I've been to many high school and college XC and track meets and have seen many people collapse at the end of a race. The ones who don't collapse viciously pant for breath and struggle to continue standing. And I know that when I race hard to the finish I'm dead when I get there. But if you watch any elite races, they're FINE at the finish line. Even in a sprint to the finish in the Olympics! It doesn't make any sense! Can anyone explain this?!
I've wondered about that too, and concluded they must be in incredible shape.
adrenaline and strong muscles
Your an idiot...wow I hate this site
Ahahahaha.....wow I love this site
I've talked with some elite runners about this, basically they say its all about keeping good form and staying as relaxed as possible without tightening up, especially the jaw and arms, as well as how they breathe. Plus when you win a big race, you may forget your fatigue. They do feel pain, that's for sure.
Train hard, win easy!
If it's a really quick pace I bet they are... but if it's a sit and kick situation it'd be understandable if they weren't too tired aerobically.
They are tired. They are just faking it -kind of like men not crying in public. After they retire to the area where the public cannot see them, they begin to hyperventilate and collapse into a heap on the ground.
It must be...
...DA SHOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(and drugs)
They are tired, but when you are in really, really good shape you regain your composure pretty quickly. Plus the winner often enjoys a little bit of adrenaline and excitement.
I remember winning a few races, and even finishing some really tough workouts when I was in my best shape and it always surprised me how quickly I would go from "I think I'm dying!" to "I'm cool."
That's actually one of the things that convinced me that intervals should have just very short recovery periods. When you're fit, you don't need long to recover.
hbubuhiiub wrote:
If it's a really quick pace I bet they are... but if it's a sit and kick situation it'd be understandable if they weren't too tired aerobically.
I was gonna say this- high schoolers are more likely to go out too fast and die trying to run a PR. Elites may be running to win ie sit and kick.
If you're a 3:52 miler and you run 1200 in 3:00 and kick you're not overextending yourself for 1 mile.
Guys, thanks for your responses. Some of you were helpful. Obviously I know they're tired I just couldn't think how to phrase my question and knew you would get the point this way. Adrenaline is clearly not a major factor though. Most of the high school and college runners that I've seen are extremely dedicated and there's no reason they wouldn't get the same adrenaline in a race. So, the main candidates I'm looking at here are fitness, form, and mental mindset. Do you agree/disagree with these things? Do you know of any other reasons?
doesn't make any sense wrote:
Adrenaline is clearly not a major factor though. Most of the high school and college runners that I've seen are extremely dedicated and there's no reason they wouldn't get the same adrenaline in a race. So, the main candidates I'm looking at here are fitness, form, and mental mindset. Do you agree/disagree with these things? Do you know of any other reasons?
What? How is adrenaline "clearly" not a major factor? Adrenaline has nothing to do with dedication so ,yes, there is the reason they wouldn't get the same adrenaline in a race. Adrenaline is an emotionophysical response, not a dedication response.
So, what is it exactly you're saying causes a runner to have adrenaline at the end of a race? And why would this apply to elites but not your average hard-training runner?
Because they are elite.
Fitness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvCsj7eJKKA
Here are a couple of guys that just ran a 3:43 mile and seem fine immediately after.
The more you train and the better you train, the quicker you recover form any stressful running.
Aerobic development. The more you are aerobically developed the less you collapse in the finish of a hard race. Look at the last event of the decathlon, 1500m (or 800m in women's heptathlon). They collapse and cannot continue standing eventhough they are elites. They just dont spend much time developing aerobic base in their training. It's like running hard intervals after a long aerobic base training, they almost feel easy.
My favorit video is when Hicham sets the world record in mile. He crosses the finish line and doesnt even stop, just grabs flowers and continues running.
Depends on the runner.
For Symmonds it's probably because of hgh, for Webb it's anabolic steroids. For rupp it is the altitude tent and for Hall the reason he doesn't look tired is god.
toro wrote:
Here are a couple of guys that just ran a 3:43 mile and seem fine immediately after.
Yes, I see that and that is amazing. I can't comprehend it.
toro wrote:
The more you train and the better you train, the quicker you recover form any stressful running.
Yes, but this was a WR and they didn't seem to need ANY recovery time at all. El Guerrouj looked fresh, coasting into the finish line!