Thursday, June 11, 2009

41 degrees

Another cool factoid from the Karnazes book: the US Army did a comprehensive study of 6 major marathons with data from the past several decades and found that cold weather is best for optimal long distance running performance. 41 degrees is the optimal temperature for the marathon. And every degree above 60 is roughly equivalent to minus 1% in performance because of the negative effect of the heat. A good reason to skip the summer marathons and save the big races for fall and spring.
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2 comments:

  1. Carolina JohnJune 11, 2009 at 4:59 PM

    i thought that was kind of wild too. i ran a half when it was in the high 30's outside and still froze my ass off. it's supposed to be 83 in kentucky for my marathon on saturday.

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  2. Mike GJune 11, 2009 at 5:13 PM

    83! - hmmm. Drink lots of water my friend ;)

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