By thomas.wagner
•
29 Mar, 2020
A few thoughts (and maybe recommendations) about a number that seems to show up in three of my “passions”: 80 / 20 A ratio that might be relevant for three of my passions: coffee, hydrogeology and running long... 1) Coffee : 80 % bio arabica / 20 % bio robusta Right now, we do have some additional time to think about things in our live, we didn’t before. Not saying that I’m working any less hours. However, the home office actually demands a different work flow and required this week a sort of emergency order for coffee to keep me working. This is actually when the 80/20 ratio sort of appeared in all these three “disciplines”. I ordered four different coffees (250g each, whole beans) at a local roastery called “Paul&Bohne”: one was a 100 % arabica, one a 50/50 arabica/robusta, one 90% arabica, 10 % robusta and the final one, the “Lendblend” was a 80/20. And I must admit, I like the 80/20! A personal preference - nothing more, nothing less. 2) Hydrogeology : 80 % older, longer stored water / 20 % event water Currently, I’m working on a project about a soil substrate map of Styria (Austria) we try to complete somehow despite all the necessary measures necessary during COVID-19. But usually, my research focus is more on spring catchment characterization and there is a manuscript currently under review (“Active rock glaciers as shallow groundwater reservoirs, Austrian Alps”) that I check its status on a regular basis. Long story short: springs may react on recharge events differently. Some show basically very little fast response on event water and the spring hydrograph is rather dampened. Other springs, like many karst or rock glacier springs do show a much higher variability in spring discharge usually related to preferential flow paths. Interestingly, the percentage of event water (fast flowing through the aquifer after storm or snow melt events) in at least some of these catchments is ~20%, meaning that older, longer stored water (with usually higher mineralization) is ~80% of the runoff. This is definitely not a number that holds true for all spring catchments, but at least some I had the chance to study (Wagner et al. 2016, Winkler et al., 2016). 80/20, but others are more like 60/40, but basically never 100 % event water. However, during drought periods (or actually periods of no to very little recharge) spring flow or actually river runoff might be 100 % groundwater contribution… We might come back to this when there is time to think again about our climate crisis and not the COVID-19 anymore. Ideally, the latter might show that we can live with a little less (add here travel, meat, etc.) than we used to… 3) (Ultra-) Running : 80 % slow runs / 20 % high(er) intensity Just reading the German version of “Training for the Uphill Athlete – A manual for mountain runners and ski mountaineers” by Steve House, Kílian Jornet and Scott Johnston that I bought for Silke because she didn’t like to read the English version, there is an obvious focus on establishing an endurance base, meaning we all should have a good base built before even do the faster, high intensity stuff. If we did a good job in building this base, we need to keep the balance between the “slow” runs and the “intense” ones. And yes, this ratio is 80/20. When you think about what “polarized training” suggests (there is reasonably strong evidence that it is very beneficial for endurance athletes (Seiler, 2010) and potentially for recreational runners too (Munoz et al., 2014) to train that way), you should spend a lot of time (80 %) below your aerobic threshold (AeT), and only a 1/3 of the remaining time between AeT and lactate threshold (LT) and the other 2/3 remaining above LT. I must admit, I like the 80% but often have a hard time to push really hard during these 13% (or actually two high intensity sessions a week). So hopefully race season is coming soon again to get that percentage up again. So what should this 80/20 ratio tell you ? …definitely no “conclusion” here from my side, just simply an observation of me (coffee), myself (hydrogeology) and I (running long) that the ratio 80/20 might be a “good” one… ...maybe right now, all these "passions" do not really matter that much and we should all use 80% on " family time " and reduce intensity (unnecessary stress) in our lives in general to (below) 20%!? Fingers crossed we all will be out on the trails soon again, enjoying our coffee at a campsite, and not having work and hobby getting too close to each other as it is right now, where home & office is the same and it is hard to disconnect from work. Stay healthy and stay positive. And if this post did not make any sense to you, at least it might have distracted you a little from the current situation… Happy home and hopefully happy trails soon! Cheers, tom References: House, S., Jornet, K. and Johnston, S., 2019. Training for the Uphill Athlete – A manual for mountain runners and ski mountaineers. Patagonia Books, Ventura, United States. ISBN: 978-1-938340-84-0 Seiler, S., 2010. What is the best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 5(3): 276-291. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.5.3.276 Munoz,, I., Seiler, S., Bautista, J., Espana, J.m Larumbe, E., Esteve-Lanao, J., 2014. Does polarized training improve performance in recreational runners? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 9(2): 265-272. https://doi.org/10.1123/IJSPP.2012-0350 Paul & Bohne: https://paulundbohne.at/ accessed 25.03.2020. Wagner, T., Pauritsch, M., Winkler, G., 2016. Impact of relict rock glaciers on spring and stream flow of alpine watersheds: Examples of the Niedere Tauern Range, Eastern Alps (Austria). Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences 109(1), 84-98. https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2016.0006 Winkler, G., Wagner, T. Pauritsch, M., Birk, S., Kellerer-Pirklbauer, A., Benischke, R., Leis, A., Morawetz, R., Schreilechner, M.G., Hergarten, S., 2016. Identification and assessment of groundwater flow and storage components of the relict Schöneben Rock Glacier, Niedere Tauern Range, Eastern Alps (Austria). Hydrogeology Journal 24, 937-953. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-015-1348-9