Modeling the Benefits of Cooperative Drafting: Is There an Optimal Strategy to Facilitate a Sub-2-Hour Marathon Performa
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Modeling the Benefits of Cooperative Drafting: Is There an Optimal Strategy to Facilitate a Sub‑2‑Hour Marathon Performance? Wouter Hoogkamer1 · Kristine L. Snyder2 · Christopher J. Arellano3
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
Abstract Background During a race, competing cyclists often cooperate by alternating between leading and drafting positions. This approach allows them to maximize velocity by using the energy saved while drafting, a technique to reduce the overall drag by exploiting the leader’s slipstream. We have argued that a similar cooperative drafting approach could benefit elite marathon runners in their quest for the sub-2-hour marathon. Objective Our aim was to model the effects of various cooperative drafting scenarios on marathon performance by applying the critical velocity concept for intermittent high-intensity running. Methods We used the physiological characteristics of the world’s most elite long-distance runners and mathematically simulated the depletion and recovery of their distance capacity when running above and below their critical velocity throughout a marathon. Results Our simulations showed that with four of the most elite runners in the world, a 2:00:48 (h:min:s) marathon is possible, a whopping 2 min faster than the current world record. We also explored the possibility of a sub-2-hour marathon using multiple runners with the physiological characteristics of Eliud Kipchoge, arguably the best marathon runner of our time. We found that a team of eight Kipchoge-like runners could break the sub-2-hour marathon barrier. Conclusion In the context of cooperative drafting, we show that the best team strategy for improving marathon performance time can be optimized using a mathematical model that is based on the physiological characteristics of each athlete.
Key Points We revisit the possibility of a sub-2-hour marathon by incorporating the critical velocity concept to model the effects of intermittent high-intensity running on marathon performance. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0991-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Wouter Hoogkamer [email protected] 1
Locomotion Lab, Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 354 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309‑0354, USA
2
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Swenson College of Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Duluth, 104 Solon Campus Center, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
3
Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, 3875 Holman St, Houston, TX 77204‑6015, USA
With a cooperative drafting approach, four of the most elite runners in the world could run a 2:00:48 (h:min:s) marathon, 2 min faster than the current world record. We explored the possibility of a sub-2-hour marathon using more runners and our model simulations predict that a team of eight runners with the physiological characteristics of Eliud Kipchoge co
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