The Ice Beard Runners Facebook page got some traffic on Competitor.
Draggin ass hard today as we were out late last night (and quaffing a fair number). A measly (but vaccinated) 3.2 miles before heading out for dinner.
Good video on Dooper, very well done.
Think father time does not impact performance? The guy who WON the men’s masters race would have been in 50th place as an 8k split en route to 12k in the open race. Also worth noting is that the top four in the open race were among the very few who negative split in that race (there were 7). Generally as the results march deeper there, there appears to be more and more of a trend of folks going to a greater positive split (probably reflective of the younger guys going for it more early, the challenge of the longer race and the fact it was way hotter than the AM race).
The open results are interesting. Especially since the top runners negative split. I wonder if they ran as fast as they could in terms of time (i.e., is that the optimal pacing), or if they were racing to win. Hard to tell in a championship race where the finish place is really what matters.
ReplyDeleteA similar thing seems to happen in marathons where the WR paced races are a slight positive split (perhaps optimal time wise?) versus the Boston/NYC races where the splits are sometimes negative.
I have wondered about this topic quite a bit, but I don't have any absolute answers. The general thought out there is that negative splitting is the optimal way to run a race, and ensures the best performance.
DeleteOf course we then create exceptions to that. Except the 800 meters. Except ultras. Except when racing from the front.
It probably depends somewhat on the distance in terms of what is optimal purely in terms of finishing time. I am sure there is some actually research supporting optimal pacing strategies based on WRs, which are presumably optimally paced.
DeleteI wouldn't discount the value of passing a lot of people towards the end. That can certainly be encouraging and help push the pace a bit more towards the end. That probably plays a role making the optimal strategy some combination of physiology and psychology.