Allyson Felix Answers Track Questions From Twitter

Why is no one talking about this?

Hello, Allyson Felix becomes

most decorated athlete in championship history.

Track and field is not that popular in the United States.

We get some love every now and then, every four years.

We're an underrated sport.

Comes with the territory.

Hey, I'm Allyson Felix, six time Olympic gold medalist.

I'm here to answer your questions on Twitter.

This is Track Support.

[upbeat music]

@Justdatpurple.

Track and field question.

How do you run a 400 meter dash properly?

This is a great question.

The 400 meters is one of the hardest events

in track and field.

It doesn't matter how fast you run it

or how slow you run it.

You are going to be in pain at the end.

The best way to do it is to be able to come out

at a percentage of your top speed.

You don't want to run all out for the first 200 meters

because you have to be able to last,

and then you want to save something

to be able to kick home with, and that's the hard part.

A lot of that comes from your training.

You know, have you done the work or have you not.

If you have, you should be strong,

you should be able to carry that pace on home.

If you haven't, you might need to do some more base work

to be able to handle that speed endurance

and to be able to handle that amount of time sprinting.

@Traacknation.

Why do sprinters and distance runners dislike each other?

That's a good question.

I don't know, sprinters typically they say, I don't know,

sometimes we're described as being like divas

and kind of full of ourselves.

I think distance runners

are seen as more like, you know, workhorses.

I don't believe this.

Like, I have a lot of great friends

who are distance runners.

You know, we all, we're all Track Nation, right?

@theonlyjaleah asks, the 400 is a painful race,

but the butt cramp after, lawd, it's even worse.

Jaleah, I agree with you a thousand percent.

We in track and field, we call it the booty lock.

Like it's just, it's awful,

and there's really no, no way around it.

When you run the 400,

there's like a buildup of lactic acid in your legs.

It kind of like paralyzes you,

like you can't really do anything,

and so a lot of people tell you, you gotta keep moving,

you gotta stand up, you gotta kind of shake out your legs.

I don't really think any of it works.

You just have to kinda like get through it.

@usatf.

How are Olympic relay teams determined?

Top four finishers in the individual event final?

That's not how relays are determined.

[Allyson laughs]

There's a lot of politics

that go into, you know, creating any relay.

There's four members of the relay.

Two are running a straight into or running a curve.

So you might have the four fastest,

but they may not be the fastest in those positions,

you know, so if you have someone

who runs a straight really fast,

but you also have two other people who do that really well,

you only need two for the relay.

That might bump someone out

and someone who's a great starter

and who has really great speed on the turn

might get put in there.

You know, we go to relay camp

and we work out all different combinations.

You know, you gotta have alternates

in case someone gets injured

and you just gotta kind of be ready for anything.

Sometimes it's the last minute and the whole team changes,

it's just kind of the nature of running a relay.

@_alexdean asks, how do sprinters gain so much speed?

A lot of speed is gained in the weight room

from plyometrics, from Olympic lifts,

doing things with your own body weight,

and also being able to apply that strength on to the track.

So a lot of sled and bringing that weight into motion,

and that's how you really gain speed and get faster.

Working on acceleration,

a lot of it is coming out of the blocks.

It's a lot about angles, it's biomechanics,

really making sure you're at the perfect angle

for your leg length, for your body type,

kind of like an airplane when you're taking off.

I'm not all the way there yet.

You know, something that I'm constantly working on,

but it's all about, you know,

falling and being able to recover.

@dwestdoc.

I'm confused.

Why do sprinters wear half sleeves?

Aerodynamics?

You actually wear, like, half sleeves or calf sleeves.

For me, I have bad shin splints and it actually,

the compression helps them.

I think some people like the way it looks.

@danielpeake asks, okay, so here's a question.

Why is there not a four by one Olympic relay event

where two runners are men and two are women in each team?

I think that the answer to this

is just the speed that men and women are going

are so different.

In the four by four, the incoming runner holds up the baton,

kind of like a torch,

the outgoing runner reaches back to receive the baton.

In the four by one, it's a blind exchange.

The outgoing runner stays with their head forward

and they just throw their hand back, they never look back,

and so it's a completely blind pass

that has to happen seamlessly

because the two runners are running both at their top speed,

so it's all about a flawless exchange

because obviously you can not drop the baton.

You gotta get it right though or it's gonna be dangerous.

You can't have guys like mowing the other runners down.

So it's really a timing thing,

but I don't think it's impossible.

@TICKmyLWEET.

Track is like the only sport I know

that people can be decked out in jewelry like WTF.

What is the point of trying to be fancy, people?

People in track and field

are typically all wearing the same uniform,

and they want to differentiate themselves.

Jewelry is a way where people can stand out,

so track people, they like to floss sometimes.

I agree, sometimes it's extra, but you know,

people gotta get in where you can.

@keykeyscerebrum.

How do you qualify for the Olympics?

Okay, you qualify for the Olympics

by running an Olympic Trial Standard.

So basically there's a time that you have to run

to get invited to the Olympic Trials.

So there's typically three rounds to each race,

the prelim, the semi, and the final.

You have to be on that final day.

You have to be top three.

From the United States we take three people in most events,

and that's how you qualify.

As long as you've ran fast enough in Olympic Standard,

then you are on the team.

@Dave_Blogger asks, why do sprinters

seem to have large upper bodies

and distance runners are slim from head to toe?

Do you use your arms more in sprinting?

So in sprinting, it's pretty much a more powerful race.

You know, you need more power to get through it.

It's ballistic speed.

You know, it's the fastest that you can go.

It's why we spend a lot of time in the weight room.

It's what's really getting you down the track.

I think strength, it looks a lot of different ways,

and typically, you know, we do think of it in that way,

but it's not always the case.

Distance runners, they can't carry that muscle around.

You know, they have to run for such a long amount of time,

you know, cover a lot of distance.

They really have to be lean and they have to be,

they can't carry all that extra weight,

so that's why you'll see the distance runners

be a lot lighter and a much smaller build.

@biggameJames_36.

Got a question.

What's a good time to run in the forty?

It's really like football, you know, thing.

Low fours?

Four three?

If you're really good.

[Allyson laughs]

@david_oleary9.

What's the best lane to be in while running the 400?

The best lane to be in when running the 400

is gonna be in the middle of the track.

Lanes four, five, and six are typically in every track.

Those are usually the ideal lanes,

but the thing is, it's 400 meters

no matter what lane you're in, but for some reason,

us runners, we like to be in the middle.

It's nice to be able to see, you know,

your competitors and have a gauge.

But it's funny, we all train out of lane one,

but for some reason we never want to be in it

in the actual race.

@plumpernickel asks, question for runners,

does anyone feel nauseous post run?

How can one deal with it?

This is a new thing for me

and it's probably linked to loss of electrolytes.

Yeah, it's not unusual to feel nauseous post run.

Make sure that you're fueled properly, so make sure you eat,

make sure, you know,

you have enough to get you through whatever your workout is.

And also,

if you're just getting back into the swing of things

or you're a new runner,

you might just have to build up a little bit.

I mean, there's still workouts to this day

where I'm throwing up afterwards

and it's just kind of a part of it.

You know, if you're challenging your body

to go past its normal limits,

then sometimes you can have that reaction.

@FaublesFables.

Hey, running Twitter, I'm almost embarrassed to ask

what might be a foolish question,

but I'm finally getting back into running again

after a hiatus.

Is there a my body just plain feels broken stage

to a running rebuild?

Yeah.

[Allyson laughs]

I feel you on this one.

After you haven't ran for a long time,

it is really hard to get back into the swing of things.

You've gotta be kind to yourself.

I don't understand why it takes like one week

to get out of shape, but months on end to get in shape,

but it's a thing.

You'll get through it.

It doesn't feel pleasant.

You can take ice baths, you can go to cryo,

you can foam roll, you can use all the little tools

to kind of give your legs some life, make sure you rest.

But yeah, it gets better.

@OfficialMalik asks,

how does anyone manage to look good while running?

I can't even look decent.

Matter of fact, I look like a chimpanzee

who managed to set himself loose from the zoo, SMH.

It's hard to look good while running.

I think you either have it or you don't.

I think this is something you're either born with

or you're not.

You know, a lot of times when you're running,

you feel like you need to be very intense

and that's gonna get you from point A to B the fastest.

You're trying to muscle through,

and you're just, like, pumping your arms really hard,

and you're all over the place.

I tell people to relax.

Take a breath,

and realize that you don't have to be so tense.

You know, you also probably tend to

look a bit better as well,

but it really, it helps you get from A to B faster.

@Coach_Diggs asks, why do sprinters tend to start

with their left foot by default?

I think typically sprinters start with whatever foot

a coach told them way back in some day.

Typically you start with your strongest foot

and just takes some experience to find out

what's the right foot for you.

Bro, what's the best breathing technique for running?

You really want to make sure that you are breathing

while you're running.

Definitely in the sprints

a lot of people try to just hold their breath

or they don't really think about it,

so you want to make sure that you're taking, you know,

nice, deep breaths, especially when you're in those blocks,

you're about to come out,

but you don't want to just be constantly thinking about it

and taking away from your technique and all of that stuff.

So you want to focus on it, but more so in practice.

When you get to the races,

you want to just let it flow naturally.

@_tommywommy.

How do runners out there balance lifting and running?

I try hard not to run right after lifting,

but it's hard not to sometimes due to timing.

For me, I like to get my workout in first on the track,

and then I go to the weight room,

but there are some days where I reverse it.

I think it's basically about balancing

whichever comes first.

So if you're gonna lift first,

you need to adjust it in a way

where you're not doing too much, like not too much legs,

not too much really heavy work

if you're going straight to run afterwards.

And so just making those little adjustments

are gonna allow so that you don't have an injury

and you don't have to take time off.

But just being smart.

You know, if you have a day where you lift heavy,

then you might want to adjust your running workout

and scale back a little bit.

@Teslasthefuture.

Questions for runners.

When I run my shins hurt.

Is it my shoes?

What do you suggest?

Shin splints are a problem for a lot of runners.

I myself suffer from very severe shin splints.

A lot of shins splints

come from the surface that you run on.

If you do have shin splints,

you want to run on a softer surface.

Like, if you can run on grass, it's great.

You want to avoid roads, hard trails with uneven surfaces.

Even some tracks are really difficult

because they can be really hard,

so you want to run on softer surfaces

to kind of give those shins a break.

You ice them afterwards with, like, an ice massage.

Take a paper cup, freeze it with water,

tear off the sides and just rub it up and down your shins.

It feels really amazing after a hard workout.

@Ian_P_Brazier.

How do runners deal with the post-race come down?

You gotta have a proper kind of, like, cooldown.

You don't want to just, like, stop running

and then, like, get in your car and go home.

You want to, like, make sure that your heart rate

gradually comes down,

like, jogging for a few minutes afterwards,

you know, getting some nice stretching in.

You just want to make sure that you're not abruptly just,

you know, stopping all movement.

And it's just good to get in that routine,

so whatever that routine is for you, you know,

even if you're walking a little bit,

that's still good.

@run_all_day.

Let's settle this.

Which is the best track event?

That's easy.

The 200 meters.

@_RobGee.

Why do sprinters gotta run long distance in practice?

I feel you, I don't understand why either.

I mean, I guess we need the base, but as a sprinter,

I am not a fan.

If I crossed the point where I started,

it just doesn't make sense.

@brittleyH asks, is Allyson Felix

the Beyonce of track and field?

[Allyson laughs]

That's funny.

I have no idea.

I don't think I'm the Beyonce of track and field.

I've been around for a long time

so I don't know if that qualifies me.

Okay, the second part of the question,

if that's the case, which four by one team

is the Destiny's Child?

So Destiny's Child would definitely be

the world record setting four by one,

which would be myself, Carmelita Jeter,

Bianca Knight, and Tianna Madison.

We had great chemistry.

It was just, like, so light and effortless

when we went out in 2012 to set the world record,

and so it's gotta be us.

Well, that was the last question.

I had a lot of fun answering those for you guys.

Some really good ones and some pretty funny ones.

That's it for me.