Giving it your all (Read 949 times)

I've been thinking about these questions for a long time and wonder if anyone has any input: If you give a 100% effort in a race what happens at the 101% mark? Do you pass out or maybe collapse? (I assume so) Then why aren't runners passing out left and right at local 5k races? Are they not giving 101%? Well, maybe not local runners, but what about world class athletes? How come runners in 2nd - 3rd place don't pass out all the time? (I realize that they "sometimes" do but not often) I've wondered if I can make myself pass-out by running "too hard" and think i've come close at the end of some races (dizzy - barely able to walk) but I have a theory that your threshold prior to the pass-out mark is much higher than most people think... Or maybe the pain stops you at 92% who know? This has been bugging me for quite a while and I don't know if I'm asking it clear enough. But my main question is: How best do you know where that 99.9% effort is?

Maybe the same thing will happen as when you take your RPM'S above the "Redline." You might blow a rod.

Noakes first presented the "central governor" theory which says that the brain dictates how fast or long you can run for. basically it says that your brain monitors various critical levels in your body and makes you feel tired as these are reached/exceeded. he explains it in lore of running and has done a fair amount of research in recent years to back it up.

I think that the answer is - it depends. First off, you can not give more than 100% effort. THe definition of 100% means that is all you have to give. If you are running as hard as you think and then step it up an notch (to what you are calling the 101% mark), then you really were not giving it 100% before. The reason people are puking and passing out is that the body is only designed to take so much stress at one time before something has to give. You mentioned 5K runners. When you run a 5K you are not going all out - it may feel that way, but you're not. Because when you think about it, you can run a single mile in a faster time than your 5K mile splits, and you can run a 100m dash faster than your one mile pace. But as I said the body can only take so much stress for so long and then it breaks down and slows down. So if you were to go "all out" you could keep that pace up for a certain amount of time, but then your body would slow down - the effort may still feel like it is everything you have but your pace would diminish.

After you reach 100% you just slow down. By definition you can't go above maximal effort. If you're REALLY gutsy and ignore the signs and push on you can black out or pass out. There were a couple track races where I needed to be yanked up off the track at the finish, but it's really hard to push it that hard and bite it right at the finish....you never see people passing out BEFORE the line, so it makes sense that subconsciously people are always making sure they make it to the line. Personally, I think a lot of that you see at HS races is mental. I remember those days, and I remember it being a mental thing. You WANTED to look like the toughest, hardest working, so if there was the least bit of discomfort you wanted to be heaving or falling over. Pushing yourself to the very limit is a hard thing to do, and in the grand scheme of things a relatively minor variable compared to physical training. For example, I remember a point with .75 miles to go in my 10K PR where I had to make the conscious decision whether to slow a bit to make sure I made the finish line, or to maintain my current pace at all costs even if that meant passing out and logging a DNF. I decided to risk the DNF, and fortunately I made the line (and precisely 5 steps after it before my knees gave out). It could not have made more than 5-8sec difference. I needed those 5-8sec for sure, but it was training that made that race a PR by 90sec. As for Noakes and his central governor "theory", IMHO that is complete bunk. If that were true, the key to racing fast is to train your brain to not send these fatigue signals and allow damage to occur. Therefore, if this were true, we'd have our fastest athletes having all sorts of heart problems and dropping like flies on a regular basis. It just doesn't work that way. I'll save the drama, but suffice to say I've read most of what Noakes and his associates have published on the topic and there is ZERO scientific basis for it (I'm a biochemist so I feel comfortable making the blanket statement). It's a definition by exclusion...every time he can't explain something 100%, he says it proves the central governor must exist, although he has never actually identified it or shown direct evidence of the central governor. Although he generated a fair amount of fame for himself with Lore of Running, the truth is that if you read the physiology journals, a majority of his physiology colleagues now consider him somewhat of a crank due to his obsession with this unsupported central governor theory. Don't get me wrong, Lore of Running is a good book but with a few illogical and non-factual leaps (like that elite marathoners have a set number of performances in them before their times decline).

Draw an eleven on the speaker dial.

Indeed Scout, indeed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akaD9v460yI

Draw an eleven on the speaker dial.

I've done this for my RPE index...it goes to eleven and now I am one tougher.