{"id":1855,"date":"2012-07-26T15:06:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T22:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.nau.edu\/news-p\/wordpress\/?p=1855"},"modified":"2013-12-10T15:48:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T22:48:07","slug":"plan-to-keep-track-of-olympic-running-let-an-nau-coach-help-you-stay-on-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/plan-to-keep-track-of-olympic-running-let-an-nau-coach-help-you-stay-on-pace\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to keep track of Olympic running? Let an NAU coach help you stay on pace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once every four years, the spectacle of the Summer Olympics splashes across television screens throughout the world. We watch out of a sense of novelty, or patriotism, or curiosity. We thrill to the competition and share in the emotion.<\/p>\n

But how well do we understand what we\u2019re seeing?<\/p>\n

Eric Heins<\/strong>\u00a0can help with that.<\/p>\n

Maybe not with every last event. Even he finds the\u00a0full schedule<\/a>\u00a0to be daunting, and he\u2019ll leave it to the announcers to explain, once again, \u201cWhat exactly is a velodrome?\u201d<\/p>\n

But the director of track and field and cross-country at Northern Arizona University can tell us plenty about distance running events. Besides, he has a vested interest.\u00a0Lopez Lomong<\/strong>,\u00a0David McNeill<\/strong>and\u00a0Diego Estrada<\/strong>, all of whom have sported NAU blue and gold on the track, will be in London for the 2012 Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Keep an eye on these four\u00a0from NAU<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Here\u2019s what to watch for from these athletes with NAU ties, according to coach Eric Heins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In the 10,000 meters:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

\"Diego
Diego Estrada<\/strong>, senior at NAU, All-American (Mexico): \u201cHis qualifying time was his best race since being at NAU,\u201d said Heims of Estrada\u2019s recent 27:32.90 performance at Stanford, in which he took the lead with three laps to go after trailing. \u201cIf you don\u2019t see him leading at the beginning, that\u2019s probably a good sign. He\u2019ll be gaining confidence throughout the race.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
In the 5,000 meters:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

\"Lopez
Lopez Lomong<\/strong>, 2011 NAU graduate, flag-bearer at the 2008 Beijing games (USA): Although Lomong has moved up to the 5,000 from the 1,500, in which he won a national championship, \u201che still has the speed of the shorter races,\u201d Heins said. The ideal scenario, he said, is \u201cif he\u2019s in the mix and the pace isn\u2019t super fast.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

\"David
David McNeill<\/strong>, 2010 NAU graduate, Academic All-American, two-time national champion (Australia): \u201cHe won both of his national championships with a great finishing kick,\u201d Heins said. \u201cIf he\u2019s up in the front six or seven and mixing it up with the leaders, he\u2019ll gain confidence.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Also…in the shot put:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

\"Amin
Amin Nikfar<\/strong>, 2009 master\u2019s in education, two-time Olympian (Iran), on his own Olympic experience: \u201cThe first memory of Beijing was wishing I would have done better. I trained pretty hard and throwing was going well. I got in there and tanked. It wasn\u2019t a good memory because I fouled out. Another memory, in the back of my mind, was knowing I was going to do it again and get better the next time because of all the valuable experience I gained.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The 10,000-meter final is Aug. 4. Round 1 of the 5,000 meters is Aug. 8, with the final scheduled for Aug. 11. The shot put qualifying rounds and finals are Aug. 3.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cTrack and field gets the spotlight during the Olympics, which is great for us,\u201d Heins said. \u201cEvery four years, we get a boost in viewership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the popularity is fleeting, and often leads to only a brief bump in knowledge about the sport. So if you want to do more than just\u00a0peer at the screen<\/a>, then here\u2019s some advice from Heins, who this spring received his 10th\u00a0Big Sky Coach of the Year award.<\/p>\n

First, if you don\u2019t speak metrics, the mathematical language of the Olympics, then get a translator. A\u00a0conversion table<\/a>\u00a0will quickly tell you how many yards are in a 1,500 meter run or just how feet that 8.3-meter long jump really was.<\/p>\n

And if you are willing to punch in a few more numbers, turning\u00a0pace into miles per hour<\/a>\u00a0might produce a firmer grasp of just how fast even distance runners can move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average person understands that a five-minute mile is pretty fast,\u201d Heins said. \u201cSome of these people are running nearly four-minute miles over five or six miles.\u201d<\/p>\n

A four-minute mile, by the way, is 15 mph, which is the speed limit on the NAU campus. If you\u2019re in a vehicle, that is.<\/p>\n

Still, those are just the basics. How a race evolves over a long distance, and what strategies are playing out in the minds of the athletes\u2014now that\u2019s the really good stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone usually goes to the front and pushes the pace. It\u2019s almost sacrificial,\u201d Heins said. \u201cThe people in the middle of the pack are conserving energy before they work their way up front. Our athletes in the 5K and 10K will hopefully be in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The middle is a crowded place for runners, with bumping and jostling and a risk of being tripped. And an awful lot is going on in their minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s kind of a conflict of interest in there,\u201d Heins said. \u201cThey want to get up front but they want to save energy, too. So each of them is wondering when they\u2019re going to make their move.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can see the thought process being played out as runners change lanes or glance over a shoulder. The camera might shift its focus there, away from the \u201crabbit\u201d out front who\u2019s pushing an impossible pace. Eventually, someone from that pack surges forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the best athletes have got to be flexible, and when they go in a race their strategy can\u2019t be set in stone,\u201d Heins said. \u201cIf you\u2019re over halfway in a race and not where you want to be, then you need to make an adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at the two-thirds mark of a 5K or 10K, Heins said, \u201cif you\u2019re in a bad position but you still feel good, you still have time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the mind games are playing out, there\u2019s plenty more to watch for. Biomechanics can display an athlete\u2019s control or betray increasing fatigue.\u00a0Monitor these signs<\/a>\u00a0to form your own insights about how the race is going.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, some of the racers at the front will begin to falter. That will be the last you see of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they\u2019re off the screen,\u201d Heins said, \u201cthey\u2019re not coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone from the back, though, might be moving forward. Keep that in mind if the runner you\u2019re pulling for hasn\u2019t been heard from. As Heins points out, even the experts can be fooled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coach sitting in the stands with friends and fellow coaches, even at the two-thirds mark, I\u2019m about 50-50\u201d on who\u2019s going to win, Heins said. \u201cI get more certain at 75 percent of the way, but you can never tell for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that, Heins said, is where the real fun can be found, and that\u2019s his final piece of advice. Watch with friends, pick a favorite before the starting gun and then witness the full drama of the race unfold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once every four years, the spectacle of the Summer Olympics splashes across television screens throughout the world. We watch out of a sense of novelty, or patriotism, or curiosity. We thrill to the competition and share in the emotion. But how well do we understand what we\u2019re seeing? Eric Heins\u00a0can help with that. Maybe not…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":1859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}