God. That site is unreadable. Can they put anymore pop up, slider, and intrusive ads on there?
God. That site is unreadable. Can they put anymore pop up, slider, and intrusive ads on there?
Why don't they just have a robot that runs 2:00:00 flat pace? That would be the perfect pacer.
Cicirunner wrote:
Why don't they just have a robot that runs 2:00:00 flat pace? That would be the perfect pacer.
That's actually an interesting question. Is even pace the best way? It's possible that, by the time you've run 20 miles at a hard effort, your biomechanics will have deteriorated to a certain extent (whether due to muscle damage or other factors), so that your running economy is worse and you have to spend *more* energy (not just more effort, but more actual energy) to maintain the same pace. In that case, if you want a truly even distribution of effort from a *physiological* perspective, you'd want to start the race slightly faster than goal pace to allow for a slight slowdown.
Of course, you can also argue it from the opposite perspective: if the accumulated damage will be worse from a faster pace, maybe it's better to go a bit slower at the start to minimize the carnage at the end, and hope you'll be able to speed up.
In the end, given all the unknowns, I suspect perfectly even pace is the way to go. But it's not as obvious as it might seem. Unlike at shorter distances, there's very little understanding of the physiological changes that take place late in a marathon.
Alex Hutchinson - wrote:
Cicirunner wrote:Why don't they just have a robot that runs 2:00:00 flat pace? That would be the perfect pacer.
That's actually an interesting question. Is even pace the best way? It's possible that, by the time you've run 20 miles at a hard effort, your biomechanics will have deteriorated to a certain extent (whether due to muscle damage or other factors), so that your running economy is worse and you have to spend *more* energy (not just more effort, but more actual energy) to maintain the same pace. In that case, if you want a truly even distribution of effort from a *physiological* perspective, you'd want to start the race slightly faster than goal pace to allow for a slight slowdown.
Of course, you can also argue it from the opposite perspective: if the accumulated damage will be worse from a faster pace, maybe it's better to go a bit slower at the start to minimize the carnage at the end, and hope you'll be able to speed up.
In the end, given all the unknowns, I suspect perfectly even pace is the way to go. But it's not as obvious as it might seem. Unlike at shorter distances, there's very little understanding of the physiological changes that take place late in a marathon.
Every 4 hr marathoner knows this to be true. You go out above race pace to bank a little time so you can cruise at the end
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
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2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion
adizero Road to Records with Yomif Kejelcha, Agnes Ngetich, Hobbs Kessler & many more is Saturday