Hello!
My apologies if this is in the wrong forum topic.
Short background:
I was reading an article by a running coach. He mentions that ideally, for the average person, there's a 20-21% decrease in speed for every doubling of a distance (i.e. from 400 meters to 800 meters, from 800 meters to 1600 meters, etc.).
He then gives an example of a client he worked with who had a 400-meter time of 1 minute, and a 1600-meter time of 6 minutes. The coach mentions that this is roughly a 28.5% decrease in speed, meaning the goal is to get this client's 1600-meter time down to 5:25 (which he says brings the client to the ideal 20-21% speed decrement).
I've spent an embarrassingly large amount of time trying to figure this out to no avail. I can't figure out how the coach is calculating ~28.5% decrement in speed from a 1 minute 400 meter, vs a 6 minute 1600 meter. And I don't understand how a 1600-meter time of 5:25 is around a 20% reduction in speed from the given 60 second 400-meter.
This is what I keep thinking WOULD have been the right way to do it, but clearly not:
If we're given a 400-meter time of 60 seconds...
Then an ideal 800-meter time (based off the idea that every doubling of distance decreases speed by 20%) would be 2 minutes 24 seconds. (20% of 1 minute = 12 seconds -> 1 minute 12 seconds * 2 = 2 minutes 24 seconds).
Then the ideal 1600 meter time would be 5 minutes 45 seconds. (20% of 2 minutes 24 seconds = 28.5 seconds -> 2 minutes 52 seconds * 2 = 5 minutes 45 seconds).
All help is very greatly appreciated!
Please let me know if any clarification is needed.
Thank you very much for your time.
My apologies if this is in the wrong forum topic.
Short background:
I was reading an article by a running coach. He mentions that ideally, for the average person, there's a 20-21% decrease in speed for every doubling of a distance (i.e. from 400 meters to 800 meters, from 800 meters to 1600 meters, etc.).
He then gives an example of a client he worked with who had a 400-meter time of 1 minute, and a 1600-meter time of 6 minutes. The coach mentions that this is roughly a 28.5% decrease in speed, meaning the goal is to get this client's 1600-meter time down to 5:25 (which he says brings the client to the ideal 20-21% speed decrement).
I've spent an embarrassingly large amount of time trying to figure this out to no avail. I can't figure out how the coach is calculating ~28.5% decrement in speed from a 1 minute 400 meter, vs a 6 minute 1600 meter. And I don't understand how a 1600-meter time of 5:25 is around a 20% reduction in speed from the given 60 second 400-meter.
This is what I keep thinking WOULD have been the right way to do it, but clearly not:
If we're given a 400-meter time of 60 seconds...
Then an ideal 800-meter time (based off the idea that every doubling of distance decreases speed by 20%) would be 2 minutes 24 seconds. (20% of 1 minute = 12 seconds -> 1 minute 12 seconds * 2 = 2 minutes 24 seconds).
Then the ideal 1600 meter time would be 5 minutes 45 seconds. (20% of 2 minutes 24 seconds = 28.5 seconds -> 2 minutes 52 seconds * 2 = 5 minutes 45 seconds).
All help is very greatly appreciated!
Please let me know if any clarification is needed.
Thank you very much for your time.
