10k Head To Head Race
No, I'm not okay. I'm not okay. I'm absolutely not ready for this.
I haven't raced in so long and I'm more nervous than I want to admit. So,
you know, you should have a look at these.
See that? That's the bottom of my shoe.
Cause that's what you going to be looking at? Oh, I've had this all morning.
This is what I've had to deal with. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm going to put it all on the line.
We wanted to see who was faster,
a retired Olympian - that's me - or thriving young athlete.
So we set up a head-to-head race over 10K. Simple. Let's go.
So, Manni and I are going to watch back through the race together, relive it.
We were both wearing one of these, Garmin's HRM Pro,
which has all sorts of advanced running dynamics. We're gonna talk you through those.
Let's have a look at what happened.
Manni and Andy have to run two laps around this woodland and like any
head-to-head the winner is the one that finishes first. Let's race.
How are you feeling? Your legs are shaking. Why are your legs shaking?
That's just nervous anticipation. I see. I see. You look so nervous, what's wrong with you?
Freshly shaved for aerodynamics.
I didn't think about that. I am ready. I hope you are.
If you do lose, please don't bring any excuses. You know, it's just,
it's just, it is what it is. If I lose... Well, it won't happen, but yeah.
So let's just, let's just make it,
make sure we're ready because all I'm saying is it's going
to be painful. Have you got a tissue? Sarah
just to make sure you got tissues at the end. All right. Cool.
Okay, and we're starting in 3, 2, 1, go go go!
So we're off.
Nice. I was so nervous. You were taking the mickey out me in the beginning because
I was incredibly nervous.
I was feeling really good. Really good. To be honest,
your body looks a lot more relaxed than mine. I think my, I was,
I was definitely flailing my arms, going for it.
Yeah. A little bit of side to side arm movement. Yeah, yeah.
Stride for stride,
But the smack talk's stopped.
It was already more than 10 beat heart rate difference between the two of us.
And we were definitely- three minutes 10, that's, whatever that is. 31
something 10K pace. We've been bold. We were
gunning it definitely going for it.
Into left-right balance. So green is in the middle,
which would be ideal where you've got even contact time between your right and
left foot, but I'm spending a bit more time on my right foot.
And you're spending a bit more time on your left foot.
Vertical ratio is a measure of your efficiency.
So how much you're moving forwards,
which you want, as that makes you faster, versus how much time or energy you waste going up or
down. So being in the purple zone is great.
That means that we're actually pretty good in this case here.
You can see in our arm carriage also in, in like the knee
lift and the heel flick and how much kind of rear side mechanics there is
going on. And you, you mentioned your achilles, like,
there's a difference left to right. Um, and yeah,
stride length shortens, cadence
reduces, ground contact time increases as you're getting more fatigued,
so you're spending longer on the ground and less efficient at
propelling yourself forwards. Even bigger difference between our heart rates now. 194,
I'm 175, which I know when I was fit,
that would have been right at top of my threshold zone.
I always say to myself, if you run well, it doesn't matter. You,
I think you went on the day, personally, just, you know,
racing for me will always be about that rhythm,
that sequencing, getting into the right zone, and your fitness.
You some, you, you can't just magic it. And we knew we were,
we knew we were similar fitness, didn't we, before.
This, though, had absolutely nothing to do with any of that for me.
It was a hundred percent that I wanted to beat you. You just wanted to crush, just wanted to crush you.
Not a single other thought in my mind, just "beat Manni". Eyy, this one.
That's why you went to the Commonwealth games and all those mad events.
Not me. Now, I was working hard.
When you started to make that gap, I really felt like,
let me try and keep you in eyeline.
Yeah. It's a pretty open course. So there was long
straights where we could see each other.
And I knew you were going to be able to see me for quite a while.
So here now you start to almost push ahead of me and I felt that you were
running right in front of me.
Yeah. I've just got one, like one step on you here, haven't I.
And I hate running with people who one-step me, but in a race,
I think it's okay. Look at me on my own,
actually. The balance here is drifted even more to the right.
So even more of an emphasis on my right. And your
ground contact time, I think has gone up as well.
Yeah. Spending longer on the ground. Very early
and anyone that's watched me run 1500 meters knows I don't like going early.
Small gap, but I can still hear him. And I know I've overcooked it.
I'm 20 seconds up.
I definitely felt that I could pull you back in. Like, at that moment,
I wasn't really, I was like, I can stay here.
I think I can stay here.
Slowed a bit to 3K.
Cause we both realised we might have been about ambitious. Very even still
really.
I mean, it was, it was a hot day.
It was probably close to 30 degrees when we were running,
which you can't always see on the screen and these little bits of shades through
the woods were welcomed.
And obviously I have more muscle mass.
So what that means is that I may get tired a lot sooner.
I'm not making excuses, but I'm just saying that's just the scientific evidence.
Boring. So boring. Sorry. So boring. Sorry. Oh, I got to the gym.
It is what it is. It is what it is.
Experience is one of the few things I've got going for me.
And I'm in two minds as to whether to push on, to break him,
put myself out of sight, but risk burying myself or sit here at this pace,
which is just about inside my red line.
My stride length is about 1.7 metres
when we start, yours is about 1.6 - that's 10 centimeters.
I am a little bit taller than you.
So actually, proportionally, your strides are probably slightly longer.
I have a very low knee lift and used to get the mickey taken out of me a lot.
People would call me The Hovercraft.
So you've drifted even more into the left side balance.
So outside into that red zone.
Yeah, definitely feeling the left leg is fatiguing and working hard to try and
keep it in some sort of sequence with my right.
Yeah. And your right heel flick's a lot higher.
Feels like two different, two different people, two different legs.
That's one lap. Coming up to 5K. The corners are killing me.
I'm hopeless. Cornering like a barge.
I'm nervous just watching it now because we've headed into the second lap here
and I've got a small gap on you. I'm hurting so bad.
You could see my heart rate creeping up. Ah yeah,
we've both drifted into the blue zone here for vertical ratio.
So wasting a little bit more effort up and down.
And my stride length is shorter by 20 centimetres.
When you're fatigued, that can happen. You become less explosive.
You want to take shorter strides, but just keep that momentum.
And that's what I was trying to think about.
Into that third quarter now, from 5K to 7.5K. The hardest bit of
any race and I'm, I'm really hurting.
I can look at my splits and see I'm maybe 20 seconds down this K.
I need to stop talking and for the sun to go away.
Yeah, you do look like you want to stop talking. You look like,
I don't want this cameraman. Who is this cameraman, why is he following me?
Where is he? I know he's coming. Ah.
I think there was a point where Sarah was, yeah,
this is the point where Sarah was recording me, I'm like, get out of my way.
I definitely felt that I could pull you back in. Like at that moment,
I wasn't really, I was like, I'm, I can stay here.
I think I can stay here.
My heart rate is now through the roof and my pace is through the
floor.
The ground contact time is again pushing further and further into the red. Look
at those numbers. 225 for me. And 237 for you. How were you feeling?
Fatigued, and you can see I'm spending much longer on the ground. Compared to when we started as
well, we're probably looking at 10 to 20% difference in ground contact time.
Inside 1500 to go. Mine to lose. This was my distance,
but I haven't got sprint finish. Not anymore.
So here it's just about damage limitation.
Let's go Manni, good job man. Let's go buddy. Clapping me in. Always a sportsman.
Literally, tears coming down my eyes. Great effort, all the way, all the way.
I'm exhausted. Who would you like to see
take on another challenge in the future and what challenge would you like it to
be? Let us know in the comments. Now let's take a quick look at the stats.
So I finished that 10K with a time of 36:06. Andy?
Great work Manni. And I finished with the time a 35:01.
I'd set out with a goal for 35 minutes and just didn't quite manage it.
So what I found really interesting from the Garmin data was my ground contact
time went from 197 to 225.
So for each step I was taking more time on the ground,
which meant I had an inefficient stretch shortening cycle of my muscles and
tendons, which can lead to a risk of more injury.
Yeah. And a similar reflection in the way that I was running and under fatigue,
setting off at a very ambitious pace. I'm not in 31 minute, 10K shape.
My stride length is 1,70m, which is proportional to my height, I'd say,
but by the end, almost 30 centimetres shorter at 1.45m.
So that's almost a foot shorter reduction in my stride length. Wow.
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