Pace difference on a track when running clockwise

[PaDisneyCouple]

I've noticed that when I run the traditional counter-clockwise way around a track, my pace is usually 30-50 seconds per mile faster than when I reverse and run clockwise around the same track. This is during the same run, so weather and many other variables are mitigated. I've seen this at the 3 different tracks I've run on in the past few years, and wanted to ask here if anybody else has seen this.

 

[GreatLakes]

My guess is simple muscle memory. I've been running the turn around a track going left for years. It feels natural and my muscles are used to that direction.

I've never really tried to run the opposite way but I suspect I would be slower by some margin, at least at first. Just imagining it makes me think it would feel off.

 

[eey777]

Curious about your turnover or cadence* - is it similar in both directions?

I do a lot of track training as I find it easier on my joints (saving the pounding for race day!) but whenever practical (ie track very empty), I do some of my training going the opposite way, just to try to even myself out. I had a gait analysis done at a sport medicine centre near me and I do have some one-sidedness that the dr thinks is related to all of the counter-clockwise turning - he suggested that I try to go the "wrong" way for part of my training time. My speeds are always slower going clockwise, and I think it's a combination between heightened alertness and muscle memory (which may also be affecting my turnover).

*I am totally not an expert, so apologies if I've bungled the terminology.

 

[bumbershoot]

The indoor track at the Y has is go one way on odd days and the other on even days. I definitely feel different going one way vs the other. It’s likely a combo of structural and muscular. At least with me. My feet and ankles are quite different from each other in the way they move, and then my quads are different in how one pushed off vs the other.