This month, Puma released a video of its BeatBot, a shoebox-size robot with wheels designed to lead runners as fast and as far as they鈥檇 like to travel on a track. Call it a pacer, a rabbit, or any of the myriad terms runners have used for years to describe the human equivalent. Puma has, for the first time, mechanized this common training method.
Human rabbits have been a common part of runners鈥 training since the 1950s, when Roger Bannister, paced by several runners, ran the .听础 confirmed its efficacy. In it, elite runners ran 3,000 meters (just shy of two miles) solo and then again with a pacer for the first 2,000 meters. Alone, they were not only 鈥渟ubstantially slower,鈥 but also had higher blood lactate concentration and perceived the effort as more difficult.
Pacers offer聽athletes聽one of the most common motivations for performance: the fear of failure, says to sports psychologist Mark Walch, of 聽in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With it, the athlete is motivated by a constant comparison of himself or herself to others, and the runner is literally trying outrace the rabbit.
Walch believes that the physiological change in blood lactate concentration may also be psychological. With a solo workout, he says, athletes suffer from聽a baseline anxiety that is triggered by being alone in a performance situation.聽The body has to perform the task, while聽managing the physical exertion that comes from stress. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e literally having to work harder because you鈥檝e got the additional weight of those fears triggered,鈥 says Walch.听础 pacer provides a focal point, which lowers stress and allows the athlete to stay in the present moment. That, Walch says, is where peak performance occurs.聽
In addition to the mental aspect of a pacer, there are also physical benefits to being led through a workout, according to , a sports physiologist and running coach based in Atlanta, Georgia. 鈥淎lone, you鈥檙e cutting your own path through a column of air and this provides a bit of resistance, making you work a little harder,鈥 she says. 鈥淎sk any race-car driver about drafting. They know quite well the advantage of the slipstream.鈥
Can Puma鈥檚 BeatBox replace the human pacer? It may provide a physical presence to compete with, but it鈥檚 hard to say if it will substitute as a focal point鈥攁nd it undoubtedly can鈥檛 block wind like a human body. Until the company releases a life-size pacer, your best bet is still with another runner.