How Fast Could YOU Run With Wave Light Technology?

The more important question to ask is how much faster would Bekele, Gebrselassie, Komen, and Tergat been with wavelight technology.

The predicted pace would have to be amazingly accurate for it to be any use. Either I'd keep up easily, or it would outpace me. I don't know within a few seconds what pace I can maintain.

But as long as we're using technical assistance, my invention of several years ago (electric horse whip) should be allowed too. A small battery-powered shock device to make you run faster by inducing pain and thus purifying hate.

Bad Wigins wrote:

The predicted pace would have to be amazingly accurate for it to be any use. Either I'd keep up easily, or it would outpace me. I don't know within a few seconds what pace I can maintain.

But as long as we're using technical assistance, my invention of several years ago (electric horse whip) should be allowed too. A small battery-powered shock device to make you run faster by inducing pain and thus purifying hate.

Your invention would have limited efficacy, and likely none at all. Relaxation matters more than being the angriest one in the race, although again it might help minimally in certain scenarios.

It is for the homestretch, as with horses. Nobody's relaxed there, they are straining and hating.

Interesting the wavelight didn't help Beatrice or Ramsden or McSweyn or anyone else... you gotta be fit.

Bad Wigins wrote:

It is for the homestretch, as with horses. Nobody's relaxed there, they are straining and hating.

What if, instead of a wave light, it were some sort of projection screen of your mortal enemy, just barely outpacing you. Would it inspire new levels of hate, and propel you to speeds that were never possible without that kind of artificial hating aid?

Jammier wrote:

Those of you who whine about these lights should ask yourself, are you just a bit of wave light technology from being world class...national class....state champion? Local Turkey Trot runner up? Wave light technology is NOT the reason The Chepster is so much faster than you. Tremendous talent, HARD work, drive and PEDs are the difference. Ask yourself, how much faster would you be/have been with wave light technology? The true answer is likely not much.

My pr is 15:45 with even pacing and my workouts I say 15:15-29 or faster honestly

Depends on if your good at pacing, if you can run every lap within a half a second of the last lap, you have little to gain.

Think It was in some interview where cheptegei said he wasn't paying attention to the lights or he couldn't even see them well , whereas Gidey was noticeably staring at it couple times , however i dont think the help is so much as the gap they've created form the previous WR. People are just so jealous its ridiculous

westsouthrunner wrote:

Jammier wrote:

Those of you who whine about these lights should ask yourself, are you just a bit of wave light technology from being world class...national class....state champion? Local Turkey Trot runner up? Wave light technology is NOT the reason The Chepster is so much faster than you. Tremendous talent, HARD work, drive and PEDs are the difference. Ask yourself, how much faster would you be/have been with wave light technology? The true answer is likely not much.

My pr is 15:45 with even pacing and my workouts I say 15:15-29 or faster honestly

You must be terrible at pacing yourself.

Bad Wiggins is right. The technology is useless if you do not know exactly what shape you're in. Telling a meet organizer to set the wavelight at 62.9 seconds per lap only helps if the runner can actually run 26:11. If you're a 15:45 guy and want to run 15:15, you can have wavelight set to 73.x per lap, but can you keep up with it? Wanting to run a time with even splits is different from being in shape to do it.

I would run the same pace. The lights help the pacers and the fans. But the best runners know how to pace themselves.

It's also a red-herring... remember during sub-2 the major emphasis was on the pace car clock tower as providing this massive advantage... then that was debunked... then it was the green laser pace line, and that proved to be futile as Kipchoge fell off pace.. then it was the v-formation for drafting, which ended up being incorrect and they inverted the formation for the INEOS 159 run... these are all gimmicks, toys, and games. And all for the bottom line, ENTERNTAINMENT. I actually think the WaveLight technology is limiting. Imagine if Daniel Komen would have followed such a light in his prime instead of his "suicidal" pacer? The lights are set by modern day human limits and could prevent a Beamonesque performance. Who's to say Cheptegei could not have run sub-26:00 if he just ignored the light and ran on feel like he did in his Monaco 5K breakthrough?

Bad Wigins wrote:

The predicted pace would have to be amazingly accurate for it to be any use. Either I'd keep up easily, or it would outpace me. I don't know within a few seconds what pace I can maintain.

You could actually know if you wanted to. There are quite a few sophisticated mathematical models, including but not limited to power-duration curve, there are devices that collect all the data from your runs and software that does number-crunching. And it's not even exclusive to elites, quite the contrary: this kind of stuff is mostly popular among amateur runners in their 30s-40s who have some disposable income.

Of course it's mostly done for the love of number-crunching and has limited use for the running itself. The main reason is that real conditions on race day can be quite unpredictable and your model can just fly out the window. However if this is a track race, wind and elevation changes are of no concern, temperature is an input for your updated model, and the pacing lights can all but negate the psychological factors which might otherwise cause the athlete to make pacing mistakes. Basically the lights are making your real track race as close to the abstract model as possible, perhaps even closer than treadmill.

I just think it’s cool the sport is finally bringing back pacing lights after so many decades. The ITA had so many great ideas that were squashed by the keepers of amateurism

Good training = good pacing wrote:

I would run the same pace. The lights help the pacers and the fans. But the best runners know how to pace themselves.

And yet how many WR attempts have had pretty horrible pacing jobs? This definitely would have been cool in HS when we used to go out way too fast and do things like 4:45/5:05. But part of that was our belief in that we were about to go from being a 9:50 runner to a 9:30 one. And to be fair to us, that is how we went from 10:20 to 9:50 in one race:)

Anyone who is against light wave should also be against any pacers period. On top of that. if you're ahead of pace like Cheptegei, you don't see them anyway. Paces, providing both pace and plowing through the air, provide far more benefit than lights that were designed for fans to stay involved...

DC Wonk wrote:

Anyone who is against light wave should also be against any pacers period. On top of that. if you're ahead of pace like Cheptegei, you don't see them anyway. Paces, providing both pace and plowing through the air, provide far more benefit than lights that were designed for fans to stay involved...

in the 5,000m yes he was ahead the last part. in the 10,000m, the blue light was ahead of him the entire race except last lap. Anyone with slight peripheral vision would see them.

Yes he could just be an amazing consistent runner but when you compare his km splits to Bekele's, hard not to think there was something helping Cheptegei have such even splits

It's unfortunate that my first reaction to the news of the 10k WR was, "oh they had the wavelight again." However, after watching both 5ks and 10k world records, I was inspired and pretty excited (slowly accepting the shoes aren't going anywhere) - similar to how Ms. O'Sullivan was expressing during one of the broadcasts. I think there'll be some pretty exciting (non championship) races in the future as we won't have to worry about really really sh*tty pacers. I'm all for the wavelight as it'll bring us closer to true human potential (shoes and doping notwithstanding).

To answer the question, I pretty much train/time trial that way (don't ask), so I'm able to run the same slow results like I've always done.