Agreed. Also, it has been documented in research by Kipp et al, in 2019, that running at slower velocities permits greater gains in % velocity at the same given running economy.
This is the best news I've heard in a long time for me and my aging, slower velocity peers.
It may not be as good as you think. Although the above has been shown, two recent studies (Nielson et al, 2022, Dominy & Joubert, 2022) showed that recreational runners, on average, only got between ~ 0.9% and 1.4% gains in RE when running in the control shoe when tested against running in Nike Vaporfly. These numbers for RE gains are much lower than what was found when faster performing runners were tested in the landmark 2018 study by Hoogkamer et al (~4.1% gain in RE in the Vaperfly prototype vs Zoom Streak 6).
Look at NCAA mile times. Nowadays there are about 100 guys breaking 4:00. Six years ago it was a couple dozen. The spikes are good for about 4 seconds per mile. Sorry this offends you.
It's a real shame that 3:28 man Cheruiyot never popped a 3:24 after getting a pair of the new spikes, he must've gotten slower, all the sub 3:30 guys as well are actually 3:34 guys...
Shoes aren’t going to help a 3:28 guy like they are a 4:04 guy. If the shoes don’t work, stop paying for them! But you’ll continue to pay for them because you know they work.
Look at NCAA mile times. Nowadays there are about 100 guys breaking 4:00. Six years ago it was a couple dozen. The spikes are good for about 4 seconds per mile. Sorry this offends you.
It's a real shame that 3:28 man Cheruiyot never popped a 3:24 after getting a pair of the new spikes, he must've gotten slower, all the sub 3:30 guys as well are actually 3:34 guys...
Yes, it's possible all the sub 3:30 guys are actually 3:32-3:34 guys. Sub 3:30 was actually really rare prior to the previous EPO era and the current cheater shoe era.
It's a real shame that 3:28 man Cheruiyot never popped a 3:24 after getting a pair of the new spikes, he must've gotten slower, all the sub 3:30 guys as well are actually 3:34 guys...
At that pace probably closer to 1.5s, not 4.
Not even close. If you cut 1.5 seconds from old times to account for the spikes, the results are comical:
Mo Farah - 3:27.31 Augustine Choge - 3:27.97 Caleb Ndiku - 3:28.00 Nixon Chepseba - 3:28.27 Aman Wote - 3:28.41
None of these guys won anything at 1500m but according to you would be significantly faster than the two most recent world champions. Look at the top men in the event and it becomes even more absurd. Asbel Kiprop 3:25.19? Silas Kiplagat 3:26.14? Really?
10 years ago we had 7 men under 3:30 when there was basically only one fast race per season. Why do we need a 1.5 second spike conversion to explain having 11 under 3:30 last year when almost every single race was a perfectly paced time trial with the field getting towed along the entire way?
Admittedly, I didn't read the whole study paper, but did they control for the participants' running between sessions? Were they told to refrain from all running or just from higher intensity running? Fatigue from inter-session running could certainly play a role in affecting results.
Admittedly, I didn't read the whole study paper, but did they control for the participants' running between sessions? Were they told to refrain from all running or just from higher intensity running? Fatigue from inter-session running could certainly play a role in affecting results.
Yes, they did control between sessions. Here are the excerpts from the study regarding this aspect of the study:
Design and methodology We evaluated the effects of AFT spikes on middle- and long-distance running performance measures using a randomized mirrored experimental design. All participants refrained from intense exercise in the 48h preceding the test sessions. Test sessions were performed on an outdoor athletics track (400 m) with controlled environmental conditions (550 m altitude, 22-25ºC, 26-29% relative humidity). Participants were asked to avoid caffeine and alcohol intake within 24 hours of their testing visits and refrained from eating and drinking anything but water for 4h before testing.
The male runners performed four different visits separated by five days. During the first three visits the participants completed six experimental trials of 200 m controlling effort at self-perceived 800 m race pace with the same protocol as the female runners.14 After this, the male runners performed a 3,000 m time trial wearing one of the three spike conditions. The participants received verbal information about the number of laps completed and to go, but no other feedback or encouragement was provided during the test. Participants were kept blind to time during each of the 3,000 m time trial test. The sequence of the shoes was randomized for each participant using a random number generator. We quantified pacing by expressing each lap as a percentage of the average 3,000 m time trial speed.
Look at NCAA mile times. Nowadays there are about 100 guys breaking 4:00. Six years ago it was a couple dozen. The spikes are good for about 4 seconds per mile. Sorry this offends you.
It's a real shame that 3:28 man Cheruiyot never popped a 3:24 after getting a pair of the new spikes, he must've gotten slower, all the sub 3:30 guys as well are actually 3:34 guys...
Go run your next race in waffle racers if you are so confident that super shoes provide no advantage and let us know the results.