Would Using Racing Flats or Lightweight Shoes in Training Be Beneficial For Recreational Runners

Audio Transcript

Today’s question is from Christina.

Christina asks, “What are the pros and cons of using racing flats for recreational runners, and specifically, is it okay to use racing flats in training for different training, flats for long runs, workout days, easy pace days?”

Jeff: That’s a great question Christina.

I’ll get into a little more depth, but to tackle the question from a macro point of view, racing flats are something that can benefit recreational runners significantly.

For those of you who don’t know, racing flats are shoes that are specifically geared for racing. What that means is that they are lighter, are typically a little less cushioned, and are a little bit less supportive.

Because of that, they are lighter which can help increase your performance.

The lighter the shoe, the less work you have to do to get your foot to move, and therefore it gives you an increase in efficiency and improves your performance.

The drawbacks of racing flats are what I talked about.

They have less stability, often have less cushioning, and so they’re going to be a little harder on your legs.

When you use them in a race, it’s probably going to beat your legs up a little bit more than using your traditional training shoe.

Can recreational runners benefit? Absolutely.

The performance benefits of racing shoes are fairly significant, and that performance benefit translates across no matter what speed that you’re racing at. It’s going to give you the same efficiency in performance benefits.

In typical Runners Connect fashion, we looked at the research and some of the scientific studies about what kind of benefits we can see.

Some studies have shown that you can increase your VO2 Max by one to two percent for each three to four ounces that you are able to cut from your shoe.

If a traditional training shoe will run anywhere from 9 to 12 ounces, most high end racing flats will run anywhere from three to six ounces, depending on which brand you get.

You’re talking about a pretty significant increase in VO2 Max, anywhere from two to six percent, just from wearing a lighter shoe.

The other thing that we saw in the research and in analyzing a lot of the research studies was that, it can actually improve your ground contact time.

Your ground contact time is how long your foot stays on the ground with each step.

Faster ground contact time is going to indicate moving you to a more midfoot or forefoot strike, which indicates a little bit better form, because more than likely, your foot is landing directly in the center of mass. That can improve your efficiency, and you will definitely see some scientifically backed performance gains.

There’s two questions. Should you wear them for every race, and should you wear them in training? Now the thing to remember about racing flats is that there are different categories of racing flats.

There are ultra, ultra lightweight racing flats that may only weigh three to four ounces and that are very flimsy, very unsupportive, and have very little cushioning.

Then you can get into what they call lightweight trainers, which can weigh anywhere from six to eight ounces, may have a little bit of stability built in, and have some more cushioning.

There’s a range when it comes to racing flats.

In terms of the decision of whether it makes sense for you, you need to look at, what is your injury history? What is your form look like?

If you’re somebody that is fairly light weight, is not injured often, has a pretty good form, and probably has done some research on it – maybe had a video analysis or done some exercises to make sure that they have good form – then in that case, going with a light weight or a lighter weight racing flat is going to make a lot of sense.

The second thing you need to consider is the distance.

If you’re talking about a 3k, 5k maybe even 10k race, you’ll be able to get away with a lighter training flat or less supportive training flat, because the distance that you’re running is less.

If you’re racing a marathon, no matter how efficient you are, you’ll want to wear a little bit more supportive cushioned shoe, just because the race is so long.

Those are the two factors that you need to consider.

However, if you’re somebody that’s very injury prone, maybe a little bit overweight, or you’re somebody who doesn’t have good form, you’ll want to stick to your traditional trainers, and maybe try some of the lightweight trainers so that’s something that’s maybe in the six to eight, nine ounce range for your races.

Still giving you that support and cushioning, maybe lightening up the load a little bit and seeing how that works for you. Then obviously like we discussed previously, looking at what your race distance is and adjusting from there.

As for using racing shoes in training, again that really gets back to what your situation is when it comes to injury history, and your ability to run with good form.

If you’re somebody that does have good form and you’re not injured often, then using a lightweight trainer or a racing flat in training can help you achieve better results for those specific training workouts.

I know all elite runners do all of their workouts in lightweight trainers or racing flats because they are very efficient, very likely injury resistant and therefore they’re able to get away with it.

It helps them improve their performance in the workout, which will translate to performance gains in the races. If you’re someone that can get away with it, absolutely.

When I’m advising the runners that I coach, I ask them to take a stair step approach.

Try to do some of your speed work with a light workout trainer. Do that for a few months and see how that goes.

If you see a good performance benefit and you’re not getting injured, then maybe you can step up and do some of your workouts in a lighter weight racing flat, and do something in those racing flats like in that three to six ounce range and go from there.

Take it as a stair step down approach and make sure that it’s something that works for you, before committing long-term to one of those types of shoes.

Normally, racing flats last a bit less long than training shoes and that’s because they have less support and less cushioning. They break down a little bit faster.

The idea behind a racing shoe isn’t to last 400 to 500 miles of training. It’s really to be used during races, so you’re going to get about 100, to 200 miles out of a racing shoe.

Remember, 100 to 200 miles doesn’t sound like a lot except if you’ve factored into what distances your race may be.

If you’re using them for 10ks, that’s going to be 10 to 15, 20 races that you can use your training shoe for.

Whereas if you’re looking at a marathon, you may get four or five marathon races out of a good racing flat. I hope that answered your questions about racing flats.

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Thank you so much for joining me today.