+1. There simply isn’t a lot of data yet and the best way of determining if they make you faster, so far, is applying T&F expertise to the relatively small number of performances we’ve seen and thinking critically. In the case of the marathon shoes there’s enough lab work, results data, etc to conclude that yes they improve performance and yes it’s somewhat significant, even if we can quibble about the exact magnitude of the effect (eg is it a 0.5% or 1% or 1.5% or 2% or 4% improvement for your average elite). We simply do not have that in track and although there have been loads of amazing performances the last couple of years,:
- there are frequently very very good performances
- wave light could explain some
- at least one wasn’t even in the shoes (shelbo low 14:20s)
- lack of doping control could explain some (not accusing any particular athletes whatsoever)
- lots of TTS last year could explain some
- great uninterrupted training for a lot of folks during covid
- on the 1500 point, hs / college has been fast but we haven’t seen anything crazy at the pro level on the men’s side or women’s side, same for 800 (3K and up there has been)
Now there are a lot of reasons to think they help / might help, and it is probably not an unreasonable position to say ok it seems *likely* there’s some benefit and that benefit might scale progressively as you go up in distance:
- pros have testified as much
- crazy results from 3K up
- everyone wanting to wear them
- engineered to help
But none of these things say very definitively that they’re a huge aid and certainly it doesn’t say it’s 1s a lap at the 1500, which as demonstrated by the fast that nobody is going to run 3:25, is very likely not true