Running behind another Runner more Efficient?

If you look at a group of mountain biker or a road biker on the road, they often deliberately ride close behind each other, and you ask yourself why do they do this? They do this to conserve energy, by letting the front biker take all the air resistance while the back rider could rest. I know this works because I have done this many times and to be frank it actually works for me. But I was wondering if this method could also work on running?

After a lot of thought I tried to research it on the web looking for someone, if somebody have tried this.

After a lot of reading, I read one article saying that “Jogging or running at 5mph into a 15mph headwind will increase your calorie burning by about 15% compared to still air. While turning around and jogging at the same speed with a 15 mph tailwind will decrease your calories burning by about 5% compared to still air”.

What his trying to say is, if you jog or run against the wind you exert more effort therefore use more energy, losing more calories, and if you run towards the wind you save 5% of your energy.

Then it is true that you lose more calories if there is a strong headwind or wind that is against the direction you are running, but if there is no or less headwind the amount of wind resistance is less therefore lesser energy lost or none at all.

Bikers regularly do Drifting (this is what they call it) because biker move at a much faster speed than a regular runner. Bikers exert more effort and energy to maintain speed because wind resistance is greater therefore drifting save them more energy.

I believe that runners could also use drifting if he increases his speed or there is a strong headwind. Wind  increases a runners speed relative to the wind and this increases the wind  resistance, thus it is more efficient for a runner runs at the back of another runner letting that runner block the headwind.


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