THE FUTURE OF MEASUREMENT

Measurement News isan excellent magazine with considerable technical integrity. Runners would do well to analyze their performance objectively, although the dialogue that is based on the subjective analysis is also fun. Skiers and white-water rafters manage to quantify the difficulty of their courses and gymnasts the difficulty of their vaults. But a sufficiently accurate and useful hilliness index for runners, bikers, and cross-country skiers has yet to be found.

What if one were developed? Would it cause more trouble than it is worth? We must remember the context of measurement: group and personal records and analysis for the sake of analysis. Finally, do hills really matter? And, if so, how much when compared with all the other factors that affect the answer to the question, “What was your time?”

REFERENCES

Baumel. B. “Physiological Model of Distance Running Performance Including Hill and Wind Effects.” Measurement News, November, 1989, pp.13-22.

Baumel. B. & Jones, A. “Uphills and the Boston Marathon.” Measurement News, March, 1990, pp. 20-27.

Baumel, B. “Reflections on the 1m/1km Drop Standard.” Measurement News, July, 1990, pp. 30-32.

Baumel, B. “Hill Effect to Second Order.” Measurement News, January, 1989, pp. 41-43.

Baumel, B. & Riegel, P. “Drop and Separation.” Measurement News, May, 1989, pp. 6-21.

Buonchristiani, J. & Glickman, M. “Preliminary Analysis of Some Marathon Data.” Letter to Boston Athletic Association, July, 1991.

Derderian, T. “If There’s a World Record—WILL IT COUNT?” New England Runner, March 20, 1990, pp. 32-34.

Margaria, R. et al. “Energy Cost of Running.” Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol. 18, 1963, pp. 367-370.

Mastroianni, G., Zupan, M., Chuba, D., Berger, R., & Wile, A. “Voluntary Pacing of Off Road Cyclists and Runners.” Unpublished paper, 2000.

Minow, M. “An Analysis of Runner Performance at Recent Boston Marathons.” Unpublished paper, 1991.

Peacock, B., Ritter, M. & Horvath, D. “An Index of Hilliness: No Records Set in Boston.” Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association, the Biometrics Society, and the Institute for Math Statistics, 1993, San Francisco.

Riegel, P. “Downhill Courses.” Measurement News, January, 1989, pp. 29-31.

Riegel, P. “A Rough Experiment in Hill Running.” Measurement News, March,

1991, pp. 21-26.

82 Me MARATHON & BEYOND November/December 2000

— rr

— burlington

Vvermont’s.

| —— ee ———~—“i— — OO 8 pee a ee Po a ———— ee — —————— LL Se jj ee ee C—rr—~—~—~—™ ee Ree ee ee eee Bee ee: ee Cy bo 2 : a rrrS—~s”~—~”—”—— Cy ——rrCS~—~—w CS oy 2 =e ———rti‘CO—— vf 8 05 a.m. Neem 2=S—rsra_—=—esmeSS—<S<a<aSsSs goo 2 ; _ ‘ Co ll Mostly flat, city course ——rrrCrt™~”~—~—”— = Ce eee rr pe

my. f oo ny’ Live music on the course

– – [os

eee ORES a eee Mma ea]

a rrrr”~—~—~—~—~— rr

COCO Be ES ec ee ee a —rti‘“‘—_iON—”—C SY

a rrt—~———

a ‘i H oF .6hLLULUL aaa ecu aan – -_

_ _ — a = rr — rti‘“iOSCS –

iC rt—~—‘“‘“‘OCCSsSsh

For mor mic) and registration form contac! — Gs ee ee rt—“‘“_O p Key Bank Vermont City Marathon a rrt—™ f iH Tamer y ey] _ OS eon atc ame. rrr On} — =S—s—e (800) 8 ee 149 i ==@-C—_—s ; a TDTLTLrrt™~—™—C— UPB | /www.vem.org po ee ee — ——~——r—— po oe ee — rr ——— Bee a8

” . . ‘ oe .

— 83 November/December 2000 MARATHON & BEYOND

The 10 Percent Solution

How to Become a Long-Distance Runner by Following the “Rule of 10.”

BY MICHAEL SELMAN

R ULES ARE made to be broken. In fact, some rules beg to be broken. One such rule came to mind this morning, while I was halfway through my run, trying to figure out how far I was going to go today. But what I learned, with the help of a calculator, is that, in fact, no rules must be broken on the road to long-distance running. It merely takes a little time and a little patience. Let me explain.

Any runner who knows anything about running knows the 10 percent rule. Let’s make that The 10 Percent Rule so it looks as important as it contends to be. The Rule: Don’t increase your mileage by more than 10 percent per week, as doing so can lead to injury. Also, don’t increase your long run by more than 10 percent per week. If you do, you can end up on the sidelines. Finally, don’t you dare do more than 10 percent of your total miles as speedwork, or you’ Il certainly break down.

Now, I’m pretty good with math, but these formulas leave me scratching my head and asking lots of questions. And on this particular morning’s run, the following train of thought chugged through my mind as I tried to determine how far Icouldrun without breaking any rules. Last week, my long run was 10 miles, and my weekly total was about 28. The week before my long run was 13.1 miles, as I ran in a local half-marathon. This week, before today, I had run a total of 10 miles, and I knew I still had tomorrow and Sunday to go. (My training week runs Monday through Sunday.)

So, early in my run, I hit my first dilemma. Since I ran only a 10-mile-long run last week, does that mean my maximum run this week could be only 11 miles? That looks like this: (10 + 10% [1] = 11). Or am I allowed to carry over the 13.1-mile run I ran two weeks ago, thus permitting me to run 14.31 miles, which looks like this: (13.1 + 10% [1.31] = 14.31). The next moment of wonder came a few minutes later. If I chose to run 11 miles today, taking the 10 percent tule to the letter of the law, that would bring me up to 21 for the week. Since last

84 Hi MARATHON & BEYOND November/December 2000