Background: Post-college runner still competing in a range of distances. Last fall I ran a 4:26 road mile (certified course) in Vaporflys with hardly any mile-specific training, after never having broken 4:30 on the track before. Right now I'm in the middle of a marathon buildup, and training had been going very well so I decided to hop in a two mile track race, thinking I could run in the 9:40s. My last two sharpening workouts, both run in Vaporflys, were as follows:
Five sets of 4x400 w/ 100 jog, averaged 80, 77, 76, 74, 71 for each set. This felt really easy until the last set.
6x800 w/ 200 jog, started at 2:27 and worked down to 2:24. This was fairly challenging but didn't feel like a race.
Long runs and other marathon-specific workouts have all been great as well. Fast forward to the race last night, which I ran in the New Balance superspikes, and I could only manage a 10:04. I felt like I executed the race fine, but I just had nothing in my legs. I don't want to make excuses, but is it possible that my issue is as simple as the shoes, and I should just wear Vaporflys for everything, even shorter track races?