Pacing strategies in track and field

Introduction

Pacing is a part of everyday life. For example, when travelling, we pace our journeys to arrive at the appropriate time required for the event which we are going to. Pacing has also been observed in many different species, including in migratory birds travelling across continents or when a cheetah hunts for prey. In many sports, the athlete will require some type of pacing strategy in order to reach the endpoint of a race in the fastest possible time, while maintaining enough metabolic capacity to prevent premature fatigue. Pacing strategies differ according to the length of the athletic event, the environment in which the event is performed, the motivation of the athlete, and each athlete’s particular physiological capacity. In order to establish, maintain, and alter a pacing strategy for a particular event, the brain must process an enormous quantity of data from the external environment and from the different physiological systems of the body. These data are used to calculate whether an athlete’s power output and associated current metabolic capacity are appropriate for the distance of the event still to be covered in the prevailing environmental conditions. Pacing therefore represents, and is part of, the brain’s control processes regulating the function of the body before, during, and after an athletic event.

The importance of pacing has been appreciated for thousands of years, as is evident by the telling of Aesop’s classic fable of the tortoise and the hare, which illustrates the necessity for pacing in a manner that has been used by countless generations of parents and teachers to teach children the wisdom of regulating their life and activities with appropriate pacing strategies. While somewhat surprisingly the sport and exercise science community largely ignored pacing as an area of research interest until a few decades ago, since then there has been an explosion of interest in pacing and in the mechanisms which underpin it, as researchers have realised that pacing strategy underpins all athletic performance, and that all physiological activity in the body during exercise is ultimately regulated by the pacing strategy chosen by the athlete for the particular event they are performing or competing in.

Pacing strategies in track and field are the varied strategies which runners use to distribute their energy throughout a race. Optimal strategies exist and have been studied for the different events of track and field. These optimal strategies differ for runners in sprint events, such as the 100 meters, runners in middle-distance events, such as the 800 meters or the mile run, and runners in long-distance events, such as the 5000m or marathon. Additionally, pacing typically differs between different styles of races. For instance, in a time trial, where the goal of a racer is simply to run the fastest time, participants will typically employ the aforementioned optimal pacing strategy. However, in a championship race, where the goal of the racer is to win, the pace is typically slow in the beginning of the race and gradually speeds up for a sprint finish, often meaning the race is run with a negative split. Typically, to run a world record, the runner must employ a near-optimal pacing strategy.

Threshold Pacing

Threshold pacing is a strategy used for the event such as the 400 meters run, and the 400 meter relay. This pacing style is about putting in a lot of effort for a long period of time. The greater the intensity that is put into the run will carry out into the finish of this run. Many runners attack the 400 meter dash at the full 100%, but by starting with a medium to high running pace such as 75%, it then works up to all out, to about 100%. Using threshold running in an event such as the 400 meters it can be very beneficial. Starting off in a 400 meter run, not going all out at the beginning is key as runners have to keep a steady balance of fast running and pacing, just like threshold running. Once it is the last home stretch, that last 100 meters it's running all out breaking that threshold running and going up to that 100%.