Will a Super Shoe Make Me a Super Athlete?

We are constantly seeing innovation coming into the sport of Triathlon and making significant improvements to our performances. This is how our sport has evolved over the decades, it's something that should be encouraged, and we will continue to see it as technology improves. But all new technology has to come with a word of caution.

 

 

 

Some innovations have had a larger impact on our performances than others.  Take aerobars for example; this started out as a simple design that allowed us to lower our frontal area and drag coefficient, meaning we were able to ride faster for longer.  Everyone could use them, and they were proven to be much faster than a conventional handlebar.  

Another innovation has been the Triathlon Specific Wetsuit; what started out as no more than a diving or surfing wetsuit we soon figured out that there is a better way.  Finding materials that were lighter, more conforming, and didn't hold as much water was the key to its success.  And designing it for ease of removal was also an important feature.  A modern triathlon wetsuit will always be faster than the early designs, and they will make everyone faster than if they weren’t wearing a wetsuit.

Enter the super shoe era….

Footwear companies are also trying to find the perfect combination of materials and design to improve human performance.  They have certainly made a difference to the majority of the athletic population to get out, be active and reduce the risk of injury.  What’s regarded as a ‘conventional shoe’ today are much more comfortable and seem to perform better than the conventional shoes from 20 years ago.  But when you are looking at elite level performance, there hasn’t really been a massive improvement in race times.  Take the men's Marathon world record for example.  In 1908 it was 2:55:18, and it steadily lowered as people learnt how to train and race better.  In 1925 it was 2:29:01. These are very fast times in shoes that would have been horrible to run in compared to todays models.  Between 1999 and 2014 the record dropped by approximately by 3 minutes.  In 2018 Eliud Kipchoge broke the record by 78 seconds and this was the largest improvement in over 50 years.  Kipchoge was wearing a version of Nikes Zoom Vapourfly, a shoe that was easily available to purchase…and in the months following many were.  In 2019 Kipchoge went one step further and ran a further developed version of the Nike AlphaFly to run under 2hrs in an unofficial marathon race.

The significance of these shoes can’t be disregarded, they were designed with some very unique features, materials and midsole thicknesses.  As soon as these shoes were available to the general public we saw elite (and high performing Age Groupers) lining up in Triathlon events around the world in these shoes, and not surprisingly running race best times.

This season we saw Gustav Iden win IRONMAN World Championships in a customised 50mm stack height shoe.  Just recently in IRONMAN Israel we saw Patrick Lange win in the fastest every IRONMAN run time of 2:30:32 in a 50mm stack height shoe (Women's winner Ruth Astle was wearing the same shoe), interestingly this shoe has been banned by the IAAF but is still allowed by IRONMAN.

There are a few key features to the design of these shoes that made them distinctly different to the shoes we were used to wearing.  These features had to be integrated into the shoes for them to be successful, without the right combination you’d be wearing a completely ineffective shoe.  

The most obvious feature is the stack height.  These shoes looked like massive clogs, they had soles that ranged anywhere from 20-40mm thicker than our usual race shoes.  Effectively this allows the runners leg to be longer, so they get more distance out of each stride. 

Normally a shoe with so much material in the sole would be very heavy, and they wouldn’t be conducive to running fast.  But the shoe companies got around this by developing ultralight midsole foams, and it’s the various properties of these foams that probably give the greatest impact in improvements.  However, you could imagine if you were running in a very tall shoe with a lot of low density soft foam underneath your foot that you would be very unstable in gait, and this would have massive implications for injury, and it would make it very hard to run.  

The way to get around this instability was to insert a carbon plate into the midsole of the shoe.  All the shoe companies experimented with their own configuration of the carbon plate, its shape and the layup of the fibres.  Carbon fibre is a very stiff, robust and lightweight material that was perfect for the stability requirements of the shoe.  Many people think the carbon plate is there to provide a spring effect, but this is actually incorrect.  It’s there purely for stability and control of the foot strike.  The guidance it provides generally only works for a certain type of foot strike, and natural balance, and this is the key issue with individual variances seen in wearing these shoes.

The final key feature was the overall shape of the shoe.  These all have a significant rocker shape to them, so they drive the foot forward through midstance to a quick toe off.  This too has implications for the wearer.

So as you can see, the Super Shoe is extremely different to what you may have run in before, and each shoe brand quickly reacted to Nike’s innovation with their own iteration of a Super Shoe.  Some of these were rushed out, and you may argue they weren’t as good as others.  And some people even found one design suited them, but that same design didn’t suit another person with seemingly very similar biomechanics.  These small differences are a key issue with deciding if a certain Super Shoe will make you a Super Athlete.

Another problem we saw developing with the emergence of these shoes was the market was strides ahead of the Coaches, Biomechanists, the Sports Scientists, and the Injury Management Specialists.  We were seeing these shoes literally hitting the road, and not knowing enough about them.  The effect of the rocker, the higher stack and the stiffness of the carbon plate meant that some muscles were being utilised in different ways, such as the quadriceps and calf muscles.  Also the forefoot of the shoe was very stiff, and this had implications on general foot comfort.  The shoes felt very unusual to run in initially, you were taller, the shoe was softer, and you got the impression of being driven forward through your stride.  Yes people were running faster, but at what cost?  

The pace of the runner was important too, as was the way the foot was striking the ground.  A slower runner with longer ground contact was receiving a much different dose from the shoe than a faster runner with shorter ground contact….think about this when looking at your running pace for various race distances.  You may find these shoes help you hugely in a Sprint Distance Triathlon, but in an Iron Distance event, are they going to be as effective, or possibly a hindrance to you if you are going to be running slow, or even walking?  I’m amazed when I sit on the side of the run course in a triathlon and watch the runners striding by, so often I see people running in Carbon Plated Super Shoes that are clearly not right for them.  They have spent a lot of money on these shoes, but haven’t taken the time to determine if they are the right ones for them.  Each brand has their own characteristics, so you need to try out a variety of shoes if you are wanting to go down the path of this style shoe.

Don’t take this discussion from me as a side swipe to the carbon shoe evolution.  It’s quite the opposite, I have 4 different styles of carbon plated running shoes, all for different distances and paces.  I know which ones I will wear for which races or training sessions, as I have taken the time to experiment with them.  And I still run in my conventional shoes for most training runs as it’s important to let the foot and leg function as normally as possible to keep the risk of injury low.  For an Iron Distance Triathlon I will actually wear a model of carbon plated shoe designed as a training shoe as I know it doesn’t work the same at that pace as one that I would wear for a stand-alone marathon.  I want to be running for longer through the race than to be going out too fast and having my body breaking down as the race goes on.

If you think that you may be spending a large amount of the run leg going at a speed that’s a bit slower than you train at, and perhaps even walking for portions, you need to put some thought into the shoes you wear for the race.  Wearing the same carbon plated shoe that Kipchoge wears for a 1:59 marathon may not be the right shoe for you, and actually your conventional training shoe may be the best option to race in.

Most importantly, embrace technology, know where your limits lie and keep looking forward to the next hot tech that lands.