Spikes: Help!

AudienceOfOne wrote:

ProtestTheZero wrote:

mae2937 wrote:i think i heard somewhere that spikes make you like 5-10% faster

lolwut

it's not that hard to figure out...

I meant lolwut in the sense that "lol, what are you going to do about it" because she said not to quote her.

And I quoted her.

it's not that hard to figure out...

ProtestTheZero wrote:

mae2937 wrote:i think i heard somewhere that spikes make you like 5-10% faster

lolwut

its funny because they don't make you 5-10% faster. let's say that they make you 5% faster, which is the lowest part of the range you gave. now assume that you run a 20 minute 5k. 5% faster would be a 19 minute 5k. so wearing spikes can chop a full minute off your 5k? lol. although I think 6 oz spikes vs. 11 oz. trainers could cut 3 seconds per mile, because my coach has noticed over the years that "forgetting your spikes adds 10 seconds to your 5k" and he has actually documented this over time. in 14 instances of kids forgetting spikes and running in trainers(10-13 ounces usually) their time went up 10.6 seconds on average.

ps. my coach is a math teacher, he likes numbers

i said i dont remeber i just know they make you a tiny bit faster...thats why i said dont quote me...

I know sort of what your saying mae, my XC coach said freshman year that spikes/flats would take...so many seconds off your time because of the weight... i don't remember how many. But in my opinion, they are great! they're soo light and they make me at least feel fast.

^^ ya, they at least make me feel fast and get me in the racing mindset. wearing my trainers make me feel like going out for an easy run.

but my coach says they take off at least 30 seconds...so who knows..

Spikes don't make a huge physiological difference.

Average trainers are 11-12 ounces, and spikes are normally 5-7 ounces. At most you are saving 7 ounces, which would probably end up being about 7 seconds/mile running an average high school time (if we go with the old 1:1 ounce:second ratio), so 21 seconds off your 5k at the absolute most. I would say your average pair of spikes will make 12-15 seconds difference physiologically over a 5k.

Although you are right about the mental aspect, that can be a big deal.

They have to be mental more than anything

Supposedly, for every ounce that is taken off of a shoe (trainers vs spikes) you will be able to run one second per mile faster.

So, theoretically if some one is able to run a 20 minute 5k in 11 ounce trainers, they would be able to run a 19:41.4 wearing spikes that weight five ounces (-6 ounces, so 6 seconds per mile, multiplied by 3.1 would be 18.6 seconds off of the previous time)

I read this somewhere, I'll try to find the article.

Protest had info along the same lines so there must be something to that

PCNQtrack wrote:Protest had info along the same lines so there must be something to that

I think it is more because the numbers are round than anything else. I've always heard 1 ounce of your feet or 1 pound off your body is the equivalent of 1 second off your mile.

see, i disagree with the body fat one

i think it only applies when you are over a certain weight because coming off wrestling season (where i had been cutting weight) my times got faster as i got back to a normal weight

PCNQtrack wrote:see, i disagree with the body fat one

i think it only applies when you are over a certain weight because coming off wrestling season (where i had been cutting weight) my times got faster as i got back to a normal weight

You don't think training had anything to do with that :/

Well, at first i maintained the lighter weight and saw no improvement and when i gained some weight i was able to train better with more energy and what not; basically the food affected my training

they went hand in hand: with more food/weight i could train better and thus got faster

PCNQtrack wrote:Well, at first i maintained the lighter weight and saw no improvement and when i gained some weight i was able to train better with more energy and what not; basically the food affected my training

they went hand in hand: with more food/weight i could train better and thus got faster

That is different than just raw physiological data, all else equal, running w/out an extra pound of body fat is going to yield slightly faster times, you can't argue the physics of that. The fact that you can't train at the same level at a certain point is the same as saying you run slower if you run barefoot than in spikes. Physiologically, you are in position to cover the distance faster, but side effects change that.

Yeah, i agree with that; its just getting to a point with being able to train for those faster times

I totally get what your saying