Chapter 31: Sometimes Running Is a Math Problem

Pearl River Delta Invitational.
100-meter semi-finals.

Standing on the track, Su Shen went through his preparatory movements. He pressed his hands forward, feeling the grainy texture of the track surface, and gently rested one knee on the ground.

"On your marks."

His fingers pressed firmly against the track, forming an arch to provide a springy support for the start.

"Set."

All eight runners shifted into the set position, hips raised, like eight small cheetahs waiting for the starting gun to unleash their explosive power.

Yet, no matter how one looked at it, Su Shen’s starting stance was the most aesthetically pleasing and the most natural.

This starting position is not easy to master perfectly.

Without the support of scientific theory, athletes nowadays rely on shared experience or their coaches' instructions. However, a dozen years later, this would be long established with scientific zones and classifications, including specific methods for adjustments. In his own research papers, Su Shen had specifically studied this starting technique.

Even Zhang Peimeng, who had no race at the moment, was secretly standing in the crowd, watching the boy in Lane 3.

If nothing else, Zhang Peimeng had already been receiving professional training for several years; his technical movements were instinctive, and his muscle memory had long been formed. But no matter how he looked at it, he felt…

This guy’s starting stance seemed… different from his own.

It was even different from what he had seen and what his coach had taught him.

He couldn't quite put his finger on what made it better, but as the most outstanding talent in the country in this field, Zhang Peimeng’s intuition told him that this guy’s posture was definitely superior to his own.

Could it be the credit of that female coach?

Inevitably, his first thought was the same as Zhou Bing's—it must be Ning Debao.

"Coach Ning, you’ll just have to take the blame for now," he thought.

*Bang!*

Everyone exploded forward instantly, but the one in the lead was still the runner in Lane 3.

Fast.

That was Zhang Peimeng’s immediate reaction as a spectator.

No wonder he had been thrown off his rhythm by him; this start was truly fast.

Ning Debao seemed accustomed to Su Shen’s start always being an advantage. She was currently observing his movements more closely to review the "Six-Second Law" she had spent all her energy researching lately. She highly agreed with a point Su Shen had made to her: all theories are merely theories; everything must be verified in practice.

*Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.*

Within the first ten meters, Su Shen had already established a clear advantage.

By the thirty-meter mark, Su Shen had completely pulled away from everyone behind him by at least two to three body lengths.

When Zhang Peimeng heard the two head coaches talking, this guy had only run a 100-meter in 11 seconds, while he himself had already achieved a good time of 10.80 in Tianjin this year. Once you break the 10-second barrier, every 0.05 seconds requires a massive amount of time to grind out.

Improvement comes bit by bit.

It is impossible to make massive leaps like one does before breaking 10 seconds.

Therefore, Zhang Peimeng felt that his opponent wouldn't be able to catch up to this 0.2-second advantage anytime soon.

But considering he was over two years older than him, Zhang Peimeng felt a sense of urgency.

Even though his 200-meter time was approaching the national master-athlete level, there was still a large gap in his 100-meter.

He was still 0.3 seconds away from the master-athlete level.

That is, six increments of 0.05 seconds—six levels behind.

He planned to make a push for the 100-meter master status next year.

Although it would be very difficult.

But Li Qing had said that this was his period of fastest improvement; with a lot of hard training, it was possible. Anyway…

He couldn't let him catch up.

For some reason, this thought surfaced in Zhang Peimeng’s mind.

It was as if something in the ether was telling him he could not lose.

He was still four levels ahead of him now; he should be able to maintain that advantage.

Just as he was thinking this, Su Shen entered the mid-race phase and began to accelerate. Seeing this, Zhang Peimeng thought to himself, "He’s maintaining his speed well, better than the average front-runner, but he’ll soon hit the end of his high-speed maintenance phase, and his explosive power will drop rapidly."

This was Zhang Peimeng’s habitual judgment, and it was also the inherent impression in the national sprinting world at the time.

But immediately, Zhang Peimeng was shocked.

During the mid-race phase, not only did Su Shen not lose speed… he seemed to have a subtle sense of further acceleration!

How was this possible?

He had such a fierce early-stage explosion; he was clearly a front-running specialist. How could he not only fail to decelerate but actually increase his speed here?

It was impossible.

It was a pity that Li Qing had gone to watch other team members' races, so he missed this scene; otherwise, the old coach would surely have had the exact same expression.

Nothing is impossible.

This was the result of professional, targeted training on the "Six-Second Zone."

In the future, Su Shen would be able to run a 9.827, and the strengthening of his late-stage performance was equally indispensable.

Currently, the domestic focus was entirely on the first 30 meters, and information from the outside world was limited, so no one could understand how Su Shen, as a front-runner, could play the game this way.

Was it due to his arm swing? His upper body was indeed very strong.

Was it his stride frequency? His frequency was indeed very fast.

Or was it something else?

???

As a top sprinting talent of the future, Zhang Peimeng felt completely bewildered by Su Shen’s performance.

He even wondered if he were to see this on a 100-meter track for the first time, would he, like in the 200-meter preliminaries, experience a mental shift and lose his composure?

Entering the final sprint zone.

Su Shen was already leading the pack.

Perhaps some late-race specialists could close the gap slightly, but catching up entirely was already impossible.

By the 90-meter mark, the outcome had long been decided in Zhang Peimeng’s heart.

That guy’s late-stage performance was actually even better than he had imagined.

*Whoosh—*

Following a gust of wind, Su Shen crossed the finish line. He slowed his pace, carefully feeling the sensations in his body from the 100-meter dash he had just completed.

Reviewing.

This was a very important thing, and it was also a habit Su Shen had cherished most in his previous life.

Even his head coach, Randy Huntington, had praised this habit.

He had said that athletes who could do what Su Shen did were rare, regardless of the field.

The process in the first half went without saying; Su Shen’s efforts during this time had not been in vain. Having just joined the sports school, once his equipment and nutrition were up to par, improvement would naturally be fast. Coupled with the fact that he had started applying the "Six-Second Law" so early, what Zhang Peimeng found surprising was, to him, simply the result of scientific, targeted training.

What he was really focused on was the final sprint zone, the part where he had to push hard at the end.

This was also the part that used to be his weakest.

After reflecting carefully, he felt that regarding his physical condition, if he hadn't added those "five-dimensional points" to his endurance, his speed would definitely have dropped much faster at the end. With those points added, his sprint-zone endurance had clearly strengthened significantly.

It resulted in him finishing his run with a fatigue level of only about two-thirds of what he had anticipated.

Looking at his time, it was a mediocre 11.09 seconds.

In such small-to-medium invitational tournaments, no one would pay much attention, but the wind speed for this 100-meter race was a 0.9 m/s headwind.

…

Throughout the competition, Su Shen realized that in the entire semi-final, only his performance was the best.

Although Zhou Bing took first place in his heat, he only ran an 11.15.

The rest were even below 11.20.

The best was Yi Xiaoqiang from Hong Kong, who ran an 11.05.

This meant that the wind speed had changed.

The 100-meter is not an indoor event; sometimes you could even say that your performance, and even whether you win or lose, depends on the mood of the heavens. If the heavens are in a good mood and grant a tailwind within 2.0 m/s, it’s a legal time. If the heavens are in a bad mood and give you a strong headwind, you will definitely have a rough time.

Especially since athletes nowadays rarely do specialized training for running against a headwind, leading to times that are even lower than the theoretical headwind-adjusted speed.

Take Su Shen’s run, for example: despite the 11.09, if you calculate it, his adjusted speed was actually 11.02.

Extremely excellent.

Take Yi Xiaoqiang’s run, for example: his adjusted speed was already under 11 seconds under normal conditions.

Therefore, with the current lack of specialized 100-meter headwind training in the country, the sudden influence of wind direction had become an—

Algebraic problem.

In standard competitions, there are requirements for tailwinds, but there are none for headwinds.

But there was too little research on this domestically, so this seemingly inconspicuous change…

Had become the X-factor for tomorrow’s final.