I was watching the Milrose Games Track Meet on television this past week and was amazed at some of the performances from the athletes. I was wondering how one of the runners in a long distance race felt after breaking the world’s record and still came in second. Watching any athletic performance in any sport that is at a level of perfection is enjoyable to watch.
Running indoor at the Milrose Games was on a track that was designed for good performance. I have judged other indoor meets and the quality of the track has a lot to do with how well an athlete will do in their event. The distance of one lap around the track must vary in different buildings. A shorter track means a tighter curve that is hard to achieve any real speed. I was a judge at one meet in New Mexico where the curve was banked high on the outside lane. One runner on the outside lane was trying to build up speed from the straight away and momentum carried him over the edge of the track. The drop off the top of the track had to be eight feet or so. He didn’t lean into the curve far enough to counter the centrifugal force pulling him outward. Think of a motorcycle leaning almost on its side when they go around a tight curve. The same rules apply to any object, human or bike, when it comes to momentum and curves.
Another part of the program was the postrace interviews of the winning athletes. The one part that caught my attention was during the interview how hard the athlete was breathing. It seemed that the sprinters were breathing as hard, or harder, than the long distance winning athletes. The winner of the 60-yard dash ran for less than 7 seconds and his feet probably touched the ground for less than 2 seconds and he was still breathing hard from this effort. When you analyze how much muscle effort went into those 7 seconds almost every muscle in the body was used to its maximum. I would guess the athlete’s breath was held the entire race. The legs were moving at a very fast rate and the arms were being moved with every step the athlete took. The trunk muscles from the abdomen to the chest and shoulders were involved. Sprinters will tell you to relax the body as much as possible and let the legs do the work. A 60-yard dash has the athlete accelerating the entire race from coming out of the blocks to crossing the ribbon at the finish. One 100-meter champion had his race divided into 10 segments. He said the key wasn’t so much that he was accelerating at the finish as the other runners were slowing down near the end. It seems that maximum effort from a body is very short lived unless the start is less effort.
The long distance runners were breathing hard but more of a slow deep breath it seemed. What occurs is that in longer races the athlete reaches a steady state. The breathing in and the need of oxygen from the muscles is balanced. The kick at the finish where the athlete picks up the pace and has more muscle involvement and the breathing has not caught up with the oxygen needed for the muscles. Then the athlete will be breathing hard the same as the sprinters.
I see this at all levels of racing. Anytime you exert effort the oxygen needs increases and the athlete will breathe hard. People say that lifting weights is not an aerobic activity. This is true in a sense. Having tried and seen athletes do a series of heavy weight squats and recall that the breathing is very heavy after the bar is put back on the rack. What I have observed and did during my racing career is that before the race the runner will go for a run. What happens is that the heart rate and breathing rate will increase from this prerace effort. When the athlete steps to the starting line the heart rate is elevated and his circulation to the muscles is increased. When the race starts, they are already in a steady breathing state. A beginning runner who stands around before the race will have extra effort but the heart rate and breathing are still trying to catch up to this demand. It will take several hundred yards before the runner begins to breathe in a steady pattern and reach a steady state equal to their effort. The beginning runner thinks that the extra running before a race will tire them out during the race. That extra running before the race will actually help because they will not have to catch up on the demand from the muscles and heart rate. This extra effort before a race applies to walkers as well. Move first.
