{"id":414042,"date":"2026-04-23T20:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414042\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:31:12","slug":"the-science-behind-human-running-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414042\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science Behind Human Running Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

AT THE 2025 Prefontaine Classic<\/a>, a sold-out crowd of 12,606 was treated to two profound demonstrations of human potential on a perfect July afternoon.<\/p>\n

First up was Beatrice Chebet<\/a>. In the closing laps of the 5,000-meter run, the Kenyan ticked off an electrifying pace with two women on her heels until she snapped the cord with an ethereal kick over the final 200 meters. As Chebet crossed the line, the clock read 13:58.06. She had sliced more than two seconds off Gudaf Tsegay\u2019s 2023 mark to become the first woman in history to break 14 minutes\u2014a whopping 26 seconds faster than the world record was 20 years ago. As the jubilant crowd at Hayward Field celebrated, Chebet hugged fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, who had been watching trackside and lifted her countrywoman toward the heavens.<\/p>\n

About 80 minutes later, it was Kipyegon\u2019s turn<\/a> to astonish\u2014just nine days off her galvanizing attempt to become the first woman to break four minutes in the mile in Paris. The hype for this 1500-meter race was so high that organizers had decided to end the meet with the event, moving the Bowerman Mile, the usual finale, earlier in the program. From the moment the pacer stepped aside, Kipyegon took control, and with 300 meters left, she broke into a full sprint, leaving no questions about the race other than the final digits on the clock. The numbers 3:48.68 flashed on the finish line display, about a half second faster than her previous best, pronouncing Kipyegon\u2019s third 1500 world record since 2023.<\/p>\n

These two extraordinary displays were, of course, hardly the only track-and-field world records set in recent memory. The conception of what is possible in the marathon has been permanently altered\u2014with Eliud Kipchoge\u2019s stunning success in Breaking2 (a record-ineligible Nike project to break two hours in the marathon by leveraging pacers and technical innovations) and Kelvin Kiptum<\/a> nearly crossing that mythic threshold with a 2:00:35 world record at the 2023 Chicago Marathon. In 2024, Beatrice Chebet destroyed the 10,000-meter record. Meanwhile, the men\u2019s half marathon best was eclipsed twice (by Yomif Kejelcha and Jacob Kiplimo) in four months. Three men have set the all-time top 25 marks in the men\u2019s 400-meter hurdles in the past four years, while the top 27 marks for women at that distance have been set since 2021. Even the kids are in on the action, as Texan schoolboy Cooper Lutkenhaus<\/a>, then only 16, ran 800 meters in a breathtaking 1:42.27, a new U18 world record, in August 2025.<\/p>\n

To be sure, watching massively talented athletes redefine the contours of possibility is mesmerizing and inspiring. But it also raises reasonable and knotty questions. Why do humans keep getting better and running faster? Is there a limit to how fast the very best runners can go\u2014and if so, what is that limit? And is all of this happening because the shoes are better?<\/p>\n

\"WomenELIJAH AGURS<\/p>\n

Women have historically trained like men, but ongoing studies looking into hormonal differences may change that in the next decade.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, the Washington Postpublished<\/a> a long feature on this topic, reaching the unassailable but unsatisfying conclusion that the pace of human evolution moves too slowly to be noticeable\u2014and certainly too slowly to impact how fast humans can run. That Jesse Owens and Grete Waitz would still be world class if they were born today and able to take advantage of all the latest technology and training science. The story proclaimed that with track records, \u201cwe may be approaching the razor\u2019s edge of possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t seem likely. This is not just my opinion\u2014it\u2019s what I heard from top researchers who study the topic, the physiologists who consulted on projects like Kipchoge\u2019s Breaking2 and Kipyegon\u2019s Breaking4, and those who work with the best runners on earth. Their view is that the persistent nibbling of world records that has delighted fans for many decades will continue for many more to come, and that certain popular views\u2014like extraordinary performances being largely attributed to advanced technology or novel doping techniques\u2014don\u2019t fully explain what fuels this relentless progression.<\/p>\n

In 2008\u2014before Usain Bolt and Kipchoge had completed their best work, and long before Kipyegon and Chebet were on the world\u2019s stage\u2014Stanford biologist Mark Denny published a study in the Journal of Experimental Biology in which he modeled out the fastest time men and women would ever run in the most popular track and field distances. For the men, Denny predicted an \u201cabsolute world record\u201d of 18.63 for the 200 and 25:03 for the 10,000-meter mark, both of which seem very safe in early 2026. On the women\u2019s side, Denny forecast a 100-meter record of 10.39 and an 800-meter mark of 1:50.83, which again seem untouchable.<\/p>\n

But the endeavor to predict the boundaries of human performance, even with rigorous scientific underpinnings, is a tricky business. Only 18 years after he published the study, two of Denny\u2019s \u201cabsolute\u201d records have already been broken\u2014Kiptum\u2019s 2:00:35 marathon eclipsed the study\u2019s predicted limit of 2:00:47, and six women have beaten Denny\u2019s 2:14:57 threshold. And Kipyegon\u2019s best 1500-meter run is only 0.76 seconds from the supposed all-time record.<\/p>\n

Surely there is a limit to how fast humans can run, but even now, in an era of great scientific knowledge, it may not be possible to determine definitively what that limit might be. But it is possible to discern where these gains will come from.<\/p>\n

\"RunnersELIJAH AGURS<\/p>\n

Elite runners constantly train in super shoes, and evidence suggests that the shoes attenuate damage from training, getting athletes to the starting line in better shape.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

WHEN THE MARS Blackmon character that Spike Lee played in Nike commercials almost 40 years ago proclaimed, \u201cIt\u2019s gotta be the shoes!\u201d he was boasting about hoops and Michael Jordan, but that sentiment has reemerged as conventional wisdom about distance running. It all started in 2016, when a new category burst onto the scene: the so-called super shoe. Extremely lightweight, with a carbon plate encased in thick foam, the Nike Vaporfly started a revolution and has become the new normal in elite distance racing.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt the shoes work, but just how much? \u201cThe shoes may give you a 1 percent advantage,\u201d says Edward Coyle, an applied physiologist and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. \u201cSome were saying 4 percent when the first Nikes came out, but it\u2019s been proven to be a lot less. Still, 1 percent is a lot.\u201d That modest-sounding benefit translates into one or two minutes for an elite marathoner.<\/p>\n

But experts say that the advantage of super shoes likely goes beyond race-day performance. \u201cPeople often forget that elite athletes train in the shoes all the time,\u201d says Andrew Jones, a professor of applied physiology at the University of Exeter in the U.K., who was involved in both the Breaking2 and Breaking4 projects. \u201cAnd now evidence suggests that the amount of damage they feel when they train is massively attenuated in those shoes\u2014meaning they can do a higher volume or the same volume at a higher speed. So, probably athletes are getting to the start line in better condition than in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do humans keep getting better and running faster? Is there a limit to how fast the very best runners can go \u2013 and if so, what is that limit?<\/p>\n

But super shoes are hardly the only technologically advanced equipment top runners are benefiting from. As part of Nike\u2019s Breaking4 initiative, Faith Kipyegon wore a sports bra made with a soft, pliable polymer called FlyWeb that was 3D-printed and optimized for moisture management\u2014all to reduce thermal load under peak exertion. She also wore a one-piece suit constructed with tiny raised half-circles called Aeronodes that reduced her aerodynamic drag at 15 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

And if you watch races from 800 to 10,000 meters at a Diamond League meet, you\u2019ll see strips of LED lighting along the track\u2019s edge that give runners (and fans) real-time insight on how their effort compares to predetermined pace. First allowed in competition in 2020, Wavelight technology has become common in non-championship races. Published research indicates that the lighting has allowed elite distance runners to maintain more optimal pacing strategies.<\/p>\n

Experts shrug when asked whether these new advancements are somehow unfair\u2014making it impossible to compare contemporary records with those from the past. \u201cYou cannot separate advancements in technology from advancements in performance,\u201d says physiologist Brad Wilkins, director of the Oregon Performance Research Laboratory at the University of Oregon. He and Michael Joyner, a physiologist at Mayo Clinic, cowrote a 2024 viewpoint piece in the Journal of Applied Physiology that highlighted a century of technological change in track and field. Cinder tracks have been supplanted by sophisticated synthetic surfaces that deliver significantly higher energy return; the sport has seen the adoption of stopwatches and intermediate split clocks and professional pacers, as well as the emergence of data-driven training tools.<\/p>\n

Can the steady pace of technological innovation continue? The experts say definitely\u2026 maybe. \u201cThe distance running record books have changed dramatically in the last five years because of the breakthrough in shoe technology,\u201d says Peter Weyand, a biomechanics expert and director of the Locomotor Performance Laboratory at Texas Christian University. \u201cSo if we project forward, can the materials get better? Yes. But we probably won\u2019t see jumps in the future that are as large as what we\u2019ve already seen if the technical regulations stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

With shoes, lights, nutritional supplements, and other innovations that help make athletes faster, governing bodies like the World Athletics and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) determine what\u2019s permitted. Currently, for instance, super shoes are allowed to have a maximum midsole thickness of what appears to be an arbitrary standard of 40mm and only one carbon plate. But if those standards were to change, more advancement might be possible.<\/p>\n

The endeavor to predict the boundaries of human performance, even with rigorous scientific underpinnings, is a tricky business.\"Can<\/p>\n

ELIJAH AGURS<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

IN MARCH 2025, American Grant Fisher electrified the crowd watching the 5,000-meter race at the Valentine Invitational at Boston University, setting a world indoor record\u2014running 12:44.09 to slice five seconds off a long-standing mark set 21 years earlier by the legendary Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia. When reporters asked how he could explain his amazing performance, he said he had started consuming\u2014wait for it\u2014baking soda as a performance booster.<\/p>\n

Wilkins, who has watched the sport evolve for decades, says that \u201cone factor that keeps changing is our understanding of the limits of physiology and how we can modify that through training adaptations.\u201d Physiologists have gotten much better at figuring out load management\u2014the process of monitoring and optimizing an athlete\u2019s status and workouts to maximize strength and adapt to new training stresses without causing undue fatigue or injury. And that understanding, he says, will continue to progress.<\/p>\n

Two of the more prominent advances in the nutrition space are centered around the use of bicarb\u2014short for sodium bicarbonate, the scientific name for baking soda\u2014and carbohydrate loading. Neither of these methods is new. For decades, experts have known that bicarb could raise muscle pH and thus reduce the buildup of lactic acid during intense anaerobic efforts, and that relatively high carbohydrate intake could improve endurance performance.<\/p>\n

The consumption of bicarb and carbohydrate-loading is fully compliant with existing WADA standards. Bicarb alone might translate to two seconds for a top miler, Coyle says. And many elite runners are using it to their advantage. Recently, the Swedish company Maurten, which markets a gooey hydrogel mixed with bicarb that can be easily absorbed in the stomach and intestines, claimed that two-thirds of all track-and-field medalists at the 2024 Games in distances from the 800 to the 10,000 were using their products.<\/p>\n

In the past, top endurance athletes consumed roughly 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour (to keep their glycogen stores topped off) because it seemed the body couldn\u2019t absorb more than that. But scientists discovered that glucose and fructose (sugars that are common carbohydrate sources) are absorbed by different mechanisms. So now elite marathoners commonly consume 90 to 120 grams of carbohydrate per hour (the equivalent of downing four to six gels in 60 minutes) using formulations with an optimal glucose-fructose blend.<\/p>\n

In this way, the nature of \u201ctraining\u201d continues to evolve\u2014and it doesn\u2019t stop at traditional training to maximize an athlete\u2019s aerobic and anaerobic output. \u201cWe\u2019ve also improved our understanding of recovery methods, sleep, heat stress, and hormone status\u2014and we can track different blood markers,\u201d Wilkins says. \u201cSo now we can monitor these things and make sure people can improve the probability of an optimal adaptation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CanELIJAH AGURS<\/p>\n

The Nike Air Maxfly is a sprint spike super shoe built for elite runners in the 60- to 400-meter range.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

ON A COOL autumn morning in October 2019, Eliud Kipchoge completed a marathon in Vienna like no one had ever seen before. For most of this effort, he sat behind an aerodynamically optimal platoon of pacers, who kept the Kenyan on the perfect pace to become the first human to break two hours at the distance. And with 500 meters to go, he surged in front of the seven remaining pacers to sprint alone to the finish line. The clock read 1:59:40 as he triumphantly pounded his chest and then hugged his wife. And while there is no question about his physiological achievement, Kipchoge\u2019s success underscored how psychology and sociology play a role in pushing the boundaries.<\/p>\n

Experts increasingly understand how the mind is a powerful force in setting records. That\u2019s what differentiated Kipchoge from the other athletes who participated in the project, says Jones. \u201cThe other guys\u2026couldn\u2019t get their head around the possibility of running three or four minutes faster than they ever had before. Eliud genuinely thought he could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones points out how both Kipyegon and Kipchoge have an outsize belief in their coach, Olympic medalist Patrick Sang. \u201cHe\u2019s the kind of guru figure that enables this mindset that success breeds s<\/p>\n

uccess,\u201d Jones says. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to break a record if you don\u2019t believe that you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, experts say, record-setting begets more record-setting. The impact may not be instantaneous, Joyner says, \u201cbut eventually somebody breaks an important barrier and\u2026suddenly, more athletes believe in themselves, and promoters get on board, and the whole ecosystem just shifts to a faster time.\u201d Now, more than 70 years after Roger Bannister broke the four-minute-mile barrier, more than 2,000 men have run sub-four, the world record is 3:43, and the odds that a woman will cross that threshold soonish look plausible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese attempts are our moon shots: bold and deeply human,\u201d says Amy Jones Vaterlaus, VP of Women\u2019s Research at Nike Sport Research Lab and innovation lead for Breaking2. \u201cThey are cultural inflection points that shift what people believe is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

New technology has allowed distance runners to push the boundaries of human performance, but the technology alone can’t explain the scale of improvements we’ve seen in the last decade.\"Graph<\/p>\n

IN THIS ERA of attention-grabbing moon shots, many experts think that the pace of longer-distance record-setting on the women\u2019s side will outpace the men, due to the comparatively short period of time female distance runners have been competing at the highest level and getting similar opportunities. In the Olympics, for instance, women didn\u2019t run the marathon until 1984; the 10,000-meter run wasn\u2019t introduced until 1988; and the 5K didn\u2019t replace the 3K until 1996.<\/p>\n

In a similar vein, physiological research and training protocols focusing on women have been rare. \u201cWomen are still training like men have for decades, but I think that\u2019s going to change in the next five to 10 years,\u201d says Wilkins, adding that studies of performance differences across the menstrual cycle are under way and also look at hormonal differences between men and women, trying to understand how the physiological limits may be different. \u201cAs we learn more, that gets translated into training plans,\u201d he says. \u201cThe full application isn\u2019t happening yet, but that part is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kipyegon\u2019s Breaking4 sits at the front lines of this process. On paper, this goal is more challenging than the initiative that led to Kipchoge\u2019s sub-two marathon. For one thing, the 3.1 percent improvement required to break the women\u2019s mile record is substantially greater than the 1.4 percent jump Kipchoge had to achieve.<\/p>\n

Research into the physiological challenges women face in middle-distance races lags behind pure endurance events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith women, if you look at where the sex differences are greatest, it\u2019s in the 800,\u201d says Joyner, adding that the event\u2019s demands are half aerobic and half anaerobic. Nearly all men who have broken the four-minute barrier can run a 1:50 half mile and a 50-second final lap, Joyner points out. But he and other experts believe mile records will continue to come and that eventually the four-minute mark and 800-meter records will fall.<\/p>\n

\"CanELIJAH AGURS<\/p>\n

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone holds the second-fastest time in the 400-meter race with 47.78, only 18 hundredths off the world record.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

IT\u2019S UNWISE TO talk about the ever-changing boundaries of human performance without addressing the specter of performance-enhancing drugs. PEDs have and always will be a concern. Athletes who use them will continue to be caught and sanctioned. But many of the experts I talked to say the impact of illegal drugs and techniques is smaller than in the past and that they\u2019re a less impactful variable than some may suspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometime in the mid-2000s, drug testing got better, so now we can say for sure that the era of industrial-strength doping is over,\u201d says Joyner, referring to advancements like the invention of accurate urine and blood tests for erythropoietin (EPO) and the later development of the athlete\u2019s biological passport, which tracks each competitor\u2019s biomarkers over time. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean people aren\u2019t microdosing or that there aren\u2019t novel compounds out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you look at the world record times for all events and for both men and women, the ones that appear toughest to break are middle-distance marks that were set in an era when doping was more common, and some performances have questions or shadows hanging over them. In a perverse manner, the fact that the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter records from the 1980s still stand is an encouraging sign that today\u2019s top performances\u2014which are getting increasingly close to those marks\u2014are on solid ground. At the 2025 Tokyo World Championships, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the 400-meter race in 47.78, the second-fastest time in history and only 18 hundredths of a second off the mark East Germany\u2019s Marita Koch ran in 1985.<\/p>\n

While Coyle agrees that doping is present, he thinks people overestimate the long-term impact. \u201cConsider blood doping or taking erythropoietin, which raises blood volume and improves performance by 1 or 2 percent,\u201d he says. \u201cIn a given race, that could be a lot. But over the course of continued setting of world records, we\u2019re talking about 20 to 30 percent improvements. That\u2019s not coming from drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coyle is bemused by the discourse around the so-called Enhanced Games, which will allow athletes to use drugs banned by the World Anti-Doping Code and is set to debut in May in Las Vegas. While some observers envision a wild west where records are smashed, Coyle thinks that notion is \u201cridiculous\u201d and that few enhanced athletes will match the results of those who are the most talented and hardworking. \u201cSome people have too much faith in drugs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

ULTIMATELY, PERFORMANCE IS a matter of probability and math. If you watch a record attempt, you\u2019re seeing the results of hard work and smart training and the application of the latest technology and a fiery competitive spirit. But none of this is possible without one thing: raw talent.<\/p>\n

Think of it like a lottery ticket. Maybe an athlete needs a one-in-a-million ticket to reach an Olympic final and be a one-in-a-billion winner to be physiologically capable of setting a rarefied world record. So in the quest for more world records, coaches need to find and develop more athletes with winning tickets.<\/p>\n

This partially explains the explosion of top talent from East Africa, where endurance running is the premier sport. And while some countries (like China, Germany, and Australia) have sophisticated programs to identify young athletes with specialized gifts and then steer them into specific sports, that sort of infrastructure has fallen out of favor in the U.S. Joyner, for instance, points out that some of the top American distance runners in past eras were first identified by running the 600-yard dash in the controversial Presidential Fitness Test (which was created in 1956, discontinued at the end of the 2012\/2013 school year, and reinstated in July 2025).<\/p>\n

If you watch a record attempt, you’re seeing the results of hard work and smart training and the application of the latest technology and a fiery competitive spirit. But none of this is possible without one thing: raw talent.<\/p>\n

Coyle has created mathematical models that quantify the variables leading to elite running performances. One of them analyzes the factors that inform how fast men can run a mile (a similar analysis for women has not yet been done). \u201cIt mostly boils down to how much energy they can produce aerobically and how efficient they are at converting that energy into speed,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there are about 20 things that impact your body\u2019s ability to produce energy aerobically for three or four minutes\u2014the biochemistry of [the] muscles, the quantity of blood vessels, the size of [the] heart, [the] ability to clear lactic acid from muscles, and so on.\u201d The odds of one person having the very best score or results in all or even most of those 20 factors are extremely low, he adds. He points to other researchers\u2019 models of the optimal times elite runners are physiologically capable of performing\u2014what mathematicians call the asymptote, the spot where a curve flattens out. For the men\u2019s mile, one study predicted an asymptote at 3:17.<\/p>\n

Which sounds crazy. But as Coyle points out, 3:43 would have sounded crazy in 1954 after Roger Bannister ran 3:59.4. And perhaps no crazier than comparing a sub-four-minute mile for a woman to Mary Decker\u2019s 1980 world record of 4:21.68. Over time, the small leaps add up to mind-boggling results.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Holding Your Athletic Peak Back?\"Let\ufffdsELIJAH AGURS<\/p>\n

Faith Kipyegon is the only woman who\u2019s attempted to run a sub-four-minute mile so far.<\/p>\n

To hit faster speeds, working on boosting your easy pace can be the key to your long race success. For most runners, the \u201ceasy pace\u201d is somewhere in between high zone 1 and low zone 2 effort, explains Sasha Gollish, PhD, registered professional engineer and middle- and long-distance run coach. It\u2019s easy to get stuck at this effort, considering it\u2019s where we just want to feel calm and steady. You\u2019re still working, just not very hard. To get out of a speed rut, ask yourself these questions:<\/p>\n

1 \/ How does your \u201ceveryday pace\u201d actually feel?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re barely able to wheeze out a sentence, you may be pushing too hard, and that extra effort is ironically slowing you down. Hitting the right endurance pace allows you to improve your aerobic system, and that lets you get faster as you move into tempo and threshold efforts.<\/p>\n

2 \/ How long have you been stuck at this pace?<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s only been a few months since you saw progress, that\u2019s normal\u2026especially once you\u2019ve been running regularly for a few years, says Alex Ullman, cross-country coach at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Gains become more incremental as you get fitter, which may feel unfair as you see new runners around you making huge strides. However, if you\u2019ve been stuck for a year or two despite following a training plan, you may need to tweak an aspect of your training.<\/p>\n

3 \/ What factors could be affecting your pace?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve only noticed this plateau in the heat of summer, you may want to curb your panic until temps cool off, considering the heat can make your run feel harder, says Gollish. After an injury, it may take months to return to your faster paces. And age plays a role as well: Too often, Gollish notes, we try to compete with our past selves and hold onto paces that made sense 20 years ago. Yes, it\u2019s possible to improve fitness in your 60s, but you may need to temper your expectations.<\/p>\n

4 \/ Is your barrier mental or physical?<\/p>\n

While there is no perfect \u2018one size fits all\u2019 run form, if you\u2019re flailing around, slamming into the ground, and wasting energy, \u201cyou\u2019re going to see massive gains from working on your stride,\u201d says Gollish. \u201cBut a lot of us get stuck at a certain pace because we mentally [limit] ourselves. If you\u2019ve got a beautiful stride but you\u2019re constantly stuck in your head, you need to [think hard about] where that block is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

5 \/ Are you running by pace, feel, or heart rate?<\/p>\n

None of these metrics are bad, but each can cause you to get stuck if you\u2019re too caught up in it, says Ullman. Depending on which you tend to lean on, there are different strategies you can use to bust out of your rut.\u2014By Molly Hurford<\/p>\n

Can Science Predict Peak Speed?<\/p>\n

In 2008, Stanford biologist Mark Denny published a study in the Journal of Experimental Biology in which he shared a mathematical model that predicted the fastest time men and women would ever run in the most popular track-and-field distances.<\/p>\n

\"Table<\/p>\n

* Denny decided to disqualify FloJo\u2019s 10.49 due to wind-related objections and instead used her 10.61 time. Although World Athletics recognizes 10.49 as valid, RW followed Denny\u2019s decision for 2026 for data consistency. n\/a: not enough data to do a valid analysis.<\/p>\n

How to Actually Drop Seconds Off Your Pace?\"Let'sELIJAH AGURS<\/p>\n

Experts increasingly understand how the mind is a powerful force in setting records.<\/p>\n

Unstick Your Brain \/ \u201cIf you\u2019re an experienced runner who has been stuck for a year or two at the same pace\u2026you need to get out of the mental holding pattern you\u2019re in,\u201d says Alex Ullman, a cross-country coach at the University of Waterloo.<\/p>\n

Ullman likes to assign runners various interval workouts to get them used to different feelings. For example, if you\u2019re doing mile repeats, Ullman would set one of them faster than goal pace, one slower, and one at goal pace. Often, runners realize they can actually hit that faster pace with no problems, he says. The slower-pace interval also allows them to release the idea of the \u201cperfect workout\u201d where every interval is right on target.<\/p>\n

Stop Looking at Your Watch \/ Cover the watch face with masking tape and get used to doing your run analog-style by basing your pace on feel. \u201cJust start slow and then pay attention to your body signals,\u201d says Ullman. \u201cToward the end of your run, start pushing your boundaries by picking up the speed just a little bit. The more you work on this, the more you\u2019ll adapt to learning how to run by feel and understand when you can push.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pplay in Your Zone \/ You\u2019re likely attached to one specific heart rate that feels comfortable\u2014but if it\u2019s not at the top of the heart-rate zone you\u2019re training in, you have room to play. \u201cThat\u2019s the only way you\u2019re going to improve\u2014pushing your boundaries,\u201d says Ullman. \u201cYou learn so much about yourself when you do push a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expect to Fail \/ \u201cA lot of people get discouraged when they do a run and try to increase pace slightly halfway through but then realize in that last mile that they pushed it way too fast,\u201d says Ullman. \u201cYou learned that you can\u2019t hold that faster pace. Maybe you can hold a slightly slower pace the next time, though. Don\u2019t get discouraged; use it as information, and next week, you can do a similar workout and know where your boundaries are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take Other Factors Into Account \/ Lack of sleep, fatigue, weather, and terrain can all affect your pace. If you\u2019re doing trail running or hillwork or if it\u2019s 100 degrees, your pace will change.<\/p>\n

Sasha Gollish, PhD, registered professional engineer and middle- and long-distance run coach, notes that there are intangibles, including life stress, that can also slow you down. \u201cYou need to be able to back off and accept the pace that feels right in that moment.\u201d Don\u2019t get discouraged if your new speedier pace isn\u2019t there on every run.\u2014By Molly Hurford<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AT THE 2025 Prefontaine Classic, a sold-out crowd of 12,606 was treated to two profound demonstrations of human…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1058,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-414042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-feature","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}