I’ve shared how carbon shoes can help performance, what to look out for and how you might want to reassess the way you pace races. Now let’s recap and offer a couple more bits of advice to help you get great results with and without your carbon shoes on.

 

What this means for you

Depending on what you find holds you back in a race, muscle fatigue or fitness, you might want to consider changing how you pace races when wearing carbon shoes, especially longer events such as the marathon. 

Hopefully it goes without saying, but I know common sense can go out the window when faster times are available, but if you get an injury and the only thing you’ve changed in training/racing is carbon shoes, and especially if you’ve been seen by someone qualified to analyse and give feedback on your entire running gait, it’s worth trying a different shoe, not using carbon shoes, or limiting their use to target races only. The truth is, if you’re injured you’re less able or unable to train, which will harm your running times. Using a carbon shoe again to appear to regain that speed is just daft.

In training, I’d generally advise that you don’t factor in your carbon vs non-carbon race pace. For instance, I ran 5:18/mile for my 10k time trial, predicting a marathon pace of around 5:48/mile (with appropriate training). In the subsequent marathon training block, I aimed to run marathon pace miles between 5:45-5:52 on average, even though I’d be in normal training shoes. Provided your training plan is suitable, with the right balance of speed, recovery and myriad other factors suited for YOUR body, you’ll be working hard enough in reaching for these paces that you do indeed gain fitness, whilst avoiding injury and overtraining. 

By the time race day comes around and you lace up your carbon shoes (hopefully having tapered well and carb loaded), you’ll then be able to more confidently go for your target pace knowing you’ve run countless miles at that pace in slower shoes, and might even surprise yourself with what you achieve. I did.

 

I hope you’ve found this series of blogs interesting and helpful. If you’re unsure if the carbon shoes you’re wearing are the right ones for you, get in touch.

 

Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk