Are springy shoes all we can come up with?
Are springy shoes all we can come up with?
Ubiquity of GPS watches and their data analysis software.
The rise and fall of these weird shirts with 2-inch holes throughout.
Salazar's proof that you can rub a measured patch of testosterone cream on you skin without testing positive.
Revel Downhill marathons, not an improvement IMHO but certainly an innovation.
Vaporfly's need to the number 1 tho. The benefit is very real and miles above any other improvement.
Strava
I’m not sure how long age grading has been around. Being able to calculate that metric is motivating for some.
Maurten mix and gels.
Runner tracking and real time results
innivatr wrote:
Are springy shoes all we can come up with?
It's freakin' running. Why do we need innovation?
OK, exceptions: Things that will reduce injuries. And, obviously, coaches and athletes will always try to find better ways to train.
Beyond that, I'm not sure that anything is "necessary" to make runs and competition more enjoyable for participant or fan. Nor, more to the point, do I think that most people with an enduring love of running and/or running fandom NEED any innovations to keep them interested and satisfied. AND, I and many others don't WANT running to become a technology-dependent sport. There are enough of those. Great parents and great training and great efforts are interesting. Science and engineering making people faster is not.
Is being a running fan more interesting because of Vaporflys? On a personal level, is doing the same training and being in roughly the same shape as in the past and then running a significant PR because of the shoes really that rewarding?
Wada/USADA covering up athlete dopers is the biggest money maker ever
mathematics wrote:
Ubiquity of GPS watches and their data analysis software.
I'm not even old, and GPS watches have changed the game for me. I mean, they were available, but virtually no one had one. How did you guys develop sense of pace, if you didn't develop it on the track? My school didn't have a track, and the routes XC ran were vaguely measured (off by enough that I didn't know if I ran 7:00 or 8:00 pace). Kids on my team would sincerely claim to have been running 6:00 on an easy day, just because we had no sense of distance or pace. I never got a way to measure my real speed, except in 5k races. My watch has taught me a lot about pace (cadence too!). Anyone else have a similar experience?
Givetallugot wrote:
Runner tracking and real time results
This was around before 2010
Innovation is not always tech. It could be logistics of races in track or Xc, adding or subtracting events, styles of training, etc.
Trail Zealot wrote:
mathematics wrote:
Ubiquity of GPS watches and their data analysis software.
I'm not even old, and GPS watches have changed the game for me. I mean, they were available, but virtually no one had one. How did you guys develop sense of pace, if you didn't develop it on the track?
Not just tracks have known distances. Back in the day I'd use my car or bike to measure my regular routes, or online mapping like gmap-pedometer (once internet came around). Roads and bike paths often have mile markers as well. Combine that with a Timex watch (with a stopwatch function) and you have pace.
It has been said my GPS technology has been huge. No one on my team in high school or college had a GPS watch when I was competing and now a majority of the high school kids I coach have one.
Shoe tech has obviously had a huge impact on the sport
From a training perspective I'd say the biggest difference I see is weight room/ supplemental work which didn't seem like it was around as much when I was competing for distance runners. Everyone did core but nowadays so many different things are used by teams and individuals. The team that I coach has about 4 different supplemental routines that we rotate through and from other coaches I talk to it sounds like that is the norm
1. Vaporflies
2. Ubiquitous GPS watches
3. Wrist-based heart rate monitoring
4. Strava wins the online social training log contest
5. Boost, because there's no ZoomX/Vaprflies without it
6. Hoka/high stack shoes, end of minimalism
7. Altra/zero drop shoes
8. Parkrun
9. NXN displaces Footlocker
10. Marathoninvestigation.com
Newbury Park's High School training program.
There were zero real innovations in running in the last 50 years.
It's all based on talent, hard work and more hard work.
"Innovations" are all these gimmicks marketing people come up with to sell you stuff.
NotStrava wrote:
Newbury Park's High School training program.
Yo. Even more impressive than the training is how they get recruits. THEY ARE LOADED!!! 10 kids on that team would have been the best incoming freshman at 99% of high schools EVER. How on god's green earth do you find that many kids who were that fast in middle school to come to one high school. CRAZY!!!
No innovations?
1972, munich olympics. Dave Wottle won the 800 in 1:53.
2001, Berlin. The entire field of a 1500, running together, crossed the 800 split starting at 1:50.
Just worked harder? All of them?
my 2c wrote:
1. Vaporflies
2. Ubiquitous GPS watches
3. Wrist-based heart rate monitoring
4. Strava wins the online social training log contest
5. Boost, because there's no ZoomX/Vaprflies without it
6. Hoka/high stack shoes, end of minimalism
7. Altra/zero drop shoes
8. Parkrun
9. NXN displaces Footlocker
10. Marathoninvestigation.com
I'd replace 6 (since Boost provoked ZoomX, which is huge like Hoka), with:
6. Berlin/Dubia, leading to sub-2
Color Runs
Spartan Runs
Tough Mudders
F3 training groups
Strava
Virtual Races
$40 entry fee for 5k races