Intro
Digital innovations throughout history have thrust mankind to new heights in just about every aspect. We are seeing new advancements in technology daily pushing the human limit of capabilities further and further. One-way new tech is doing this is shown throughout the world of sports, specifically track running. Running is one of the easiest sports to see progression in human evolution through the stats that it produces. Unlike other sports, track running has fewer “skill” based aspects for biased opinions to be involved in the debates of “who is better than who?”. It is all just based on the facts where there is a very clear line of who beat who on any given day. Someone who can run a 4-minute mile in a race is better than someone who can run a 5-minute mile.
Background
Track running dates back centuries ago as men would honor their Greek Gods by showing off their athletic abilities. From 776 BC, the ancient games were held in Olympia every four years for almost twelve centuries. Additional athletic events were gradually added, including more categories such as the discus, javelin, and broad jump- all still present in today’s sport. The first modernized Olympic games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896.
Since then the sport of running has taken off proving to push the boundaries of what people think is physically possible to the limit. Scientists and athletes for years believed that running a sub-four-minute mile was physically impossible until 1954 when Roger Bannister became the first person to break the four-minute barrier. Just ten years later Jim Ryun becomes the first high schooler to go under four minutes in the mile. Today there are over 1600+ athletes who have broken the four-minute barrier with 50+ athletes just in the NCAA last year running under four. Just last week 8 men from the University of Washington all ran under four minutes in the same race with the winning time being 3:51!
The marathon was one of the first events in Olympic history to be run. Just like the four-minute mile scientists and athletes were unsure if it was humanly possible for anyone to break two hours in the marathon (4:35 per mile for 26.2 miles). This was believed until 2019 when Eliud Kipchoge star struck the running world and ran a marathon in 1 hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds. Kipchoge is still the only person to have gone under this barrier, but it is only a matter of time until the next person does the same.
The question that comes to mind is how does something like running a sub-four-minute mile go from seemingly physically impossible to having almost 100+ people do it in one year just fifty years later. There are several factors that come into play here with digital innovations in watches playing a big role in answering this question.
Watch Innovation
Heart rate watches have changed the world of running by providing runners with real-time feedback on their physiological performance. This has allowed runners to train more effectively, set more realistic goals, and track their progress.
Before the advent of heart rate monitors, runners relied on subjective methods to gauge their intensity, such as perceived exertion or pace. With heart rate watches, runners can now measure their heart rate and determine if they are working at the right intensity for their goals.
Moreover, heart rate watches have also made it easier for runners to track their progress over time. By measuring heart rate during training and races, runners can see how their fitness is improving and make adjustments to their training if needed. This has helped runners to perform at their best and reach their full potential.
Heart rate is not where the innovation of these watches has stopped for helping performance as they can also track your sleep. Most high-tech watches nowadays only need about 30 minutes of charge time every couple of days allowing the user to wear them while sleeping as well! This allows the watch to calculate total fatigue for athletes to adjust training as needed. With the stats from hours of sleep, workload, and average resting heart rate a watch can give recommendations on adjustments that can be taken to help an athlete know when their body is ready to perform at its max potential.
Another trait that watches have brought to the table is GPS. With GPS watches runners can now see their distance and pace in real-time and be able to adjust paces as needed throughout a run. There are several different paces that runners train at to maximize their performance. These paces are calculated based on their most recent races. As a runner, having a GPS watch has helped me take more control of my training by being able to see when I am going too fast and when in a run, I need to pick up the pace. GPS watches have also changed the way that runners participate in races. With GPS technology, races can now be accurately timed and measured, which has improved the accuracy and fairness of race results. Additionally, GPS watches have made it possible for runners to participate in virtual races, which have become increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusion
Watches have revolutionized the way runners train and have brought new insight into certain heart rate zones athletes should be in when training. With technology being able to gauge fatigue athletes and coaches can now play around with different training philosophies to see live results on whether an athlete is improving or not.
Sources
Only 1,497 humans have ever broken the 4-minute mile – and I’m one of them – CBC Sports
The gun goes off and immediately I tuck behind my two pacemakers, Darryl Fillion and Matt Kerr. Darryl has the task of taking us through the first 800 metres in 1:58 and 2:27-2:28 at the 1,000 mark before Matt takes over for the next 200 to get me to bell lap.
Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier (Published 2019)
In Vienna, the Kenyan achieved a milestone once believed to be unattainable. But his time, 1:59:40, will not be recognized as a world record. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
Is The Sub-4-Minute Mile Still Special? – Citius Mag
A strange phenomenon seems to be occurring in the NCAA this winter. Middle-distance men are breaking four minutes in the mile at an astronomically higher rate than they used to.
https://en.as.com/other_sports/where-did-track-and-field-originate-n/ https://www.runnersworld.com/gear/a32320870/garmin-gps-watch-features-enhance-run/