There are many reasons. What you need to first realize is that people have different strengths and weaknesses. If the people you are racing have poor reactions and/or starting technique, it may take them some time to put it together. Not everyone has an awesome start, awesome top speed, awesome finish. If they did, everyone would run 9.7 and 19.3 easily and that just isn’t the case. Heck look at Tyson Gay, he was 3rd or 4th to 60m and he won the world championship and Asafa was 1st to 60m and ended up 3rd.
Now, in your case, without more times, it’s hard to say. Your 100/200 competition times (10.95 and 22.0) seem to line-up fine, maybe a slightly slower 200, but not by much, which means you have pretty good fitness. It might be a top speed issue then.
There are two very different ways you can have this kind of problem, in this is where what the relative times become important.
One of Charlie’s things is that the person with the highest top speed wins the race, and someone with 7.1 (6.78h) and 10.95 may actually be showing a relative weakness in speed/acceleration, rather than speed maintenance. If the other people in the race have more talent and/or place more emphasis on acceleration and MaxV, it CAN be that the others pull ahead not because you slow down more, but that they continue to accelerate. Because of this, I would pay some attention to what CF says in the present short-long thread and elsewhere about high volume workouts like 4X4X60 with relative short rest leading to 60’s with longer rest, and notice the times people have run off this kind of training.
Regarding the later part of the race, there’s a word I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread: RELAXATION. Once the MaxV has been built, speed maintenance is the result of SE work in the 80-120 range (example 4X120 with 10 min), and learning to relax at the end of the race. Concentrate on keeping the jaw and shoulders relaxed at the end, DON’T push for more speed by lengthening your stride, but maintain the stride that got you to your peak. The point of coming up and relaxing depends on how much acceleration power you have: This point can be farther out than 60 for some (Mo for instance) and less than 60 for people with less power. Forcing yourself to accelerate to 60 if you don’t have the power to accelerate to 60 can make you run slower: You have to run within yourself and not follow someone else’s template to the point of negative results.
Very informative, however, only very few elite sprinters are still accelerating at 60m and I very much doubt this is the case at this guys standard.
I’ve always had this trouble, good speed to around 70m but always die in the last 20m, this would improve through the season just through SE gained from racing (as a junior… never ran off of any training but competing).
Relaxation is key but also EFFICIENCY of the drive phase, it is an odd concept because this phase is obviously 100% but efficient a full ROM should be used. It can be how much energy is used in the drive phase that detirmines strength in the last 40.
When you talk about a full ROM in the drive phase, I would disagree in the early stages. The leg movement should be more linear than rotational. Over the initial strides it is like keeping your feet close to the floor, like a speed skating type action. Look at Ato and Frater for an example. In terms of efficiency, are you saying that you need to conserve energy over the first 60 for the last 40?
This is exactly what I was getting at. The OP is barely under 11.0, but talking about accelerating out to 60 apparently. More likely, he has the power to come up at 30-40 and trying to stay down or accelerate beyond this point is going to result in slower times (just accelerate different lengths with a stopwatch and pick the length that gives you the fastest 60 or 100).
The slower you are, likely the less power to accelerate, and the more pressure on SE and the right side of the curve. Even if you’re doing the 60’s in SPP I alluded to above, longer SE in the 80-120 still has a place.
Relaxation is key but also EFFICIENCY of the drive phase, it is an odd concept because this phase is obviously 100% but efficient a full ROM should be used. It can be how much energy is used in the drive phase that detirmines strength in the last 40.
John Smith likes to talk about Mo’s race against Bruny some years ago where Bruny had the lead at 70-80 meters but Mo held his form and relaxation (and Bruny didn’t) and Mo won the race in the last couple of steps. Relaxation after your acceleration is finished is a big part of managing resources and JS has whole workouts dedicated to teaching this. Confidence and belief is also important here–the belief that if you relax and don’t panic, it will all work out in the end.
You should have posted your training/sporting background… I can only assume that it is mostly team sport which is why you’re timing 40y… am I wrong? That’s what I did as a junior, played rugby and football in the winter then just filled in the summer with track and field. If you are a team sport athlete you’re going to be good over 40 becuase that is what you practice. To get any sort of speed maintanence I reckon you’ve got to hit the track.
what type of role do the arms play because I tend to get passive with my arms because it shortens my stride?should i concentrate more on my arms and not my legs
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but I think UK is referring to what Charlie calls the ‘finite envelope of energy’. Maybe you don’t try to conserve energy in the first 60m BUT you can burn out by 60m if that’s all you are capable of. LKH makes some good points above also, i.e. it may be the whole race that needs work (fitness, accel, max v, relaxation, then quality SE).
There’s a fairly old concept in sprinting that whatver the arms do the legs will follow. Personally, I tend to key leg turnover late in a race, but some (many?) people concentrate on arm motion. This is also why some coaches use dumbell workouts (light weights, rapid motion) to simulate the arm motion with gym workouts.
I just had a meet in the 100 because i slowed down at the end…But i was leading once again for the first 50 meters? I was wondering should I concentrate on knee lift when running or should I just concentrate on folding my leg sufficiently(step over more)?
I’d focus on the stepping over cue. Excessive knee lift can be a bad thing leading to longer flight times and leaning back in my experience. I believe Tom Tellez addresses that in his sprinting video with Carl Lewis.
so excessive knee lift can cause you to slow down…So folding my leg is better…I have been kind of cautious of the folding the leg thing because i thought it was a wasted motion
you really shouldn’t have to focus of having the leg fold because this should be a natural reaction if your form and flexibility is on point. any forced motion in a race as fast as the 100m will lead to slower times, especially forced leg motions.
I agree…the step over would/should occur if flexible anyway. I’d just focus on being super relaxed and pump the arms. Everything else will take care of itself.
