Heather: I'm going to take the liberty of speaking on behalf of all runners when I say
we would love to have a running gait like the pros. Sadly, that isn't going to happen
overnight, but with the advancements in technology, could we start to get close? Well, today I
have a selection of different running shoes with a varying levels of support and cushioning.
With the help of some running analytics I'm going to be trying to answer the question,
can running shoes change our gait? [music]
Over the last century running shoes have developed far faster than our running pace, but how
much has the running gait of pros actually changed? While the most significant difference,
I guess, was going from barefoot to running with a shoe, you might remember only a few
decades ago that at the Olympics some athletes were still choosing to run barefoot. Zola
Budd was famous for breaking the world record in the 5K, but more famous for choosing to
race without shoes. However, now we know that shoe technology plays a huge part in running,
and to be competitive at the elite level when it comes to distance running, all of those
athletes need to have a carbon shoe in order to, basically, make it a level playing field.
I could easily spend a few minutes talking about the history and development of the running
shoe, but we've previously gone into detail on that in the channel. If you want to know
more, I'd recommend checking out that video. I want to know how running shoes can affect
our gait, or even if they can. To try and find out, I'm going to be using the Wahoo
TICKR X heart rate monitor which will measure my cadence, my vertical oscillation, and my
ground contact time to give me a comparison of my overall running form and efficiency
for each of the shoes. [music]
For this comparison, I have chosen four quite different pairs of shoes. I'm going to start
off with the Vivobarefoot, which I personally wear them as a fashion shoe in the summer.
Today they're going to be put through their paces.
[music] Unsurprisingly, it's not hard to find a shoe
that gives more support and cushioning than that one, so we're taking it up a level with
this next one, the On Cloudflow. On claimed this shoe as a fast training and longer distance
racing shoe, as the stats backup. [music]
Now for the most advanced racing shoe. We're adding carbon fiber into the mix. It is the
On Cloudboom. [music]
Finally, at the comfort and cushion end of the scale, we've got these rather well-worn
On Cloudstratus. [music]
With this selection we have a variety of weight, stack height, heel-toe drop, cushioning, and
feel. Ultimately, each of these pairs of shoes are going to feel very different on my feet.
It's then up to me to try and portray how that feels to you guys, backed up with some
data. I'm hoping we're going to get some slow-mo shots which will show if there's any visible
difference in how my foot actually moves throughout the gait from shoe to shoe.
[music] Okay, it's time to get started. I'm going
to do my first lap with the Vivobarefoot. Must admit, I'm not looking forward to running
barefoot, but it's time to give it a go. Here it goes. Three, two, one.
[music] Alright, now for a shoe that I've run a few
marathons in, it is the Cloudflow. Let's see how this fares. Three, two, one, go.
[music] This shoe means business. It's time to test
out the Cloudboom and I'm excited to run in these. I've only run in them once before for
my 5K on the treadmill, so I'm looking forward to seeing how fast I feel. Okay, three, two,
one, go. [music]
Comfort should not be overrated. Back to my very much tried and tested Cloudstratus. I
know they're going to be comfy but let's see how they feel.
[music] [pants] All right, that was the final shoe,
tried and tested. As you can see it's a little bit chilly here, so I'm actually going to
go home, get warm, and look at the results and share those with you guys in a moment.
It's so nice to get back into the warm and I'm excited to discuss these results. In feel
alone, there was a significant difference and when it comes to looking at the slow-mos
to see if there's any visible difference, I'm going to have to leave that up to you
guys because whilst I'm recording it, I've not had the chance to look at those. I am
feeling that the difference might not be so notable as I was just running about 400 meters.
Once I look into the numbers now, and instead of looking at each shoe individually, I'm
going to look at one metric across all the shoes and we'll go through the metrics that
way. I think it makes sense to start with cadence
because that's the most readily available metric most of you will be able to get on
your smartwatches. It's thought that an ideal cadence is around 180 strides per minute.
It's something that you aim for when you look at the pros when they're running long distances.
Now, I have to admit that my highest cadence was 190, which we'll go into discussion a
little bit later as to is that too high or not? That was with the barefoot shoes and
then the rest are all pretty close. It was the Cloudboom that was 188, so pretty
much the same really. The Cloudflow I had 184 strides per minute. The heavier, softer
shoe, the Cloustratus, actually gave me 182. I know those all sound really high but it
is worth noting that I do naturally have a high cadence, and I was running maybe a tiny
bit quicker than my 5K pace would be at the moment, and it was a short distance. We need
to bear that into mind when we're looking at these numbers.
We're moving onto my ground contact time and it's no surprise that it follows the same
pattern as the cadence, as the two are inextricably linked. As your cadence increases, your ground
contact time normally decreases, so my lowest ground contact time was actually with the
barefoot shoe for just 211 milliseconds. Then it went up to 222 milliseconds with the Cloudboom.
The Cloudflow was 3 milliseconds different so, so tiny probably insignificant. It was
the Cloudstratus which was unsurprisingly the highest. That was 233 milliseconds, but
still not a huge variety between the three considering there was quite a lot of give
in that shoe compared to running barefoot. The final metric we're looking at today is
vertical oscillation. That's a number you want to be the lower, the better, as you're
not wasting energy spending time in the air. The patterns remain the same here actually.
With the barefoot shoe I had the smallest vertical oscillation of just 8.15 centimeters.
Cloudboom was 8.36. The Cloudflow 8.48. Those two seem to be quite similar on most of these
metrics. The Cloudstratus, that's where the biggest difference was. I'm obviously getting
more spring but I'm spending more time going up, and as a result probably wasting more
energy, but some of that energy is coming from the shoe. That was a lot more at 9.06
centimeters. [music]
Well, I think those numbers only tell a very small part of the story because at the end
of the day, feel is a big thing and there's a few things we couldn't measure. That was
what it would actually look like over a real-life distance race. If I did run the full 5K, obviously
I didn't have enough time or energy to be doing that in the experiment, it would show,
I think, quite a decline in the shoes that gave me less support. If I look at the barefoot
shoe, yes it came out top on the numbers, and maybe my form looked brilliant for that
short period of time, but when I was wearing them my feet felt so vulnerable. The heads
of my metatarsals as I was landing on the hard ground. Admittedly, the snow helped because
that lessened that impact slightly. Even on the downhill, I was being forced to run really
forward and on my toes which I wouldn't be able to sustain for a longer distance. My
calf was starting to even hurt in just 400 meters. I think I'd soon start to see a significant
decline with that. I just felt like there wasn't a change of gear. There was nothing
else there. There was nothing to help me with that.
Then on the other end of the spectrum, there was the Cloudstratus which, like I mentioned,
is my go-to comfy shoe. I feel super supported. I feel like I could run in it all day, but
it feels really heavy especially compared to the others when I put it on. Again, it
would feel like it would restrict me over a longer period of time, because the weight
would just slow me down and even the ground contact sounds slow. It's like a slow comfortable
shoe. As a result, I feel like I'm running more upright because I'm much more comfortable
to heel strike. There was a very slight bit that was downhill and that shoe felt more
comfortable with that, because I'm quite happy to stride out and let the shoe absorb the
impact. Then it was the Cloudflow and the Cloudboom
which looks very close on numbers, but they actually-- especially when you compare the
shoe and the weight's quite similar, there is a bit more of a heel-toe drop with the
Cloudboom with the carbon plate in it. The feeling is significantly different. The Cloudflow,
I've ran a marathon in before now, admittedly with orthotics touch on that in a moment.
It felt super light and it was giving me enough of a room for toe-off. I felt like I could
lean into the strides and I had enough energy return from it. It felt really good.
Then I put the Cloudboom on afterwards, and I just felt like I was getting more return
for the energy I was putting in, and it was easier to roll off the front of it. I felt
like I had more of a forward lead. Whether I did or not, I'm not sure, but that shoe
definitely felt like it would be the most economic. If I ran a longer distance in, I
would still get the energy return. As I start to fatigue, I think I would see less difference
in my stride from that. Obviously, this is all going from my feel.
If you are someone who over pronates, then you would feel an even more significant difference
running with say a barefoot shoe compared to something very supportive, because that
could completely change your biomechanics. I'm aware that I was very much concentrating
on how I was running, and I wasn't tired. That makes so much difference. If you look
at a photo of yourself from the beginning of a marathon to the end, I think you'd noticed
how different your stride is. That's when these shoes would really come into play.
Due to lockdown, we've had to go with our own experiment for now. You guys are going
to have to just trust me on my feel. I personally would love to do the science on this. Hopefully
when we're back to normal, we can get into a lab and actually experiment and test my
running economy with these different shoes. Maybe by doing some VO2 testing or something
like that, which I would love to see the results from it.
Hopefully you have found this as interesting as I have and you learned something from it.
If you've got any really significant experiences yourself from running in different shoes or
measuring any running economy from that, then do let me know and share with everybody else.
You can do that in the comments section below. Hopefully, you've enjoyed it. Give us a thumbs
up if you have. Follow us on our social media, and give us a follow on YouTube as well.
[00:13:14] [END OF AUDIO]