Super shoes = better recovery = added training volume = faster times.
Certain indoor tracks = faster then outdoor tracks.
Toss all of that in a blender and add smarter training = faster times.
I tend to agree with this. Also more people care about sports so more people try them out these days. It's like the old saying goes that the world's most talented runner probably hasn't even tried running before
I also genuinely think if every team had a special doctor we'd hear about that stuff way more often from disgruntled runners that didn't pan out, right??
people seem to forget how sore you’d get in the pre-super shoe era flats & spikes. doing the same training with new tech you recover faster and not wake up sore after doing speed work.
higher load of training -> better performances. the shoes definitely help
If it were the shoes World Athletics seem strangely unconcerned - whereas they are actively concerned about doping. What are the shoes if not technological doping? Unless their advantages are greatly exaggerated.
It's pretty funny thinking back to 2021 when several top athletes strongly downplayed the impacts of the spikes. They said things like "The COVID training block was the only reason. This is what happens when collegiate can train like pros." COVID senior will graduate eventually and I don't expect the times to drop with them. Technology technology technology. Granted Dave Smith's view of mindset was pretty interesting.
The drug argument doesn't make any logical sense. There is no reason to think drug usage at the NCAA level would suddently spike in the last 3 years, coinciding perfectly with the release of the super spikes.
Drugs are just as susceptible to technological development as shoes. They are also much more varied than shoes, which are comparatively crude from a technological standpoint. What a runner wears has nothing on what changes their biology.
Doping is not a constant. Within the sport it has increased exponentially over the years, while becoming more subtle in order to evade detection. So shoes plus increased doping equals faster times.
Jonathan Gault tried to find out when he spoke to Dathan Ritzenhein, Jason Vigilante and Dave Smith. This article is exclusively for our SC members until 7 pm ET on Friday.
As a top US coach, I’m offended that you didn’t even think us top coaches’ top coaching could be responsible for the recent record tumblages.
It's not the coaching. There's nothing out there philosophy wise that hasn't been done before. Now, if you say the coaches access to technology, support, and equipment, I'll give you that.
If it were the shoes World Athletics seem strangely unconcerned - whereas they are actively concerned about doping. What are the shoes if not technological doping? Unless their advantages are greatly exaggerated.
In the beginning of the super shoe era, they were called out for not caring because the shoes violated their own rules. Once the genie was out of the bottle and records started dropping, then they came out with new regs and started enforcing them. Thats how we got the 40mm road and 25mm track stack height limits.
Why can't it be all of the above? Shoes, drugs, pacing lights, coaching, all of those leading to better competition so they pushed each other more to faster times.
I think that we're seeing a combination of factors, this isn't just one.
Running in the new super shoes/spikes we know that there are certain high responders and some runners that gain very little to no benefit, so our "mechanical doping" has some definite winners an losers to it. But I think. that, a few years in now, we're also seeing athlete adjust their form ever so slightly to work with the additional bounce that the shoes and spikes give, and that form change works very well on some indoor tracks that have that bounce as well. The athletes will have a real, if subtle, advantage on those indoor tracks.
Yes, I think we have some super seniors in the NCAA, but I also don't think that the times are going to come back down as we have all the incoming freshmen used to the bounce of the super shoes as well. It is a real part of their running style, as is getting in far more quality sessions with the quicker recovery and less soreness taht we see from the Vaporfly generation.
I lean towards Toni Revis' suggestion of simply putting a liine on the record books of pre- and post- Vaporflys to put a mark on the times. Doesn't invalidate anyting being run today, but does make a "notification" that equipment has changed and that has moved the bar somewhat from what we're used to.
The US is finally catching up and it's about time. If you look at world rankings in the men's middle distances between 2000 and 2018 we have lagged behind. And now we going to discount these new performance's because of carbon plated shoes and possible performance enhancing drugs? I'm glad the US is running faster.
I don't understand people who say "it's not the shoes, it's the ability to train harder and recover faster from doing workouts in the shoes." So drugs are ok then?
I don't understand people who say "it's not the shoes, it's the ability to train harder and recover faster from doing workouts in the shoes." So drugs are ok then?
Approving drugs because there are better shoes is such a stupid lost argument.
Times dropped for high school, college, world, and hobby jogger, It is the shoes. Let's hold a few meets with old shoes and see what happens. It is like racing on a flat track as opposed to a banked track.
I don't understand people who say "it's not the shoes, it's the ability to train harder and recover faster from doing workouts in the shoes." So drugs are ok then?
Sure when wearing shoes alters your bodies natural rhythms and hormones and shortens your life expectancy. As far as I know no one’s heart stopped because they took too high of a shoe dosage.
I don't understand people who say "it's not the shoes, it's the ability to train harder and recover faster from doing workouts in the shoes." So drugs are ok then?
Eating disorders can help people in the short term if they have too much weight so that the same thing as shoes right? So stupid.
I don't understand people who say "it's not the shoes, it's the ability to train harder and recover faster from doing workouts in the shoes." So drugs are ok then?
Eating disorders can help people in the short term if they have too much weight so that the same thing as shoes right? So stupid.
Well it is what it is. It is like saying some of the winter gear that people in cold weather states wear which might permit them to train when it is 5 degrees F is doping, or their access to indoor tracks in the winter time. At some level it makes no sense as it is not doping in any manner which a reasonable person would understand.