jsx wrote:
racer1 you seem to have a lot of knowlege and you proably coach sprinters but not sure you have correct distance knowledge.
How so? What about the above is unsound distance running approach?
A distance runner, to a small degree, needs to TRAIN LIKE A SPRINTER. Below is what I remember to be the energy contributions of races from 100m-marathon:
100m- 100% anaerobic/0% aerobic
200m- 95% anaerobic/5% aerobic
400m- 90% anaerobic/10% aerobic
800m- 60-75% anaerobic/25-40% aerobic
1500m/Mile- 50% anaerobic/50% aerobic
3,000m- 60% aerobic/40% anaerobic
5,000m- 80% aerobic/20% anaerobic
10,000m- 96% aerobic/4% anaerobic
Marathon- 99% aerobic/1% anaerobic (Kellogg says elites can mete out a tiny oxygen deficit in the last 4-6 miles)
So, if you are running 800m-5000m, between 20-75% of your race is dependent on anaerobically generated energy. This is different, of course, then speed, but the best athletes are able to, for all intents and purposes, make VERY FAST PACES turn into predominantly AEROBIC efforts.
How is this done? Of course, primarily from the normal training associated with aerobic development; long runs, time spent at critical aerobic speeds (lactate threshold velocity, velocity at VO2 max, tlimVO2 max, every other term Veronique Billat uses for VO2 max, the different speeds and paces Jack Daniels uses, etc.).
But the rest is speed development. Renato said it himself; a faster athlete has a bigger margin to run fast.
If Bekele can run about 11.5 in the 100 (based of 4 straight 12.5 100's for a 50 400), he has a bigger margin than Kennedy who can run 12 for 100 (maybe, based off 4 straight 13's).
For Bekele, running 50 consecutive 15 second 100m is
11.5/15= 76.7% top speed
For Kennedy:
12/15= 80% top speed.
A big, big difference again.
At this level, tiny increments and percentage differences are HUGE.
Bekele at 15 seconds per 100 is MUCH more relaxed and steady that Kennedy. He has developed his aerobic endurance to such an extent that he can hold a pace slowing up only a little from his best 400 for much longer distances.
Using the above times, with Bekele 0.50 seconds faster in a 100m hypothetical race against Kennedy, the difference becomes at 5000m:
50 100m segments * (0.50 seconds/100m segment)=
25 seconds
That is, Kennedy should lose 25 seconds to Bekele over 5,000m.
Of course, he loses only 20.86 (12:58.21 vs. 12:37.35) because of his superior speed.
But had he been only slightly faster, he would have seen enormous gains.
I just watched recently his American Record run in Zurich 1996.
Passing through 3,000 in 7:44, he was dying. 62 second pace was very, very FAST for him even from a biomechanical standpoint. He was gutting it out, and the pace was really a struggle. I say, at least for that race, he wrung everything out of himself with incredible pain tolerance.
Komen, on the other hand, was a style of contrast. HE tossed in a 58 second lap from 3000 to 3400. He was always relaxed and always looked like he could shift gears. He had better basic speed, so he could choose to shift speeds if he wanted. Kennedy could not move his legs much faster.
That is the difference at the top level.