A new breed of running shoes is changing the race, but according to the people who designed them, they’re not for everyone.
At the Nike Melbourne Marathon in October, where Australian Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull rang the starting bell, a record-breaking 34 women ran sub-three-hour marathons, and new race records were set for both male and female categories in the half-marathon.At the London Marathon in April, four female athletes bolted to the finish line, all beating the previous women’s world record.
But these new high-performance running shoes aren’t changing the race for everyone. In fact, for some, they can hinder rather than help.From minimalist to maximalist shoes, one constant idea of the past was that a shoe ought to limit pronation and create stability.Advertisement “We recurrently hear that, no matter the type of run, what love the most is cushioning,” says Tony Bignell, vice president of Footwear Innovation at Nike.A carbon-plated boostWhack a carbon plate or rods in the midsole of that light, highly stacked foam shoe, and you have yourself a super shoe. These design additions provide structure and propulsive speed.
“They don’t physically make you run faster, but they reduce the energy cost of running,” says McNamara. “A 4 to 5per cent increase in running economy makes a huge difference when you’re running a marathon.”As a young athlete, Hull often ran barefoot on the grass. “My dad – my coach – is a firm believer that the better the athlete’s biomechanics are, you don’t get as much from the shoe,” says the now 28-year-old.
Altrogge adds that the biggest benefit is to athletes who can run at a pace of less than four minutes per kilometre. Ultimately, the best shoe is the one we find most comfortable because sport scientists have come to appreciate that there isn’t one best way to run .
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