Thread by @stevemagness

Here's what people are missing on the "Shoe, pacing, drafting, etc." debate

No one is taking away from Kipchoge and others. No one is saying that's why he runs fast. The speculation is on how he (and Kosgei, Bekele, etc) made a significant jump in a short period of time.(Thread)

Look at Kipchoge, largely in the 2:03-2:04 range. Then drops to 2:00:25 (non-record paced), 2:01:39, and 1:59:41. Same with Bekele, Same with Kosgei (2:18--> 2:14).

What people are looking at is why the jump in performance.

It is very hard for someone to take minutes off their PR when you are the very best in the world.

Where did that drop come from? Based on what we know, A large part is shoe technology, some part draft/pacing, and a very small part optimizing other things (fueling, etc.)

The reason the shoe tech is in question is that Track and field has never had a change in shoe tech that mattered more than a very minuscule amount.

The flats from the 80s until the early 2000s, gave you fractions of a percent based in performance.

Even the Boost technology in the early 2010's only improved economy by about 1%, which is within the measurement error so it's hard to say. Which translated to a slight performance boost.

Based on research data, the current shoe technology gives on average 4%+ improvement in economy (we don't have data for the current iteration) which translates in the lab to about 2-2.5% increase. A very significant amount

We haven't had any shoe tech thats done that in the past

The closest you get is from cinder to modern tracks. But there, everyone was making the switch. Here, not everyone is on the same playing field.

So what? Every sport has rules on tech that can be used. Track does too. Based on current rules, the interpretation seems like these shoes should be banned (significant improvement, not available to all)

But we've never had to deal with this issue like other sports (swimming,etc

So the point is:
Talk of shoes, pacing, etc. aren't taking away from Kipchoge's and others accomplishment.

They are explaining why guys who ran 2:03-2:04 a few years ago, now are able to run sub 2. That jump just doesn't happen, even with training or "belief."

If you don't think shoes, tech, drafting, etc. matter, then drugs have to be thrown in as an explainer.

So I'd rather have it be "the shoes" then it be some new PED...

To put this another way, the last time you saw such a drop in any era in the marathon was the 1960s with Derek Clayton.

Back then marathoning was just taking hold and you had the beginning of “modern” training.

That begs an explanation of why we are seeing it now.