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Re: DCRainmaker preview of Stryd running power meter [dcrainmaker]
dcrainmaker wrote:
Andrew Coggan wrote:
A few thoughts...

Combining the above with the fact that runners don't generally have to be able to rapidly change pace the way cyclists do, that they aren't as influenced by environmental conditions (e.g., wind), that they tend to utilize flat surfaces (tracks) for structured training, etc., and I can't see a running power meter having a significant impact on how people actually train and perform.

Honestly, I'm surprised to see you write. Mostly because it really makes no sense.

Wind is just as painful to a runner as it is to a cyclist, run a marathon into a headwind and you'll understand. Similarly, varying terrain is just as much of a factor for runners as it is cyclists. This is especially true for longer formats (i.e. half marathon and beyond) in courses with rolling terrain or worse.

I could see trying to argue it makes it's of little benefit for situations such as windless flat surfaces. But to try and argue that runners aren't impacted by hills or wind comes across a bit...out of place?

Sorry, but I think that your assertions are incorrect. Runners are clearly not impacted by wind as much as cyclists. (And yes, I say that having run a fair bit while living on a wind-swept barrier island, as well as having to finish a 30 km race under my goal of 2 h flat by running the last 2 mi as hard as I could straight into a block headwind.) Way back in 1971, for example, Pugh tested runners in a climactic chamber and demonstrated that overcoming wind resistance accounted for only 7.5% of energy expenditure when running on the flat at 3.75 m/s and 13% at 4.47 m/s. This is in contrast to cycling, whereas as we all know, overcoming wind resistance accounts for the vast majority of energy expenditure. It therefore follows that it takes a much, MUCH stronger wind to have the same impact on a runner as it does on a cyclist.

As for hills, while the effects of gradient on energy expenditure are the same in runners and cyclists, how many runners do you know are willing to routinely venture up grades so steep that they are reduced to walking, or at best, a very slow jog? Yet, thanks to gearing cyclists regularly ride up such slopes.

Now add in the fact that, in running, true sprinters generally don't race longer distances, and distance runners rarely have to truly sprint, yet cyclists in mass start races regularly have to do both, combined with the fact that a power estimator can't account for differences in runnnig economy, which are far greater between individuals than cycling economy, and the fact that running tracks (where runners typically go when they want to perform structured training) are ubiquitous whereas velodromes are relatively rare, and, well, I just don't see the point (as I told Steve McGregor almost a decade ago when he came up w/ rTSS).
Last edited by: Andrew Coggan: Feb 3, 15 7:44

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