Really? “Many pros” have actually moved away from super shoes? Please name several of them, because it appears to be the exact opposite. Every pro I see on social media is wearing super shoes for their hard workouts. Everybody from Jakob to college kids to high school kids.
Cooper Teare, Cole Hocker, Hobbs Kessler, Sinclaire Johnson, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Galen Rupp all have mentioned it at some point. I am sure they are not alone.
Jakob? Seriously? He has said the exact opposite. He does all of his hard workouts in super shoes. Same with Kessler. Kessler only wears more traditional flats a few times in the lead-up to races. Rupp has talked about the super shoes extending his career. The reality is that a vast majority of the top runners wear super shoes for their hard days. That’s why they can do bigger sessions, train harder and extend their careers longer.
Except the spikes don’t have a carbon fiber plate.
It's amazing that in 2024, people on this website still think it's the carbon fiber plate that makes supershoes faster. It is, and always had been about the energy return from PEBA foam. The plates just provide rigidity so the foam can return energy in the correct direction.
The recovery stuff is completely marginal compared to the effect on speed.
Exactly what I meant to say in my post.
My observation is that forgiving surfaces like grass (dirt roads too, to some extend) are more forgiving to the legs than a super cushioned modern shoe is on asphalt, with the benefit of your leg muscles being conditioned in more than one plain of motion because of the eneven surface.
Of course modern superfoam racers are objectively faster, this is their benefit, the recovery aspect is very minimal and people like to say it to themselves to feel better for forking 300$ for a pair of shoes.