Have you guys seen the latest from Alex Hutchinson?
Outside wrote:
During the testing phase, another Nike-sponsored elite runner ran two one-mile time trials, one with her current racing kit and the other wearing the new speedsuit and running behind pacemakers in the planned drafting formation. She was three percent faster in the latter case, giving Nike’s scientists confidence that Kipyegon could dip under four.
So does this just mean Faith isn't in the same shape she was when she ran the WR? Or was there something wrong with the test?
I suspect whatever you do there are eventually physiological "bottlenecks" that limit the amount of improvement.
So with a sprinter it might turnover (so whatever you do the legs will only move so fast) or limits to the ground force that can be produce without tearing something.
I doubt it is a simple as shoes = x faster; speedsuit = y faster; and pacers = z faster, so x + y + z = target time.
The 3% improver was probably nowhere near her ultimate potential as was Kipyegon when she ran her world-record.
All of that said, had they targeted it yesterday, somewhere between 4:04 to 4:05 would have been possible. As it was she hit 1200m far quicker than any women previously, and her talent and guts meant that she just slowed rather than dying completely, which I feared, and would certainly not have been a shock.
Hutchinson is a grifter. He writes in the article that she was at 3:01.8 for 1200 meters, on pace for a 4:03 mile. That is absolutely not true. For a 'science guy' that is a fundamental misreading. He also claims she was on pace for 1400 meters. Again, not true.
These are her rough 440, 880 and 1320 splits: 60.5 2:01.4 3:02.9 If you're under 3:03 3/4 of the way, you can say she was on pace for a 4:03 mile even though she was slowing down and not going to get it.
But this is total bs:
Alex Hutchinson wrote:
Missing by six seconds sounds like a long way, but another way of looking at it is that she was very close to being on pace for 1,400 of the 1,609 meters.
She wasn't close at all at 1400m to the pace. She didn't run a SINGLE 200m stretch of the race at the pace required to go sub 4.
If you're on 4:03 pace at 3/4 of the way, and slowing down, you're not close at all to being on pace roughly 200m later.
But the layman watched yesterday just wondering if she could kick it home and get the record.
The whole thing was dumb, why were there 25 pacers some being 30m behind her?
Why run in a 90% empty massive stadium on a Thursday in humid France?
I think she can do 4:03, 3 male pacer, small stadium, let the fans down to lane 3, DJ, and more realistic pacing.
Go out a little slower, and save a close coming home.
They should do it on a track like Franklin Field (or add temporary Lanes 0 & -1 to the inside of a standard track) so that pacers could form a complete aero envelope like Kipchoge had. Especially on the turns, she was partially out in static air.
Also, they could measure and set up the rail a little further out than usual, to create 4 even laps of 402.25 meters. It would be nearly imperceptible to her physically, but mentally it could be a lot easier for executing a split plan.
The speed suit just sped up her body overheating. That is why she slowed down so much the 4th lap. Maybe it would work if the temperature had been 50F.
The speed suit just sped up her body overheating. That is why she slowed down so much the 4th lap. Maybe it would work if the temperature had been 50F.
I hope this was intended to be a joke? I don't think it's possible to be that dumb.
The speed suit just sped up her body overheating. That is why she slowed down so much the 4th lap. Maybe it would work if the temperature had been 50F.
I hope this was intended to be a joke? I don't think it's possible to be that dumb.
Her body was 70% covered in fabric, arms and hands included. That fabric will retain heat. Simple thermodynamics. Normally in a race she would be a jogbra and tiny shorts with 1" inseam.
It is a very dubious claim that this suit would affect aerodynamics at any meaningful level.
Ask yourself if you would cover 70% of your body in tight fabric for an all out race on a warm day and expect a performance improvement.
Could it be this mystery runner benefited more from the special bra than Faith did because the mystery runner is built differently? But I can't believe 3% could be due to the bra alone.
Hutchinson is a grifter. He writes in the article that she was at 3:01.8 for 1200 meters, on pace for a 4:03 mile. That is absolutely not true. For a 'science guy' that is a fundamental misreading. He also claims she was on pace for 1400 meters. Again, not true.
Here 1200 split was 3:01.8 and that is 4:03.8 pace. It was clear to me with 500 to go she wasn't getting it but what he wrote about the 1200 is factually correct.
You can't take one piece of tech out of context. It's like super shoes. Not everybody responds the same. & not everybody is going to get the proper boost if something, like pacing, is slightly off. She could've run 4:03-4:04 with even pacing but that wasn't the goal time. That would've shown that kind of improvement.
The whole thing was dumb, why were there 25 pacers some being 30m behind her?
Why run in a 90% empty massive stadium on a Thursday in humid France?
I think she can do 4:03, 3 male pacer, small stadium, let the fans down to lane 3, DJ, and more realistic pacing.
Go out a little slower, and save a close coming home.
The point of the long line of pacers behind her was to delay when the air streams flowing around her rejoin one another. When a runner is running alone, the merging of the air streams behind them creates a zone of lower pressure that "sucks" them backwards. It's a very small effect, much smaller than sticking behind someone, but it does mean that having a trailing runner behind you is slightly advantageous versus having no one behind.
Thinking more about it, I wonder to what degree the drafting simulations were just flawed. All the published research on running drafting assumes "static" runners, whose arms/legs are not moving. With Faith being so much smaller than the huge guys in front of her in the "shield," I'm wondering if their arms and legs actually created a lot of turbulence for her that did not show up in the simulation.
I agree. That's all hypothetical, based on wind tunnel experiments and computer modelling, but in the real world situation of a race with unpredictable wind currents on a curved track in a stadium, with runners of different sizes there are just too many variables.
She looked exhausted and strained the whole time, not smooth at all. I don't really blame her, lot of hype and pressure to perform, just didn't seem like her day. That being said, I don't think she gets and faster than 4:03.xx
She look horribly nervous at the start. Even for a pro that must have a negative effect. And maybe she slept badly the night before or even more, given the unusual pressure. I doubt Nike middle managers are the most empathetic, comforting people either. This was a rough deal for her.
She looked exhausted and strained the whole time, not smooth at all. I don't really blame her, lot of hype and pressure to perform, just didn't seem like her day. That being said, I don't think she gets and faster than 4:03.xx
She look horribly nervous at the start. Even for a pro that must have a negative effect. And maybe she slept badly the night before or even more, given the unusual pressure. I doubt Nike middle managers are the most empathetic, comforting people either. This was a rough deal for her.