"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Monday, May 3, 2010

How to feel fast, then really slow

One of the things you can do with a Garmin is find out what your (nearly) instantaneous "best pace" is. Throw a sprint into a run and afterward you can find out what pace you hit. Training for speed recently, I took forever getting from 3:38 per mile down to 3:35. Given that some milers run nearly that fast not just for a second, but for an entire mile, reminds me of how much I've slowed over the years. A couple of days ago I finally got to 3:27. Felt good...

Then I heard about Usain Bolt at the Penn Relays. 100m split in 8.79 seconds! That's 2:21 per mile pace! I'd add the video here, but there's a glitch preventing it right now. Here's the link (the link says it was 8.74)

8.79 Are we even in the same sport?

5 comments:

Colin said...

No ... he's a sprinter. Completely different sport. I'll bet you could take him in an ultra.

Nonetheless, he is an incredible talent, and his races make for compelling viewing.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Who's Usain Bolt?

And why does he hate America?

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Better and more fun way to feel really fast, then really slow:

Use crystal meth.

Then, after, heroin.

That'll put some Bolt in your Usain!

Stay in school, kids! Peace!

Glaven out!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Wow. You post a comment about using crystal meth and heroin and all of a sudden nobody else has anything constructive to say.

What a bunch of uptight squares.

So, I guess my crystal meth-heroin cocktail wins as a training strategy. Lemme know how it works for you.

RBR said...

I got the how to feel slow part: Come and read SteveQ's f-ing blog.

Whatever.

@G RE: the crystal meth/heroin training strategy. On crystal meth you go really fast, but you do not actually get anywhere. Therefore, you may run 17 mph (if you are bat shit crazy fast SteveQ but if you go 0 miles you are not any faster than if you slam heroin and go 0.17 mph for 0 miles.