Saturday was nice, mid 60ºs and sunny, but today was nasty. Rain, fog and drizzle all day, high of 51º. Tomorrow may be the same.
Saturday did a Roarkes Cove Rd bike climb in about 23.5 min.
Today, slept a lot, and tired of being sedentary, did an indoor circuit:
2x20 pullups
2x15 RDLs with 45 lbs
2x20 ab wheel
2x12 squat jumps w/ 45 lbs
2x15 hip flexor bands
2x30 pushups
2x8 eccentric ham bands
If the weather tomorrow is like it was today, I may wait til Tues to go to the track. I'll also be getting the Adidas Takumi Sen 9 shoes tomorrow.
Only 8 weeks til indoor season. Vadim contacted me about putting together a M60 indoor 4x4 relay world record attempt this season. If we could get James, and Ron, definitely doable. We'd only have to average 59.5.
Maybe you can convince one of these companies to sponsor you and provide a free power meter. Not sure about the utility of power for fast running but it’s a great tool for cycling. https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/running-power-meter-comparison-study/
ReplyDeleteWhat matters in sprinting is the Force applied to the ground. The greater the force the greater the potential for the derived speed (depending on other variables such as Mass).
ReplyDeleteBy the way this is probably why the Garmin engineer in this article was trying to explain their app does not measure VO2.
The amount of energy used is only indirectly useful since it does not take into account the efficiency with how the energy is used. If an athlete`s foot strike is poor they are inefficient, ditto a cyclist with a crap bike.
VO2 is a measure of the oxygen your body can use during exercise.
Despite the mixed up technicalities in the article. A FORCE PLATE is considered a useful tool for sprinting. However it is more practical in team enviornments - unless all athletes can persuade a manufacturer to give them each a machine for free. Unlikely in Masters athletics.
Power (watts) is the right thing to measure, it is unit of work per time. The author was using VO2 max as a proxy to gauge accuracy that’s all. They give stuff like this to master cyclists and triathletes all the time. That is the ones who are really good. (Sponsored).
ReplyDeleteRate of Force Development (RFD) is the key component of sprinting and other reactive ground force sports.
DeleteRFD sounds interesting
ReplyDeletePower still might have some application. Kind of an averaging function (force)*(distance)/time, as opposed to an instantaneous measurement. Certainly easier to measure.
ReplyDeleteFor a runner the raw amount of force produced, how it varies (hopefully positively) with training is only a part of the rationale behind force plates. Max force demonstrated in reactive movements on a plate do not directly correlate to performance results. Again we need to consider the efficiciency of how that force is applied in continous running. I suggest you look at the following example of how force plate metrics an be used. You will find other example documents. https://www.scienceforsport.com/force-plates-what-are-they-and-what-insights-do-they-provide-coaches/
ReplyDeleteYou will see they can be used to assess symetry, gait, RFID etc. Indicating areas of performance and postural weakness as well as pure force as a single metric.
No doubt it is possible to use power as a proxy to measure relative levels of force. Cycling is a continous symmetric rotational movement and it is presumably easier to model `power` `force` whatever into speed performance. This locomotion model is much more complex in sprinting.
Hence the use of force plates.
I think it is easy to overcomplicate things and in this context of this blog we have an athlete who I would describe as at least a top 4 in the world performer over multiple events. As such what he does works for him. IMHO he would be better fine tuning his existing approach than getting too complicated.
New Garmins already have power measurements. Agree that cycling is way ahead of running in terms of using power as a measure (25 yrs worth of data). Also much easier to measure in cycling.
ReplyDeleteWhere an (accurate) power meter would be useful would be measuring relative improvements in running efficiency and as a training tool.
ReplyDeleteAgree. I didn’t see this when I wrote my lengthy response. (Probably would not have written)
DeleteTechnically it is the other way around. Power = Force x Distance/Time. So for power you measure force. The key difference between it RFD is time scale - power essentially is an averaging function where RFD is measured at discrete points in milliseconds. We sensor our equipment (advanced node semiconductor R&D) to try to detect process shifts or endpoint real time so I have some experience with sensors. Making sense out of millisecond sampling is tricky as variation can be induced by external factors. Averaging functions provide a lot cleaner data. If power is accurate it could be used for refining technique at steady state running- running the same time with lower power by definition is more efficient. Or conversely slower times with higher power would mean technique is falling apart. I doubt if running power devices have the required level of accuracy or repeatability though. BTW, the forces in cycling are more variable than you described. It takes quite a bit of time to develop an efficient pedaling stroke and if you are competing the ability to accelerate (RFD) is critical to remaining in the group or keeping position. Force curves or profiles in cycling are common. Also MTB discipline requirements are quite variable- it is not uncommon for me to be in a precarious position essentially static and having to deliver maximum force in a precise manner to overcome an obstacle or get over a short steep rocky climb. In fact long climbs on trails can essentially be a string of what seem like endless staircases with multiple short bursts of high force due to poor traction ruts rocks etcetera. So ability to apply force rapidly as well as to throttle it (to maintain traction) is important.
ReplyDeleteFor clarification, although Power = FxD/T, power meters don’t always measure force but may derive it from acceleration and deceleration of a fly wheel or other methods. I don’t know how the running power meters are deriving force. They are not using force plates so I assume acceleration/deceleration at impact and push off, probably have to input runners weight.
ReplyDelete