Re:Why are you so slow?
by tomjakubowski on Sunday October 29, 2023 @09:19AM
(#38058348)
kudos using that guy who lost to The Freeze as an example
it seems link [3] with Bolt's extension is broken
Mo Farah for leg extension:
Ed Whitlock in his 80s:
https://mindmotionmatter.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/ed-runn...
Re:Why are you so slow?
by Lukas_Skywalker on Sunday October 29, 2023 @04:14PM
(#38062274)
Those are really nice pictures. Even more so because those were probably taken during much longer and slower runs. But even there, they show incredible form.
1 rings super true to me - the most counter-intuitive thing to me in distance running was to take more steps to go faster. 180-190rpm is usually where I’m at for 2:55ish marathon times, whereas when I started, I thought I needed to be at like, 160, but with a longer stride distance.
It’s more interesting because I sprint “properly”, but my brain just flipped when I started going further.
1) Foot strike to far in the front as in [1] and [2]. This mostly happens because people want to run fast, and therefore take longer steps. It is very counterproductive though. A longer steps lowers your center of gravity, and because the foot strikes the ground very far in front of the COG, you need to lift your COG before you can do the next step. This is visible in the video of the article as well. The amateurs have a much larger vertical movement of their heads and torsos than the Freeze.
2) Insufficient leg extension at the end of the ground contact as in [3] and [4]. There are two reasons for that. The first one is connected to the point above. If you keep the COG very low, you are forced to bend the hip and the knee while you move your torso over your foot. It's very hard to extend hip and knee after that, so many people just lift the leg instead of pushing all the way through. The second reason is mobility. Sitting all day shortens the hip flexor muscles (M. iliopsoas). Stretching them helps a lot.
Many of the people in the video are also starting quite fast and get considerably slower over the course of those 160m. Tiredness might be an important factor there.
[1] Bolt, foot strike: https://imgur.com/a/QOQaEX2
[2] Amateur, foot strike: https://imgur.com/a/Pmiijgx
[3] Bolt, leg extension: https://imgur.com/a/mRCq7uc
[4] Amateur, leg extension: https://imgur.com/a/cxzMkEi