Are taller runners more adversely affected by a headwind?

The bigger runner can't dissipate heat as well as the smaller one because of less surface area to weight. But the bigger runner is more affected by wind resistance? More surface area should increase cooling but its negligable because weight is a bigger factor than wind resistance.

A better explanation for Radcliffe at Athens during the summer is poor preparation and failure to acclimate to the hot weather.

Umm this is a serious relevant question since most of us are tall runners (> 5'9) for men.

mofarah44 wrote:

This post remains? I created posts with serious relevant questions and BOM deleted. But this remains?

Relative to the rest of the field, shorter, lighter runners are more adversely affected by wind. It's pretty simple physics really.

bartholomew_maxwell wrote:

Umm this is a serious relevant question since most of us are tall runners (> 5'9) for men.

mofarah44 wrote:

This post remains? I created posts with serious relevant questions and BOM deleted. But this remains?

It is not relevant because it's all in your mind.

Taller people aren't, but fat people are. It was amazing how much wind affected me when I was FAT before losing weight and getting skinny.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

3) Running is just one part of an Ironman. Tall athletes have advantages in cycling (except very hilly courses) and in swimming (massive advantage, generate a lot more power), which combined account for like 70% of an Ironman. The male 1500m swim world record holders are all between 6'4" and 6'7".

Yes....the 180km cycling segment is time trial mode, which benefits the big guys

the wind might cool down a taller runner only slightly less but it's still favorable to have cold slightly windy conditions if you're tall and muscular. Basically the reason why someone like that usually competes at 800m or less is because they'd overheat even if they were fit enough to keep up. in cold conditions the tables are turned and more massive runners have better ability to stay warm.

Yousewhat? wrote:

A better explanation for Radcliffe at Athens during the summer is poor preparation and failure to acclimate to the hot weather.

lolwut? From what I remember she was passing every bit of food through her and severely injured yet tried to run. I don't think it was much to do with heat or preparation, in fact the one thing you can't say is poor preparation IMO anyway... if anything she over-prepared for races in an attempt to get everything perfectly right.

Throw a golf ball and a ping pong ball against a headwind, and you find out that the lighter has a disadvantage.

okay but to really answer the question we should construct a tall golf ball.

runnER/DR wrote:

Being tall is a huge disadvantage for a distance runner and it's far worse when it's windy.

Air resistance has much bigger impact in cycling. But usually big guys win time trial events. Why? Because your strength grows also with your height and weight. So your area is like height^2, but the force you produce is up to height^3 (less, actually, but more than ^2).

In the mountains bigger guys loose, because weight = height^3, and it is the main factor for climbing.

Loppas wrote:

Throw a golf ball and a ping pong ball against a headwind, and you find out that the lighter has a disadvantage.

This must be why all distance records are held by stocky lard-aszed runners.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Longer strides yes, but you forget that tall athletes require a lot more power output for their steps since they are heavier and move a lot more mass.

Put on a Stryd powermeter on the 6'2" guy and the 6'0" guy (or take an even shorter one so the difference becomes even more obvious). The tall guy with long legs and longer strides will produce a good amount more power/watt than the shorter runners. But he also requires more energy to do so, and he pounds his body more.

On hills the power-to-weight ratio matters even more - the tall guy will still produce more raw watt and per step, but the shorter, faster runners will be faster and produce more watt/kg (or watt/lbs if using that).

Hills would be the best analog here that people don’t seems to understand.

For those who don’t seem to understand.

Two cars with equal coefficient of drag. One has a higher weight to power ratio than the other, it wins. Two cars where one has a higher W/P ratio but a lower Cd has to work harder to gain more speed the faster it goes in relation to its competition due to the forces of air resistance.

What goes faster with the same wind. A sailboat with only a single mainsail, or another sailboat with an equally slippery hull and an equal sized mainsail, a jib, and a spinnaker?

Two runners of similar fitness but one is taller with a larger frontal area and thus higher Cd will have to put out more watts per increase in pace than a smaller runner. In conditions where the wind is nominal it won’t make a huge difference but when you increase wind speed by introducing a headwind above 15mph or so then the difference probably becomes noticeable. The smaller runner will have to make less of an extra effort to maintain or increase pace into a headwind than the taller runner.

Why do you think they were trying to maximize the arrangement of the pacers for EK’s sub-2 events? Even though he’s small air resistance makes a difference. Why is drafting a thing in running if air resistance doesn’t mean anything?

Yousewhat? wrote:

Weight is more of a factor than surface area. A short 115lb runner is going to be more affected than a 6'2" 160lb one.

Incorrect. Physics wasn’t your stronghold was it?

Thanks for the link to the study. Can you explain this thanks?

https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20191212064230176-0479:S2513843X19000136:S2513843X19000136_fig1.png?pub-status=live

grammatical toilet explosion wrote:

Yousewhat? wrote:

A better explanation for Radcliffe at Athens during the summer is poor preparation and failure to acclimate to the hot weather.

lolwut? From what I remember she was passing every bit of food through her and severely injured yet tried to run. I don't think it was much to do with heat or preparation, in fact the one thing you can't say is poor preparation IMO anyway... if anything she over-prepared for races in an attempt to get everything perfectly right.

Yes, thats pretty much my understanding.

Anti inflams to treat the leg injury leading to stomach probs so underfuelled would be a large part of it. Being tall I can't believe the heat didn't affect her a little more than the competition but she was well prepared for that so I doubt it was the main problem.

Yes, definitely.

Yes. Taller people with a bigger cross sectional area will have more contribution of their power going to overcome air resistance. Should be assumed we’re talking comparing a taller runner to a shorter running with smaller cross section and CdA running in the exact same conditions.