look it up wrote:
oh please wrote:Nice idea Rojo, but wrong approach. You can't use absolute differences. You must use percentage of difference. 40s to a pro is a lot more than 40s to a chump.
Can you elaborate on this? I was thinking something similar- That the difficulty of making improvements in performance increases exponentially as the runner approaches WR pace. Like 3:40 dropping to 3:11 might actually be easier than 2:12 to 2:09. Maybe a lot easier, given my non-quantitative impressions. So I guess I'm trying to make the counterargument that Rossi doing what he claims to have done wouldn't be as incredible as a 1:49 marathon. Not sure how to phrase it though.
Percentage change is one way. 3:43 to 3:11 is a xx.x% change. How? Convert to seconds: 13,380 seconds to 11,460 seconds. Difference of 1,920 seconds, or 14.3% lower than previous PR.
This is akin to a 2:10 runner running 1:51:24 or thereabout if they improved 14.3% (I've had multiple drinks tonight and may be a little off).