Primo Numero Uno wrote:
rojo wrote:
From Amby Burfoot's most recent column.
https://www.podiumrunner.com/culture/run-long-run-healthy-weekly-roundup-february-10-2022/How Kenyan runners train
Kenyan distance runners train hard and race fast. We all know that. Apparently, they also have a high incidence of Achilles tendon injury—13.9%. I was more interested in the training data since we rarely see hard data of this sort from Kenya. Runners “in high altitude training camps” ran an average of 170 km/week (about 106 miles). They had an average pace of 8:07 per mile, which means the men likely ran at about 7:40 pace and the women at 8:30 pace. That’s at altitude of course, but amazingly slower than their race paces. More at African J for Physical Activity & Health Sciences.
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.37597/ajphes.2021.27.4.8I've known quite a few Kenyan runners and never known a single one to have an Achilles injury. I can't think of any top Kenyan's who had an Achilles injury. By that I mean something serious, not something that required a few days to a couple of weeks of rest to heal. That data just doesn't pass the smell test claiming the incidence of Achilles tendon injury is 1 in 7 Kenyan runners. Seems very high to me.
Survivor bias...