Why are elites never tired at the end of a race?

Ooops! forgot the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho66tTzTz6g

aerobic development wrote:

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.

When I saw that, I immediatly thought, so he's on PEDs too. To look that fresh as he approched the finish means to me that he could have run much faster. I don't care if your Vo2 is 100, you still can exceed your Vo2 max pace and run anerobicaly. Dealing with that discomfort is where you can't look relaxed if you are pushing your limits. Sure, the elites recover faster, 'AFTER' they stop, but ElG looked relaxed well before the finish. It's just like the movie The Incredibles where the son, Dash, runs the 100 and he runs just fast enough to win, but not look obvious.

Ya Ya Ya wrote:

When I saw that, I immediatly thought, so he's on PEDs too. To look that fresh as he approched the finish means to me that he could have run much faster. I don't care if your Vo2 is 100, you still can exceed your Vo2 max pace and run anerobicaly. Dealing with that discomfort is where you can't look relaxed if you are pushing your limits. Sure, the elites recover faster, 'AFTER' they stop, but ElG looked relaxed well before the finish. It's just like the movie The Incredibles where the son, Dash, runs the 100 and he runs just fast enough to win, but not look obvious.

It's called pain management, discipline, and relaxation. Not everyone has to be a drama queen when they experience pain.

It's called pain management, discipline, and relaxation. Not everyone has to be a drama queen when they experience pain.[/quote]

No, no it's not.

A little background physiology, the primary driving force for inspiration (breathing) is CO2 levels in your blood.

Elites are better at transporting O2 to the lungs due to increased RBCs. They are also better at whisking C02 away from exercising muscle due to better blood flow to exercising tissues.

A 300 lbs. football player gets extremely winded and cant catch his breath because he is enormous and has to do so much more work and has so much more muscle producing Co2. As this Co2 builds up and dissolves in the blood it tells the brain "BREATHE!!!!!"

A 100 lbs Kenyan has to perforrm much less work to run the same distance as a football player and therefore produces less Co2 (even when we include buffering). Additionally, His heart pumps blood to the muscles more efficiently to clean out the Co2 bc his heart is much stronger relative to his size than the 300lbs football player.

the correct answer wrote:

It's called pain management, discipline, and relaxation. Not everyone has to be a drama queen when they experience pain.

No, no it's not.

A little background physiology, the primary driving force for inspiration (breathing) is CO2 levels in your blood.

Elites are better at transporting O2 to the lungs due to increased RBCs. They are also better at whisking C02 away from exercising muscle due to better blood flow to exercising tissues.

A 300 lbs. football player gets extremely winded and cant catch his breath because he is enormous and has to do so much more work and has so much more muscle producing Co2. As this Co2 builds up and dissolves in the blood it tells the brain "BREATHE!!!!!"

A 100 lbs Kenyan has to perforrm much less work to run the same distance as a football player and therefore produces less Co2 (even when we include buffering). Additionally, His heart pumps blood to the muscles more efficiently to clean out the Co2 bc his heart is much stronger relative to his size than the 300lbs football player.[/quote]

you missed my point. I was addressing "looking" tired. Actually "being" tired is a different issue.

Maybe he should have busted out some of that reserve strength in Sydney.

Zat0pek wrote:

Um, El G in '99 is probably not the best example to use . . .

+1

no you missed it. They actually arent as "tired" and therefore they dont feel or look as "tired."

doesn't make any sense wrote:

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?!

One word: Drugs.

the correct answer wrote:

no you missed it. They actually arent as "tired" and therefore they dont feel or look as "tired."

No, you clearly have missed my point again.

But even this comment is incorrect. Some people can maintain composure better than others when they get tired. This is not physiological and has to do with discipline and "holding it together".