Topspeed for humans? Fast!!

Last summer every body watched Usain Bolt set two amazing worldrecords. His 9.58 on the 100 meters and his record on the 200 a few days later. His topspeed is around 28 miles per hour. But according to research this is not the limit!

The research from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and the University of Wyoming shows that the limiting factor for the top speed in running is the speed of contraction.
The research found that the limbs are capable of applying much greater ground forces than those present during top-speed forward running.
So the amount of force that can be applied during the short contact between foot and ground is limited by the speed of contraction of a muscle.
From these finding teh researchers conclude that the theoratical topspeed for humans is 35 to 40 miles per hour en possibly even faster.

Published in:
Bundle, M.W., (2009). Mechanical limits to human running speed. Paper to be presented at Symposium on Training Running Speed: A Critical Consideration of Contemporary Practice, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
and on dailycalaxy

Trainingschedule of an Olympic Gold Medallist

In the Polish Magazine Bieganie (translated: Running) was a nice historic fact. The 1908 Olympic Marathon winner Johnny Hayes trained as follows:

• every day a 3 mile run
• a longer run was followed by resting the first day en just a walk the second day and a 3 mile run on the third
• this was completed with long marches

As an example of one of these marches....during the Games in London they were bored waiting for the day of teh marathon. The team went on a 30 mile march. An extreme example of a LSD ( Long Slow Distance) run.

He won the marathon in 2:55. Not realy a time for medals nowadays but I would be very proud with a time near the three hours.

If you want to learn more on the history of teh 1908 marathon and the tale behind the marathon distance of 42 kilometer and 195 meters I refer to a nice article on Times online. For example: Hayes wasn't the first to finish but got the gold medall anyway. Why? read on....

Barefootrunnning, Forefoot or heellanding?

Found on Youtube. A video comparing, side by side, running on barefoot and on shoes.

I would say a great add fore barefootrunning.

Better still, the findings from a more scientific appraoch to the subject:

TITEL: The Effect of Running Shoes on Lower Extremity Joint Torques
link to the full article

Objective: To determine the effect of modern-day running shoes on lower extremity joint torques during running.

Results: Increased joint torques at the hip, knee, and ankle were observed with running shoes compared with running barefoot. Disproportionately large increases were observed in the hip internal rotation torque and in the knee flexion and knee varus torques. An average 54% increase in the hip internal rotation torque, a 36% increase in knee flexion torque, and a 38% increase in knee varus torque were measured when running in running shoes compared with barefoot.

Conclusions: The findings at the knee suggest relatively greater pressures at anatomical sites that are typically more prone to knee osteoarthritis, the medial and patellofemoral compartments. It is important to note the limitations of these findings and of current 3-dimensional gait analysis in general, that only resultant joint torques were assessed. It is unknown to what extent actual joint contact forces could be affected by compliance that a shoe might provide, a potentially valuable design characteristic that may offset the observed increases in joint torques.

I am almost sorry it is to cold outside a the moment to go running barefoot (there is snow and a freezing wind with a chillfactor bringing down the temp to minus 12 dergrees centigrade)

Running with a New Year''s Eve hangover

A new year!

May it be happy and a good year for running!

Get an early start and run right away on the first day of the new year. The first training of the year down the pocket! ...or not?
Did you have a few drinks to many last night? Do you suffer from a hangover from all the bubbles? You might think of skipping a training. Your hangover headache is one of the results from the dehydrating effect from alcohol. Kind of the same effect as a exertion headache.
Anyway, if you do have a hangover, consider skipping the training as starting a training while dehydrated is not very sensible. Actually, getting a hangover is not so sensbile to start with. So start being sensible. 1) Skipp the training today, 2) drink plenty fluids without alcohol, 3) do your training tomorrow and 4) If you realy are a runner: stay away from to many alcohol next time so it won't interfere with you running;-)

And...lets hope that compare to 2009 I am more productive on my english blog in 2010. But that shouldn't be to hard;-)