Yes, you've read born to run, well done. It it's a good story, not a handbook of practical advice. Telling 2:30 marathon runners doing hundreds of miles a week that running shoes are bad and they should be going bare foot. OK.
As some who runs trails in minimalist shoes for enjoyment I do appreciate that the author acknowledged that many people prioritize things besides speed and efficiency: fun, fitness, injury prevention, being outdoors, socializing. Because if I'm actually picking footwear for speed and efficiency the fastest shoes I own are my Crankbrothers with a bicycle attached to the bottom.
I'm currently recovering from blisters due to racing a 25k two weeks after my debut marathon in Vaporfly 3 shoes. Poor planning, but it wasn't the shoe's fault: My form fell apart in the marathon after about 23 miles, cramping up and running out of strength and mobility to maintain a midfoot strike.
But I've done my own testing - tempo runs holding a target heart rate in each of my Nike Pegasus trainers, Zegma 2 trainers, and the Vaporflys.
It's not even close.
At 165-170 bpm, I can hold about 7:15/mile for 40 minutes in the Pegasus trainers. On the same route, same weather, same sleep, same heart rate, just a week later, I was able to do 6:40/mile for 40 minutes.
I'm sure a good deal of that comes from weight - I've also got some spike flats for interval training that are really fast but have ordinary EVA foam with low drop and a very low stack, but I wouldn't attempt a marathon in them.
My younger brother was an All-American swimmer in the era of supersuits (2007-2009). I hope that the same doesn't happen to supershoes.
"Some claim hyperbolically" - masterfully understated there, Wikipedia.
Surprisingly, these claims are more true than false, though in no way completely true. There are some fascinating cultural mechanisms that enable each one. But they were also largely dependent on their society being extremely small and living in remote hillsides and only coming together for certain social events. Not very applicable to modern society.
> Surprisingly, these claims are more true than false, though in no way completely true. There are some fascinating cultural mechanisms that enable each one. But they were also largely dependent on their society being extremely small and living in remote hillsides and only coming together for certain social events. Not very applicable to modern society.
Indeed - the Mayans might be worse at culturally-mandated obsidian daggering of people, but at least they don't have microplastics!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5G93ta66xSk
The tribals from the Sierra Madre Mountains in Northern Mexico - called the Tarahumara or the Rarámuri people - are considered to be among the best endurance runners in the world.
Some of the First Nation tribes of the Americas (especially their messengere who ran hundreds of miles to deliver messages) and the traditional African tribals (such as the Maasai tribe) are also among the best endurance runners in the world.
Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge is the first human to run sub-2-hours marathon.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MoxFkJlVZlA
And when we look at exactly how these world's best endurance runners (truly superhumans) run (i.e., their running style), we realise that all the fancy sports shoes we normies tend to run in aren't really conducive for proper running.
The best endurance runners run in such a way that their feet land on the front of their foot during running, but the typical sports shoes cause our feet to land on the heels (ball on the back side of the foot) (which is what causes injuries due to such daily bad way of running).
Humans evolved to be the best long distance endurance runners, compared to any other animal. It is high time modern humans realised what's the right way to run long distance.
This is not really true and the whole fore foot vs heal striker thing is a bit of a red herring. There are elite distance runners that are forefoot, mid-foot (probably the majority) and heal strikers. The main thing is that wherever on their foot hits first, the foot itself is under their center of gravity and not out in front of them.
That’s a vast oversimplification.
Modern shoes don’t force you to heel strike.
My recommendation would be to try some zero drop shoes for a while.
Wife currently has a knee issue and the physio has her doing more hip bridges and lunges to build up the supporting muscles. Had a hamstring injury that caused issues by compensating for it and running incorrectly which put additional pressure on the knees.
I used to run in Asics Nimbus and currently just wear them all day. Switched to these bright red Novablast 5s for running and they are noticeably better. I do a mix of Norwegian 4x4 Hiit or a steady fast jog a few times a week.
Running shoes are converging on two designs: maximalist shoes with a long foam and a narrow foot, or “barefoot” shoes. Which means it’s harder than ever to find something that fits if neither of those work well for you.
You might find stability shoes to be beneficial until you’ve built up the right muscles, high stack shoes can be quite unstable.
I find the current trend of springloaded shoes that incentivice people to have a terrible running gait absolutely disgusting.
If it weren't for commercial interests I bet these shoes would have been banned long ago. They are bad for the runners and they are bad for the sport.
Anecdotally we see more injuries in the form of bone stress than we used to, because modern shoes allow for greater training loads that aren’t quite as hard bounded by muscle tolerance as flats but without seeing any data I suspect the balance of injury has shifted rather than the general incidence of injuries.
Yeah, that is truly just, like, your opinion, man. “Terrible running gait”? I’m not even going to ask for any evidence because there isn’t any. What there is evidence for is faster times, faster recovery from races and hard workouts. There is further evidence that the shoes don’t work for everyone, some are “super responders” for whom the shoes work really well, others find benefit, and for others the shoes are a waste of money.
What’s disgusting is r/barefootrunning turning shoes (or lack thereof) into a religion when, like many religions, the evidence is minimal.
Signed, a guy with a lot of thin-soled shoes on the shelf, and two pair of Vaporflys.
It is an unnatural, unhealthy way of running and it rewards the runner with the better gear instead of the one with bettertechnique and conditioning.
