Indoor track stagger formula

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15 years ago 01/14/2009 10:23am EST

Ok, so I work out on an indoor track that does not allow for running in lane 1, and am looking to run some distances of greater than 300m (the longest distance that has staggers. I have made the following assumptions about track staggers - are they correct?

Basically I assume that all staggers are in increments of 'one stagger unit' which would be the stagger you have in lane 2 for 1 turn (1 turn run 1 lane outside of the first lane).

If, for example, I wanted to run 500m (5 turns) in lane 4, I think it would be 15 'stagger units' (3 lanes outside of 1, 5 turns). So I should be able to start flush with the 300m stagger in lane 6 which is also 15 'stagger units' (5 lanes outside of 1, 3 turns).

Is there anything wrong with this analysis?

Thanks guys.

15 years ago 01/14/2009 12:31pm EST

re: lap savant

15 years ago 01/14/2009 1:01pm EST

re: banked track

This is a great site! It doesn't explicitly show how to use staggers though...anyone else have any thoughts?

15 years ago 01/14/2009 1:05pm EST

re: lap savant

it appears that way because the radii of the lanes are close enough....but as you get wider and wider radii, your so called "stagger unit" gets smaller and smaller....think about an infinite number of concentric lanes...in the outer lanes...with infinite radii, they'd be straight, and thus you'd be starting side by side....so there you have it

do some math and you can figure it out....its quite simple math.....figure out the turn circumference by where the 60m or 150m start line is, then measure the lane width and go from there

15 years ago 01/14/2009 1:36pm EST

re: uh_no

Thanks! I see your point, basically 2*pi*lane*number of laps = the stagger - right?

15 years ago 01/14/2009 2:29pm EST

re: uh_no

uh_no wrote:
it appears that way because the radii of the lanes are close enough....but as you get wider and wider radii, your so called "stagger unit" gets smaller and smaller....think about an infinite number of concentric lanes...in the outer lanes...with infinite radii, they'd be straight, and thus you'd be starting side by side....so there you have it
do some math ...

(this math assumes a circular track, but it disproves this assertion regardless)

C=pi*D

In your situation, D would increase by the same increment no matter if you were going from lane 1 to 2 or 200,000 to 200,001 (you are still increasing D by whatever the width of one lane is).

So then no matter what, you are increasing the circumference of each lane by pi*[width of lane], regardless of which 2 lanes you are talking about.

The increase in circumference is "made up" by the stagger, so since you have a constant increase in circumference, you have a constant stagger in each lane, meaning no straight starts in lane infinity.

QED

15 years ago 01/14/2009 2:43pm EST

re: migo

There is one other factor to consider. According to IAAF (I may not have the specifics just right here) the distance around a track in any given lane is to be measured 8 inches off the line. However, in a lane with curbing, it is 12 inches. So, the stagger unit from lane 1 to 2 will be an outlier relative to the others. This is all if the track has, or was designed to have, curbing.

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