quadraticformula wrote:
Watching the Berlin marathon, a thought occurred to me that has many times before - when I see elite runners at the end of races, many of them show no visible stress as they are finishing, don't seem to be breathing very hard, and continue to jog around afterwards, as if it were more of a tempo run than an all-out race.
It seems to me, wouldn't they be able to run faster if they "pushed" more? Obviously you don't want to push so hard your form goes haywire, but it seems there's a lot of room for more here!
It may sound overly obvious, but the reason they're not struggling because they're trained harder than anyone else and have more talent than anyone else. Those two factors are also the reason, they're leading.
Also, elites often don't have to run to the absolute maximum of their capability. They only have to run faster than anyone else there that day. Often (but not always) this leaves them below their torture point. They also train beyond what it takes to perform on race day, unlike most of us, who do the minimum to achieve some hobby jogger goal we have.
Exceptions would be if they're trying to break a world record or are in a foot race with someone equal to them at the finish. Often times they'll look like they're suffering in that instance, but less than we would due to the adrenaline of such a special moment, and their training.