so huh.

[threebag]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Out of curiosity while researching the limits of human endurance

edit: from what I can find the human 100 mile record is 11:28:03, not even half a day.

That is a mind blowing achievement

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

Humans do two things very very well. Throw with accuracy and power and extremely high endurance.



Stronger apes can't throw with any power approaching a normal human not to mention being accurate with a throw. We also can run at a pretty quick pace for far longer than many animals and we recover quicker.

Originally Posted by alnorth

Yah, the endurance part is an enormous part of human potential. Most of us domesticated couch potatoes do not have the endurance potential of our species, and a ton of animals can get away from us over short distances, but Humans can, eventually given enough time, run down almost anything. As long as we know where the animal went, humans can even run down and kill a horse. If you are a land creature who can't fly, then the only defense against a high-endurance human who is hunting you, assuming you can't survive a confrontation, is to misdirect the human or hide.

edit: I looked it up, and there may be a few animals I'm leaving out, but the only animals we pretty much know for sure can outlast a human in endurance to the point where we'll never catch them are antilopes and ostriches. A human hunting those two creatures would have to ambush them.

Originally Posted by alnorth

Read on this a bit more, and apparently environment matters too. We are still amazing in cold weather, but in cold weather several more animals (including sled dogs and wolves) have a good chance to outlast us. In hot weather, almost no land animal other than antilopes, ostriches, and maybe a couple other creatures have any hope of outrunning a human.

The reason is we have a freaking absurd number of sweat glands, far more than most animals, keeping us cool while we run (on top of our high endurance). Other animals with high endurance eventually overheat and just can't run anymore without passing out. We evolved to run down prey, not in short bursts, but eventually on a grassy plain where there's nowhere to hide.

Originally Posted by alnorth

Out of curiosity while researching the limits of human endurance, I came across the 24-hour ultramarathon.

If you think the marathon is for pussies, then many places hold events where they have you run around a course for a full 24 hours, (stopping anytime you need to for the bathroom or to rest/eat/drink) and you see how much distance you can cover.

Forget the elite athletes, routine ordinary people who have sufficiently put in the work and time and training to prepare for a 24 hour ultramarathon can usually cover well over 100 miles. Over 100 miles?!? That is ****ing shocking. Wow. But its well documented, that >100 miles seems to be no big deal in an ultramarathon.

Your feet and ankles are going to be messed up by pushing yourself that long, but if you are starving and desperate for food, then as a prehistoric high-endurance human you can probably do it if you have to. If you look up whether an animal can run over 100 miles a day in a hot climate, other than humans and a couple other creatures, the answer is no, not even close, they can't. Thats how we were able to get all our protein and evolved long ago, we became the plains running ape.

edit: from what I can find the human 100 mile record is 11:28:03, not even half a day.

Interesting stuff here. Thank you.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

There's a pretty wide array of body types among female gymnasts this year. We've got the 41 year-old Uzbek, which is amazing, little tiny Chinese who cannot possibly be the age they claim, and some Swiss woman who's built like a fullback.

But that Swiss gymnast was very pretty. I was disappointed when they zoomed away from her face.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I don't have much sympathy for Gatlin after he got popped for steroids. A guy I do feel sympathy for is Lochte, who, if not for Phelps, is probably considered the second best swimmer in American history at worst.

I can never feel sympathy for someone with hair like that.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by threebag02

That is a mind blowing achievement

I've run some races where there was a 50-mile event starting right before mine. Nothing is less impressive than the start of these ultra races, and nothing is more impressive than the end.

[SAUTO]

Sucks,felix lost in a dive at the finish.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

Sucks,felix lost in a dive at the finish.

Arrow2 is in love with her. So knowing that he's heartbroken at the moment offers some relief.

[KChiefs1]

Can the men divers have any smaller speedos?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Renegade]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I've run some races where there was a 50-mile event starting right before mine. Nothing is less impressive than the start of these ultra races, and nothing is more impressive than the end.

I found the Women's "Marathon" 10K swimming race more than can I imagine. 6 miles of swimming is absurd

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

Sucks,felix lost in a dive at the finish.

That is the first time I've ever seen that work ever. And I've seen a lot of fools try.

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Can the men divers have any smaller speedos?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They could roll out the banana hammocks.

It is good to see the commie ruskies and chinese struggle in the wind.

[Buehler445]

LOL That Brazilian volleyball dude needs some sunscreen.

[WhawhaWhat]

2 fixed Russian boxing matches today. Russian heavyweight got destroyed yet still won his gold medal match by unanimous decision. He ended up getting booed off the podium.

[MahiMike]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Boxing on NBCSN.

I had nearly forgotten about this as an Olympic sport. It's almost an afterthought now. Sad.

I was excited until all the rigged judging going on and I remembered why it went away.