Are carbon-plated shoes really only effective for faster runners?

I don’t like the vaporflys

I have the same opinion. Go-to supershoes are the Under Armor VE 2.

One of the biggest misconceptions in modern running shoe spaces is assuming that the presence of a plate (or any similar stiffening agent - rods f.ex) automatically makes it a fast shoe or a racing shoe.

There are plenty of plated training shoes which work for a variety of paces, some of which are great, others which are slow and some which suck. There are a LOT of plated shoes that feel mediocre underfoot and would be slower than some non plated options - see Magic Speed 4 vs Evo SL

It's the interaction between the foam, plate, the tuning and positioning of all these elements as well as the overall geometry of a shoe that determines how the ride will feel.

I agree with the previous poster that you have to evaluate the shoe in total.

However, I got back into running (after about 10 years of laziness, gaming, alcohol, and food) around the same time supershoes became common. I was about 300lb at the time. Ran a 5k in trainers at like 33 min. Then I got a pair of endorphin pro 1s because I was really interested in the science and wanted to see what they would be like. I instantly went to 30 mins and some change. Placebo effect? Maybe. But I think the "power generated per stride" as opposed to pace makes more sense. And it took a lot of power to move my body.

Now I'm 185 and your average 40 min 10k guy, put out less power than before, and I don't notice a performance difference between endorphin Speeds (which I train like 40% of the time in) and Pros (which I pretty much only race in). I actually will be using Speeds going forward for HMs because the pros burned me in the metatarsal pad last time. Going to run a marathon in December and I'll probably go with the Neo Vista.

I don't think I'll buy another true super racing shoe for a while. Will use my last two pairs of Pros for 5k/10k and workouts, but the performance trainers are getting good enough now that a hobbyjogger doesn't really need anything other than a performance trainer and a daily trainer.

You ran a 30 minute 5K at 300 lbs?

Then dropped to 185 and ran an "average" 40 minute 10k?

Sounds not true.

doctorsofrunning.com

PEBAX Shoes and Carbon Fiber Plates: What We Know Now (Updated Literature Review)

An update to our evidence based review of research on PEBAX and carbon fiber plated shoes.

Link:www.doctorsofrunning.com/2022/11/pebax...

According to this, it is the combination of the plate and the foam. Mostly the foam. Link to "part one" at the bottom.

I had previous running experience, was a good bit faster (but never "fast") when I was younger. I hoped to improve more with weight loss but truth is you lose power when you lose weight because you can't avoid losing some muscle. The 2 sec per mile per pound thing only goes so far.

You don't have to believe it, that's fine. It's the internet.

I just purchased a pair of ASICS Maxiblast. They are not plated but do have high tech foams. There is a 5 mile / 8K loop that I run at least weekly for the past 15 years, so I have a very established baseline for what pace correlates to what effort / heart rate. I ran a full minute/mile faster at the same 145 bpm heart rate with the Maxiblast when compared to other running shoes. I'm 65 years old and unlikely to set any lifetime PRs at this point but the faster pace should have a significant positive training effect. I would say both slower runners and faster runners benefit from super trainers, but I would not limit this to plated trainers

Hard to say how much the shoes made a difference, but I picked running back up around 43 years old. I kind of hit a plateau about 2 years in with a 3:09 marathon in the old Adios (non-carbon).

Then I got VF3s and ran the same marathon two years later at the same weight and similar mileage in 3:01.

I believe some of it is improved recovery, but also I noticed the difference in my first run with the VF3s. What would normally be a hard training session felt a little bit easier.

I would hardly call the Evo SL plated -- there's only a small non-carbon shank in the midfoot.

My interpretation of their post was that the Evo SL was the example of the nonplated shoe.