The vaporfly thread
88 watchers
Mar 2020
9:16pm, 4 Mar 2020
7,226 posts
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chunkywizard
Apparently Alphaflys from the US trails are now on eBay, selling for upto $1000. Anyone feeling rich?
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Mar 2020
9:52pm, 10 Mar 2020
202 posts
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speedy rob
Here's a possible explanation for top ladies not consistently racing in Next% trainers (may apply to other Nike trainers)... nike.com The Nike next% trainers all have the same thickness carbon plate, but the alpha fly plate stiffness scales with shoe size: more flexible for smaller sizes and stiffer for larger shoes. So lighter weight athletes in smaller size shoes (like me at 58kg in size 6.5) won't get enough flex in the plate for optimum energy return due to less force and reduced leverage. Similarly, heavier athletes in larger shoe sizes won't get optimum energy return due to the plate flexing too easily. |
Mar 2020
10:55am, 11 Mar 2020
341 posts
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icenutter
Sounds plausible
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Mar 2020
12:01pm, 11 Mar 2020
8,621 posts
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ITG
I didn't quite get that, Rob. Is it the Next% that is likely to have similar impacts for all sizes/weights or the Alphafly?
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Mar 2020
12:29pm, 11 Mar 2020
10,580 posts
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larkim
I think Rob is pointing out that the Next% doesn't allow for a different weights (hence women arguably responding less well), whereas the AlphaFly apparently does address that.
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Mar 2020
12:35pm, 11 Mar 2020
8,622 posts
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ITG
I'm light but have big feet (42.5 in running shoes) and Next%. No idea if that is good or bad. Poss worst of both worlds? Boh
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Mar 2020
12:42pm, 11 Mar 2020
1,018 posts
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Roberto
I thought about that weeks ago and was discussing it with a couple from my club about whether because I have size 10 feet and weigh 12 stone, the impact will be bigger for me than a woman with size 5 feet and weighs 6 stone. But I'm not particularly mathematical so had no idea on the impacts of feet size or weight on it. |
Mar 2020
1:06pm, 11 Mar 2020
29,973 posts
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SPR
I still think this is more to do with sponsorship variety. It's not that Nike runners are shunning the shoe. The women's marathon record has still been broken because of the next. It's possible the benefit might be less though and given the shoes were all about sub 2 it makes sense that they may not be optimally tuned for women. |
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Mar 2020
1:10pm, 11 Mar 2020
29,974 posts
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SPR
In theory the shoes are optimally tuned for Kipchoge. Possibly high profile athletes like Bekele also have their own tuned models (not sure how far down the line of athletes tuning would go).
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Mar 2020
6:35pm, 13 Mar 2020
15,829 posts
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Chrisull
So this week after my disastrous HM, I decided do a simple comparison. Two days, same target but in different shoes to see if I am a VF non-responder. Downhill mile. So morning, no breakfast, same warmups, run at lunch time, one mile warmup, one mile downhill, one cooldown. Weather conditions broadly the same for both days. The downhill mile is a mile at full pelt, basically I can't do more. In VF 4%'s 5.53.8 (which is pretty poor, I was doing it in 5.08 same route last year). And not in VF's next day... 5.53.9. The only difference was my HR which was admittedly 6 beats higher for the mile, and maxing out 6 beats higher.... BUT nowhere near my max (max HR 154 out 176 is comfortably nowehere near), BUT we're not talking about something that will make a difference over longer distances, but whether I am faster in the VF's or not. I have run 5 races in all distances from 5 miles to marathon now and every single time I have been slower by quite some way. While I think I'm not as fast/fit (but I should be, same training is involved), I've suspected that the VF's give me a modest (1%?) boost uphill but I am no faster in them on the flat or downhill. I conclude I am low to non-responder. Now if I could source my favourite Puma H streets to see how they compare... When I first started wearing them, I knocked 3 minutes off my 10k time, in a month. |
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