Today I was on the track, and was dealing w/ a somewhat stout headwind of 15-20 mph. Of course, on the other side of the track, I got the benefit of a tailwind.
Question: I was doing some easy marathon effort intervals today before my Sunday race. The ints. were @ 6:24 mile. Is this an accurate reading of my pace (in other words, does headwind and tailwind cancel each other out making it = to no wind whatsoever)? If not, how much off would the pace be?
No, it doesn't "cancel" itself out. The tailwing "gives" you about 30% less advantage than the headwind takes away from you. It's because when you run with tailwind, it has to be very strong to feel huge benefit (unless you weight next to nothing- aka 0-1g), but with headwind and resistance of air you produce while running (the faster you run, the greater the resistance), you lose much more. So, on a windy day, even on the track, it always takes greater effort to run a certain pace.
thanks.
I think Jack Daniels says something like running 6-minute mile pace into a 15mph headwind requires a 5-minute mile effort.
I could be wrong on this - anyone else?