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…when it comes to speed. What is fast for some is slow for others and visa-versa. Still, the one standard you can compare yourself to is, well, yourself. Part of the reason many of us enter footraces is to see just how fast we are. Once we have finished one, we use each subsequent race to measure how our speed has waxed or waned. Much of our change in speed can be attributed to diet, hydration, training, weather and quality of sleep & recovery.
But what about Mars Blackmon’s eternal question, “Is it the shoes?”
Can what you wear on your feet make a significant impact on how you perform on the streets? Nike, along with Blackmon (Spike Lee) and Michael Jordan, tried to sell us on that idea way back in the early 1990’s. “It’s gotta be the shoes” was everywhere.
Runners today have a myriad of shoes to choose from when they enter a running store. Every shoe has it’s selling point, whether it’s support or cushioning, firmness or flexibility. And of course, we all have different feet, so the range of choice is a good thing, right? But what if you are simply looking to increase your speed. You feel you are close to whatever goal it is you have set for yourself, but you have fallen just a little bit short. Is there a shoe for that?
People are constantly asking me, “Can you run fast in those, uh, things?” They point at my Vibram Bikilas or Treks, not sure what to make of them.
Commercial hype and celebrity endorsements aside (Joe Montana – it is so sad to see you pitching those Skechers Shape Ups), let’s do a simple thought experiment. Let’s pit twin brothers against each other in a long distance race. Each has had the exact same training, eaten the exact same foods, and received the exact same amount of sleep. They are wearing the exact same outfits and weigh exactly the same. They also both incorporate the same running style. Which one would you bet on to win this race? You can’t, because any bet you make would be a complete guess.
Now, let’s take one of the twins out of his traditional shoes and put him in a pair that weigh half as much (12oz to 6oz each). This is now the only difference between the twins. One is literally carrying 3/4 of a pound less than the other. Now you may wonder, what difference can 3/4lb make in a footrace? Well, based on certain calculators out there on the internet, for a 175lb man like me, it can mean 9 seconds in a 10K, 22 seconds in a half-marathon and as much as 45 seconds in a full marathon. For a 150lb runner, the time difference is even greater. What’s 9 seconds? Well, it can mean the difference between placing in your age group or not (I’ve missed placing in my age group twice 5 seconds or less). It can also mean the difference between qualifying for Boston or not. I still have over 9 minutes to make up, but if I ran in traditional shoes and clocked a 3:21:40, I’d be pretty ticked off!
So what am I getting at? Vibram Fivefingers are my racing shoe. They literally are half the weight of my old Brooks trainers and I am convinced that they have helped me reached times that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Between the forcing me to run in a more efficient manner and allowing me to carry less weight, my speed has picked up. At the age 40 and with only a little over a year of consistent running under my belt, I was able to record a sub-40 in just my second 10K. I was not a runner before November 2008. Was it solely because of the shoes? No way! But I don’t doubt that they had a huge part in my race that day (of course, I still missed the podium by a few seconds).
If you are a dyed-in-the-wool heel striker with no desire to change your stride, then the minimalist shoe is probably not for you. But if you are naturally a mid- to fore-foot striker, or are like me, a partially reformed heel-striker, and you are looking for ways to cut down your times, the Vibrams, and more specifically the Bikilas or Treks, may be the shoe for you. I’ve heard people say that as heel-strikers they cannot possibly run in the Vibrams. I would have to disagree. I have always been a heel-striker and although I’ve tried to alter my mechanics, using a cross between chi-running and barefoot techniques, I will still land just ever so slightly on my heel.
Providence Marathon
Boston 13.1
Boston Run To Remember
That said, my heels have been fine. I am a faster, stronger and more efficient runner than I ever was.
Taken to extremes, you may ask, well why not toss out the shoes altogether? Go barefoot! That’s another 45 seconds right there! The problem with that for me is I don’t have natural tread on the bottom of my feet. Both the Treks and the Bikilas have enough tread so you can run hard and still maintain traction with the ground. If I tried that barefoot, I think I’d rip the skin right off the bottoms of my feet.
I’ve put well over 1000 miles in VFF’s over the last 12 month, with close to 400 in either Treks or Bikilas, interspersed with some runs in my traditional Brooks. I know my comfortable pace in my VFF’s is about 20 seconds faster than my Brooks.
Based on my personal experience therefore, I have to agree with Mars. “It’s gotta be the shoes!”
Run Luau Run 
I get the same questions about my KSO’s. “How can you run in those things?”, “Doesn’t that hurt your feet?”, “How can you do that without support?”
I went out for my longest run in VFFs this morning (4 miles). I love ’em, and can’t wait to get to where you are with them. I just love running in them. It’s gotta be the shoes!
You’ll get there! I have no doubt!
Where did you get those numbers for the race time differences? I would have figured it to be a lot more than that from my experiences. Also, I don’t understand what the runner’s weight has to do with it. I would figure it to be leg length that would affect it (longer legs = more torque on the knees and hips).
Derick – there are a couple of different sites that pop up when you google weight + running pace + speed. I think that the numbers fluctuate with base speed, distance and weight. I’m oversimplifying but essentially the more weight one carries, the greater amount of energy is needed to propel one forward; the faster one goes, the more quickly one burns through glycogen, therefore to be able to complete longer distances with greater weight, one must run more slowly to burn through one’s glycogen stores…at least, that’s my limited understanding of it. Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if longer legs would benefit one’s pace, unfortunately, one can’t buy longer legs. BUT you can buy lighter shoes (unshoes…whatever you want to call them!). Thanks for the comment!
I’m still hung up on the idea that people come up to you and question your choice in footwear as if it affects them. Personally, I don’t care for Vibrams (primarily because of the whole Kangaroo leather thing) but I’m totally on board with the lighter footwear for racing in and acknowledge the value in barefoot/minimal training to improve your form. But seriously, if someone walks up to you out of the blue and asks if you can run fast in those “things,” they don’t even deserve a response. Unless they’re like, your aunt or something.
Keath – I’ve actually had people running alongside me mid-race, look down and ask, “you like running in those things?” Part of me is tempted to say something sarcastic like, “no, I don’t. I just like torturing myself,” but I usually give a more appropriate response. I hear you on the kangaroo leather thing…there’s a fine line there that I haven’t quite decided where I stand yet.
Luau,
I have been running in my Bikilas for about 4 months and love them. My longest run has been 6 miles. I want to do a half marathon in my VFF and was wondering if you wear the Injinji toe socks (or someother socks) for your longer runs or not?
At the end of the 6 miles I was starting to get a hot spot on my big toe.
Just curious….congrats on your running. Continued success.
Hey Scott – thanks for the visit and the comment. I don’t wear any socks when I run. I did buy a pair mid-winter and used them once. I do occasionally get hot spots on my feet but I generally find that it has more to do with how I’m running that day…on days where I am just not feeling it, those hot spots can hit me as soon as 4 miles, on days when I’m feeling great and the legs are fresh, I can go 13 – 15 miles and not feel a thing…I also think it might have to do with the temperatures of the surfaces you are running on. Are you running solely on hot roads? I will almost always vary my running surfaces whenever I can.
I’ve done a fair amount of empirical testing of shoe weight vs. running pace, and I can tell you that an ounce isn’t always an ounce. An ounce on the foot is just about equivalent to a pound on the body. In other words, if you shave 5 oz from your shoes, that will speed you up as much as shaving 5 libs from your body weight.
Why? Because once you are running, your body is basically moving in a straight line, with very little acceleration. But your feet have extreme acceleration and deceleration with every stride. And of course they are at the end of a very long moment arm. Accelerating or decelerating an ounce at the end of a leg takes a lot of energy–much more energy than is required to keep an ounce around your middle going forward.
This is not an original observation. Cyclists have known this for a hundred years. Cylists know that shaving an ounce from the rim of a wheel will improve your speed as much as shaving a pound from the frame of the bike, or from the rider’s body.
Sorry for the long discourse on physics. But the bottom line is, lose weight from your shoes and (all other things being equal) you will become faster!
Thanks Ken! And don’t apologize for the physics! I love it! Now if I can just figure out a way to attach a little tread to the bottom of my feet and lose a few more ounces!
I just got my first pair of VFFs (Bikilas) and I can’t wait to try them out. It’s going to be hard for me to ramp up slowly but I’d like to get to the point you are at- to run a marathon in VFFs. Maybe they’ll even help me break my plateau’d marathon time and finally qualify for Boston. I hope so! Thanks for all of the great information. (I’m here from DM)