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British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

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Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#11

Post by cwbuilds »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #3

He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?

The shoes definitely help, but there are all sorts of other innovations that get far less press.

More is known about optimal fuelling, hydration and sleep. Improve those and you improve your daily training. Better quality training compounds and allows you to reach closer to your talent ceiling.

Kerr also had a system set up so his bedroom had less oxygen than the rest of his house (to mimic sleeping at altitude).

He had two pacers breaking the air for the first 1,000m (although he had to do it himself the rest of the way, which was bloody impressive). Meant he could relax mentally for the first 2.5 laps and didn't have to focus on pace. I think El Guerrouj set the previous WR in a race without pacers.

They also had pacing lights on the track which helps the pacers run at an even pace.

And there are all sorts of innovations like taking sodium bicarbonate to reduce muscle acidity, nitrates to dilate the veins and increase blood flow to muscles and high doses of caffeine to reduce the rate of perceived exertion.

As someone else mentioned, track surfaces are generally a little bouncier now than they used to be.

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#12

Post by ad_hockey »

fidotron wrote: post #9
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #3

He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?

The mention of pacemakers made me wonder if you could have some light marker on the track to show the ideal pace you should be keeping as well. If you can find the human equivalent of the rabbit for greyhounds then maybe even more could be achieved.

Yep, they have that as well. You can see it in the photo here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/18/josh-kerr-make...

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#13

Post by jackmott42 »

jstanley wrote: post #8
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #3

He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?

I'm sure the track surface and shoes are important, but if "singlet" means the clothing he is wearing? It's really hard to believe that makes a material difference.

It is very easy to do the math on the aerodynamics, even at running speeds it isn't insignificant. It drives me crazy that many pro marathoners are in flappy clothes, or big hair cuts!

In a mile it could be between 1 and 7 tenths, depending on wind and and how bad the default outfit was.

And that may seem insignificant but its big margins at the elite level.

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#14

Post by [deleted] »

jackmott42 wrote: post #13
jstanley wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the track surface and shoes are important, but if "singlet" means the clothing he is wearing? It's really hard to believe that makes a material difference.

It is very easy to do the math on the aerodynamics, even at running speeds it isn't insignificant. It drives me crazy that many pro marathoners are in flappy clothes, or big hair cuts! In a mile it could be between 1 and 7 tenths, depending on wind and and how bad the default outfit was. And that may seem insignificant but its big margins at the elite level.

[deleted]

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#15

Post by Lio »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #3

He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?

If it's just the singlet and the shoes you would expect lots of other runners to get close too. It's surprising that the previous record stood for 27 years if the equipment has been progressing since then.

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#16

Post by rustyhancock »

cwbuilds wrote: post #11
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #3

He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?

The shoes definitely help, but there are all sorts of other innovations that get far less press. More is known about optimal fuelling, hydration and sleep. Improve those and you improve your daily training. Better quality training compounds and allows you to reach closer to your talent ceiling. Kerr also had a system set up so his bedroom had less oxygen than the rest of his house (to mimic sleeping at altitude). He…

Nitrates to dilate vessels just seems like cheating in the PED sense

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#17

Post by fidotron »

ad_hockey wrote: post #12
fidotron wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mention of pacemakers made me wonder if you could have some light marker on the track to show the ideal pace you should be keeping as well. If you can find the human equivalent of the rabbit for greyhounds then maybe even more could be achieved.

Yep, they have that as well. You can see it in the photo here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/18/josh-kerr-make...

Aha, thanks!

Do you have any insight into what algorithm it uses? Like a ghost runner of the record pace or something?

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#18

Post by goodmythical »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #3

He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?

>Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed

Surely raw human potential cannot have progressed very much at all in the (at most) two generations represented by the 27 years the record stood.

Granted, the population is significantly higher, so it is more statistically likely that we've produced a genuinely faster human than existed 27 years ago.

I think it's fairly well accepted that most of the records being broken now are down to tech, nutrition, and aids. Springier shoes, mechanical pacers, better 'fuels', deeper understanding of exercise periodization, etc.

Give the old record runner all of the same boosts, the same training, I can't imagine he'd be noticeably slower, perhaps within hundreths, but I'd bet within a tenth or two.

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#19

Post by wging »

cwbuilds wrote: post #11
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #3

He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?

The shoes definitely help, but there are all sorts of other innovations that get far less press. More is known about optimal fuelling, hydration and sleep. Improve those and you improve your daily training. Better quality training compounds and allows you to reach closer to your talent ceiling. Kerr also had a system set up so his bedroom had less oxygen than the rest of his house (to mimic sleeping at altitude). He…

> I think El Guerrouj set the previous WR in a race without pacers.

El Guerrouj had two pacers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvCsj7eJKKA

In fact, looking at this race, Tanui (the second pacer) actually stays on the track for longer than today's pacers did.

Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years

#20

Post by goodmythical »

rustyhancock wrote: post #16
cwbuilds wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shoes definitely help, but there are all sorts of other innovations that get far less press. More is known about optimal fuelling, hydration and sleep. Improve those and you improve your daily training. Better quality training compounds and allows you to reach closer to your talent ceiling. Kerr also had a system set up so his bedroom had less oxygen than the rest of his house (to mimic sleeping at altitude). He…

Nitrates to dilate vessels just seems like cheating in the PED sense

Where do you draw the line? (I know that the answer to that question is always 'somewhere') No one's getting significant levels of baking soda from their diet, and caffeine is a relatively recent cultural addition to most diets.

The gels are much the same. Getting the same nutiritional ratios used to require carefully controlled eating and certainly weighed vastly more than the gels adding both weight and complexity and likely being less performant.

Most(?) sports handle this by maintaining multiple leaderboards. The sub two hour 26.2 mile run was broken years ago, but the sub 2 marathon race was only recently completed, for instance. The difference being that the original was done much like this one in that it was paced, on a track, etc while the later was run in typical marathon conditions with other racers, variable winds etc.

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