Wondering if anyone has experience or tips about the process of transitioning to training/racing in carbon plate shoes from ordinary old school shoes.
I have a naturally bounding (eg, “gazelle”, rather than “glider”) gait, and haven’t engaged any professionals to analyze my gait since a few years back (pre-‘carbon plate shoes for all’ times) when I went in for a gait analysis.
I race and do fast training, and transition runs now in Asics Magic Speeds which aren’t a full-foot carbon plate (it extends only halfway), and still use Brooks Ghosts for the easy runs and longer runs.
I’ve heard carbon plate shoes can give you up to 4%+ time savings but sometimes they’re slower if you run a certain way (if you run more glidey than gazelley).
Thoughts? Is it worth getting another gait analysis to see if carbon shoes are doing me any good?
Ya…I made the dive 16 month ago from my old school running shoes to the carbon plates shoes.
I have been a competitive runner for just over 36 years and have never done a professional gait analysis. I was offered to have one done at a running shoe store once so they could tell me what type of shoes I should be running in. I knew what shoes I was going to buy and anything that sales clerk in his 20’s was going to tell me from a gait analysis was either going to tell me to buy the same pair of shoes that I was going to buy without the analysis or was just a waste of time for someone who had already logged tens of thousands of miles in shoes and knew what were the best for me and my running style.
When I did my first run in my carbon plated shoes my goal was to just run as natural and free as I could. I remained relaxed and let my feet move unencumber through every motion or my run. My form did not feel any different from any other run I had done.
No, the Asics Magic Speeds are not a Carbon Plate Super Shoe. I would put them in the old school shoe category because they will not get you the big energy savings that you hear about in the carbon plated super shoes. In back-to-back time trial with the Magic and your Brooks Ghosts I wouldn’t expect you to see any statistically significant difference in energy savings. The Asics Metaspeed Sky is the Carbon Plates Super Shoe that get people up to 4% time savings. The Carbon Plate in the shoe is not what saves time. These super shoes are made of a high stack height resilient foam that conserves the energy in the same way a spring does. People often describe the super shoes as being really bouncy. You can take one of these shoes and throw it down on the floor and see it bounce back up like a tennis ball. The bounce from the foam is what saves you time. That foam breaks down and looses its bounce really quickly though (in like 50 miles) so training shoes often have the same structure with the carbon plate etc but with an old school foam that will hold up to hundreds of miles of training miles. I like the Asics Magic as a light weight race shoes. It is a great option for a shoe with a good life span and weight off your feet.
The shoe isn’t going to change your gait. Your gait is something you control. Different shoes models are designed for different gaits. Some are designed for people who strike on their toes and roll to their heel. Some or designed for people who strike on their heel and roll to their toes. Some people strike in the middle of their sole. Some people strike on the outside edge of their sole and role to the inside of their feet etc. If you match the shoe design to your gait you will see the best results.
The ways I have see measurements done to see if the shoes are doing in any good are with the Stryd Foot Pods to measure running speed in different shoes at the same power and with an Oxygen mask to measure the oxygen consumption in different shoes running at the same pace. I personally have just races in my shoes to see how things went. I had been a consistent 17:45-18:00 minute 5K runner for the 10 years prior to getting my carbon plates super shoes. In my first race in the super shoes I did a 17:15 5K. Every race I have done in the super shoes since then have shown similar results. I went from a 1:25 half Marathon to a 1:18 half marathon from a 3:10 Marathon to a 2:55 Marathon, etc.