171–180 of 203 posts
A funny headline, given that I was just reading up on the history of the "Black Ghost", a nickname given by other racers to a muscle-car which would dominate Detroit street races in the 70s, but never hung around to socialize. The car would just show up, win, and disappear, sometimes for weeks or months, before surfacing again to win, and again to vanish. Nobody knew the driver, nobody could get a look at him, and he…
In an amateur context, I've paced about a half dozen races, half marathon and marathon distance. I've also served as a pacer for runners in the second half of a 100 mile race a couple times. The purpose of a pacer for amateur runners is to set a consistent pace and provide encouragement to runners who may be running their first race at that distance. Or maybe someone trying to set a new PR. Since most courses are not…
But how do the pacers keep pace?
But I also use a GPS watch and Stryd pod to monitor my pace in real-time and keep track of my 1 mile and 5K splits.
Generally though, runners tend to go out way too fast in a race because they are very excited and should have gone through a taper, so it feels easy while running too fast at the start. Because it's not a race for me, I can avoid that excitement. Then toward the end, they slow down because they went out too fast. Since the entire race is at a relaxed effort for me, I can avoid that too.
I also probably haven't spent the last 10 days tapering, so I don't have to really adjust my feel.
That said: a few years back I ended up pacing the 4:30 marathon group which was almost 3 minutes/mile below my race pace and I was constantly having to check myself. My preference when pacing is to be close to my easy pace for the distance, not to fast, not too slow.
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My $0.02: Sitting on the couch is bad for your knees. Over-striding is bad for your knees. A weak core is bad for your knees. Running slightly faster on downhills is not bad for your knees. FWIW, I've read nearly every running book there is including that one. I still have healthy knees at 51 and have run tens of thousands of miles on them over all sorts of terrain.
See my sibling comment. Repeated stress of right intensity makes bones, joints and tendons stronger. Avoiding all stress is a bad advice I have heard many times in my life I am sick and tired of it. It is the stress that causes the body to need to recover and it is during recovery that it becomes stronger. The only really important thing to remember is that the right intensity is crucial and that it is very easy to s…
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"He was a cop by day, street-racer by night." For the curious and lazy
Thank you, I was indeed far too lazy to look this up
Honestly, I'm not sure why it was there to start with. Oh boy, the guy that drives a car for a living happens to enjoy cars
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Great advice except for point 5. Carbs are fantastic, eat them.
Can't upvote this enough. Carbs are king for endurance, though I tend to drink most of mine as I find it easier.
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The old myth that running is bad for your knees. It isn’t unless you have a condition. What you may not have is tendons ready for the effort or the right supporting muscles. These can be worked on.
Go on, don't leave us hanging. Any suggestions on a workout to strengthen the muscles?
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4:30/mile pace is faster than all but the fastest amateur runners, and the effect would I assume be less at a slower pace. 1s/400m is less than 2 minutes over a marathon, so something, but not a huge amount. 1m behind is also pretty close to be directly behind someone, you'd be liable to kick each other.
4:30 is not an elite mile pace at any level of male competition except races above 8k. For mid-distance races (typically considered 800m and 1500m, or 1000m indoors or 1600m in Europe outdoors) it would be quite slow. A typical elite (D1 college) 800m time is 1:50, and champions are around 1:40. An above average high schooler recruitable to D3 can run 2:00. D1 recruits typically have mile time of 4:15 or faster. Most…
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4:30/mile pace is faster than all but the fastest amateur runners, and the effect would I assume be less at a slower pace. 1s/400m is less than 2 minutes over a marathon, so something, but not a huge amount. 1m behind is also pretty close to be directly behind someone, you'd be liable to kick each other.
Track races are often won in photo finishes. Everything matters. And that 2 minutes over the marathon is currently more than the difference between a sub-2 hour marathon (1:59:40) and not (2:01:09): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge
And Kipchoge is both the fastest and not an amateur.
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4:30/mile pace is faster than all but the fastest amateur runners, and the effect would I assume be less at a slower pace. 1s/400m is less than 2 minutes over a marathon, so something, but not a huge amount. 1m behind is also pretty close to be directly behind someone, you'd be liable to kick each other.
> 4:30/mile pace is faster than all but the fastest amateur runners The article is talking about middle distance running, typically 800m-3000m, not long-distance running. 1s/400m is actually pretty huge in competition. > you'd be liable to kick each other. Front-to-back contact happens sometimes, even in professional races.