By: Olivia Fang

A shocking number of track and field world records were broken recently. These records range from the women’s 1500 meters and 5000 meters — which were both broken by Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon – to the mile event in high school track meets, with four high school students running sub-four-minute miles during the same meet. With so many new athletes racing at lightning-fast speeds, people have begun to speculate what their secret could be.

As it turns out, these athletes wear specialized shoes with thicker midsoles which reduce impact and allow for a faster recovery. They also return energy to the runner, permitting them to train harder (GQ). Yet sports scientists have noted that these super shoes are only one piece of the puzzle. Physiologist and biomechanics expert Geoff Burns shared with The New York Times that, for athletes to do their best, they should follow the same routine they do during races. This includes running at the same pace, consuming the same food, and wearing the same shoes. “Because the shoes are a new tool, the more we run in them, the better we adapt,” he claims. This formula has proved true for many professional track and field athletes, with long-distance runner Lindsay Flanagan stating that super shoes have become a part of her training regimen for her to adapt to them. Interviewed by The New York Times, she shares that after running in super shoes, she can “log more quality days, as well as more mileage in general”, due to her legs “coming around sooner.”

However, this is a rather new idea. Before 2021, media outlets claimed that you should save your super shoes for important races, with some runners still training using traditional flat shoes, saying that this allows them to build more endurance. Indeed, a pilot study from California State University appears to show that even though flat shoes were much less comfortable, the runners that trained in them improved their running economy more than those that trained in super shoes. Although, it is important to note that this study was conducted at a much smaller scale, and the limited information surrounding this topic makes it difficult to draw any worthwhile conclusions.

Super shoes are a relatively new technology, with the first pair released by Nike in 2016. This means that there is still much more research to be done about the science before we can truly maximize their benefits. Even so, super shoes have already shown that they have the potential to completely revolutionize the world of track and field.

Source:

– The Real Power of Super Shoes Could Be Supercharged Training – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

– The Case for Training in “Super Shoes” | GQ

– Program Planner (abstractsonline.com)

– Bone Stress Injuries in Runners Using Carbon Fiber Plate Footwear | SpringerLink