I would pay a premium if I could do a running economy test with a bunch of different shoes at different paces. Seems like an obvious business opportunity. Does this exist anywhere yet?
I would pay a premium if I could do a running economy test with a bunch of different shoes at different paces. Seems like an obvious business opportunity. Does this exist anywhere yet?
I don't believe they do for economy.... they do just to sell you the right pair of shoes.
SunRunner82 wrote:
I don't believe they do for economy.... they do just to sell you the right pair of shoes.
Yes some stores have "experts" who will watch your form and sell you the "right" shoes but I want to try them myself and get actual data on which shoe is best for me at certain race paces
No. It's extremely sophisticated to measure running economy. I participated in a study at Vanderbilt a couple of years ago to test running economy in the same shoe with different midsole densities. I had to be wired up to a heart rate monitor and an oxygen mask, do a warm-up run on a treadmill and then run at my chosen comfortably fast pace for, if I recall correctly, five minutes. Then, I'd get a few minutes off and repeat the test with another shoe density at exactly the same pace.
I was surprised to find that the shoe that felt the fastest was not the most economical, but the difference for me at least was very small.
Interestingly, I noticed that my footstrike changed slightly to accommodate the change in forefoot firmness. I'm a forefoot striker so the changes in heel firmness made no difference at all.
It doesn't sound that sophisticated, but maybe it would take too long. If it takes 5 minutes to get a precise reading of oxygen consumption then it's probably unrealistic to try 5 different pairs at 10k pace.
Get a Stryd. Run with it, do your own tests during training all the time!