straightforward.. wrote:
So tired of hearing how good these guys are at "tactics".
Fk that.
The dudes that Centro and Farah beat, many of them had better PRs than the two.
Why not just ignore whatever Centro or Farah are doing, and just try running even splits at their PR pace?
Centro especially won't have what it takes to keep up.
Can someone explain to me why the sit-n-kick tactics of Centro and Farah are working?
Beating Mo in his prime (or even now) is a tough ask. He didn't need to sit-and-kick to win, he choose to.
Centro is a different story. When he's won, and let's take Rio as the prime example, he was exploiting the group dynamics of the race. It's a bit of a 'prisoners dilemma' (not exactly, but there are some similar aspects). As a poster above said, somebody in the race would have to be hell-bent on beating Centro, so much so that he would be willing to sacrifice winning. Nobody has that mentality: all of the best runners in the final believed that he himself could win, and the worst runners in the final believed that they would benefit from the slow pace (which is true, since slowness and bunching introduce randomness, including a greater chance of somebody falling).
Beyond the psychology of it, Centro clearly has a strong sense, whether intuitive or trained, of exactly how much effort to put into position. He is also very calm in the pack, and that has clearly paid off for him.