An Open Letter to Adidas (The Next Takumi Sen)

An Open Letter to Adidas (The Next Takumi Sen):

If you've followed my posts since around the beginning of last year, you'll know that it is no secret that the Takumi Sen Boost was my favourite every road shoe. Since I bought a pair, I have run nearly 400 km of road miles. To be honest, I did not expect them to look so good at 400km. My main concern was the exposed mesh-midsole bond around the ball of the foot area; Adidas loves to make shoes with suede overlays in all the wrong places. I have gone through 2 pairs of Adios 2s in exactly the aforementioned area and fully expected a bust through on the Takumi Sens by now.

So, why is this? Well, when you put the shoes on bare feet, you notice that there is a sort of inside rand around the ball of the foot. This will reduce outward pressure on the mesh and so allow it to remain intact for longer. So, can it be improved?

Yes, I think it can. Here's a list of things that I hope Adidas considers before they finalise their designs for the world's best shoe (no I do not mean the Ultraboost pillows):

An outer rand

You can never go wrong with an outer rand. Preferably a full rand such as you see on the X-Talon 212s from Inov-8:

This would at least double the life of the upper. Talking of life, at time of writing, I have put 1300km onto my pair of X-Talons and only now am I starting to see very small tears above the rand (so small as to be insignificant and invisible). I recommend perhaps a lighter rand with less upward travel (say 1 inch all the way around). This will doubtless add weight; 'tis no matter, there are plenty of places we can strip weight off.

Get rid of the wrap around heel counter

Yes, it does look very cool but that heel counter goes all the way from the last adidas stripe on one side to the last stripe on the other and must be fairly heavy, perhaps 20g? I would personally be find with no heel counter at all but a small inch wide heel counter would do no harm I suppose. This will be the biggest weight saving of all our hopefully-not-hypothetical surgery.

Get rid of the heel drop

This is a minimal shoe. It may be stiff but it is still very light and so I'm sure I'm not the only fanboy who wouldn't mind a zero drop on this shoe. Aside from saving a small amount of weight, it would help promote that forefoot stride that these shoes already do a fine job to encourage (after all, the boost is only at the front). The 4mm might be useful for some people doing marathons. I recommend that Adidas keep the Takumi Ren line and put all the 'comfort' features into them and make the Sen a true thoroughbred racer.

Rethink the outsole

This one is a bit picky and I really wouldn't mind if it got left out. The diamond rubber sections on the Sen are rather grippy but they allow some odd flexion in the outer midsole material since none of them create a large enough tension bearing manifold. The longitudinal EVA-Boost-EVA sandwich on my pair is separating (think Nike Free) and while I don't fear for its short term future, I see this becoming a problem as we approach 1000km (and no, I don't want to hear 'manufacturers and experts recommend you spend loads of money buying shoes every time you run 20 miles to avoid injury' blah blah). Yes, I think with an outer rand, 1000km is doable. I would suggest the outsole found on the Adios Boosts given their durability and grip on the road.

Shave off all the useless overlays and bits

The only thing left to do is just go around the shoe taking off unnecessary bits like the Adizero 'thumb' at the back, the non-structural suede on the forefoot and anything else you can find.

The Result

The result will be the best shoe in the world, just ahead of the original. It would probably weigh in at around 150g so given a 1% performance improvement for every 100g (Jack Daniels) you'd see probably 0.2% better performance than the original 170g version and if you take into account the Boost estimated to hold 1% performance increase it will perform like a 50g shoe in terms of speed without sacrificing cushioning. So if I used my hypothetical Takumi Sen 4s for my next marathon, I would expect to shave off around 20 seconds.

#marginalgains

How to run a fast marathon!

Yes, this is not a shoe review (obviously). Get over it.

Going into my first marathon last April, I had just come off an injury and a 1:23:27 half marathon so was not confident of running super fast but pretty sure of a sub-3 clocking. Well, the first half went quite smoothly, passing the half way point around 1:28: right on schedule. However, I was already feeling the burn. I tried and failed to stay with someone going backwards as I was but even he was too fast. As the race went on, I kept readjusting my aims: 'Come on, you've missed 2:55 but surely you can do sub-3!', then after a few more miles and another recalculation: 'Oh man, no sub-3, but just get under 3:05 and kill it at London next year' (3:05 is the London Marathon good for age qualifying time). I had to keep stopping to stretch out a spasming hamstring. I might add that stopping is a good way to get spasms and cramp so it is something of a vicious cycle that you might want to avoid. Then after readjusting to 3:10 and 3:15 and realising that that wasn't going to happen it was just a matter of getting to the finish. 3:17:10. I waited for about a month before adding it to Strava to stop people seeing it in their feed. OK, my half marathon was also disappointing and could have warned me not to try for 2:55. It is important to note that the often repeated formula of working out goal race time (t2) from previous race time (t1), goal race distance (d2) and previous race distance (d1) as such:

t2=t1*(d2/d1)^1.06

predicts 2:53:59 marathon from 1:23:27 half marathon.

We'll get onto that formula later. It was often said to me that half marathon to marathon jump is much larger than from 10k to half marathon. In my hubris I rejected it but now fully accept it. The main difference is the training. You can do a quick half marathon off 10k training. My half marathon pb at the time, 1:20:05, was without pacing and a build up race for a 10k. You cannot however, run a fast marathon off half marathon training. This was probably my downfall. For marathon, you really have to put in the miles and the desired training benefit is more about learning to deal with exhaustion rather than anything specific like improve VO2max or lactate threshold. Half marathon training is much more based around speed work.

Coming off that disappointment, I decided to give the marathon a rest and try to run under 80 minutes for the half. I started off training very slowly, with a couple of just easy running weeks. Then slowly mixing in some tempo runs which were very conservatively paced (around 19 minutes for a 5k run). I added in some very intense speed work. It became apparent slowly that I was hitting form so decided I should do a marathon after the half. It's important to have workouts to show you where you're at. It was after two workouts of 5*kilometre on a 5 minute cycles under 3:20 average that I started to realise I was hitting form. I mixed in some marathon training: long runs up to 35 km but more importantly running 6 days a week with perhaps 2 workouts based on marathon or threshold pace. Racing short distances for me is a great training tool. It has 3 major benefits, two of which are pretty unique to racing: 1) It improves you're VO2max (5k race pace is VO2max pace). 2) It makes you accustomed to racing pain. 3) It lets you know where you're fitness is. One of the races I did was a 5 miler in 27:55. This translates to 1:17:30 for the half marathon using the formula. Come half marathon day, I set off at just under 80 minute pace and feel good at 7 miles. Too good. I ran away from the group of 3 I was with almost accidentally, taking the racing line around corners. Anyone who has been in this situation knows it is very hard to slow down to let them catch back up. Anyway, there was a group 100m ahead which we were catching anyway so I decide to chase them. It felt tough but nothing too bad. Looking at the data after, it looks like I gained about a minute ahead of my goal splits over the course of 3 miles. At 10 miles I was over a minute ahead but couldn't breath properly and dropped off the back of the group I'd tried so hard to catch. At 12 miles I was only 13s up. A quick calculation shows that if you keep at the same pace, you'll miss it... Somehow I held on to come in 14s under my goal: 1:19:38.

I then signed up for the Abingdon Marathon, an event which was full up about 9 months ago but luckily I was able to buy a number from an injured runner. Wary of the doubts I had about the marathon predictor I decided to stick to sub 2:56 plan. I had 6 weeks to fit in last minute training. Common wisdom states that you should leave 4 weeks for tapering without a long run (I took long run to mean over 25k). That gave me 2 weeks of hard training. I managed 80km and lots of bike riding in those weeks with a 30k fastish long run and a 35k slowish long run. The taper was filled with lots of marathon pace and threshold pace. Two weeks out I did the Cardiff Half planning to do marathon pace which was what my brother was aiming for (so aiming between 1:27 and 1:28) and ended up being mid 1:26s (I had to beat him) which was not too bad. It was great practice for gels (one at 6 and 12 miles) and a great confidence booster. Come marathon day, I followed my plan: gel at 6, 12, 18 (although I did need some jelly babies at around 21 to keep myself going) and going through half way in 1:28 as before but much more relaxed. I had planned to speed up after half way to get a cushion but ultimately I wasn't feeling it. I did speed up, but it came much later at around 18 miles. I came home in 2:53:50 so a negative split which is not bad. I was convinced that was the fastest I could have done it.

So all well and good except there is still that pesky formula saying I should be running 2:46 based on half marathon. I am not the only one to have a slower than predicted marathon time. I know a 1:20-2:56 guy and a 1:21-2:54 guy. I don't know anyone who is not elite who ran as fast as the predictions say. I read an article after the race here: http://www.fetcheveryone.com/cms-37     which advocates for a power of 1.15 when it comes to half to full conversion instead of 1.06 based off experienced long distance runners' times. There is also an ability factor too (i.e. elites will run relatively better in the marathon than non elites). Interestingly the page predicts my time to be 2:53:45- 5s off!

Adidas Takumi Sen Boost- The World's Best Shoe on Paper? Review

The Adidas Takumi Sen Boost caught my gaze a few months back when it was released alongside the very heavy (323g) and overhyped Ultra Boost. So far, it is the lightest shoe to come out of the Boost range (170g). Unfortunately almost no-one has heard of this potentially brilliant shoe (Except perhaps Alistair Brownlee at Yokohama- see below). Interestingly, no-one at London was wearing them as far as I could see (Kipsang, Kimetto, Mutai, Mutai were all wearing Adios Boost 2).

Alistair Brownlee sports the new Takumi Sen Boost, Gomez has the Ekiden (Japenese theme?)

So, while I think its lack of wearing among the elite marathoners for now might have let it down, I think that Adidas really haven't been pushing this model (certainly compared to the Adios or the Ultra Boost) and that has really made it invisible.

Why haven't I bought it yet? Well, I'm waiting for the price in the UK to come down from £100+ and since this *unpopular* shoe hasn't really been very fluid in pricing terms. However, I am a fan of theory and by my reckoning, this model has all the right stats to suggest it will be a success:

A study by Jason Franz, Corbyn Wierzbinski, and Rodger Kram at the University of Colorado showed that every 100g of running shoe increases VO2 by 1%.

A team at University of Calgary headed by Jay Worobets found that identical shoes apart from midsole (Adidas Boost vs EVA) differed in VO2 by 1% in favour of the Boost on treadmill and ground. The shoe was not given however the mechanical properties of the Boost (globular structure polyurethane) back this up- a running warehouse rep has confirmed the material to have the best 'energy return' of all the midsole materials.

So, we know that shaving 100g off and using Boost EACH give you 1% lower oxygen consumption (about equivalent to 1% performance). What else is there to give this shoe the edge?

When I first use the Adiprene Adios 2 (the pre-boost one) I really liked how stiff it was. Whether this is placebolic nonsense or not I don't know, but I felt that the 'pop' really helped and offset some of that weight (210g). By all accounts, this is also a fairly stiff shoe (as is common with all Adidas shoes really). According to research published in 2006 by Jean-Pierre Roy and Darren Stefanyshyn, a running shoe should be stiff but not so much as a sprint spike (sorry for being fairly numberless with this, but we will use it qualitatively later, you'll see...) so given that this shoe is usually described as 'stiff for a racing flat' (racing flats are usually flexible) you'd think this would fit the bill.

So, given that this is the lightest Boost shoe, how light would you need to make a shoe to give the same performance? Well, since a 100g loss gives the same 1% benefit, we'll go with 70g!!!! The lightest running shoe on the market at the moment is the Wave Universe 5 at 79g which I happen to own and have reviewed: http://runshoereviews.blogspot.com/2014/11/mizuno-wave-universe-5-review.html .

Since the shoe also has good stiffness, all the evidence points to this being the best shoe for short distances, but since it is also a little heavier, they've snuck some extra cushioning in there for those last miles (my calves hated me after a HM in the Universe 5s) and so Adidas markets this as a marathon shoe for faster people so this could be the best shoe for sub-ultra distances all.

Keep an eye out for the full review of the Adidas Takumi Sen Boost when I buy it (come on sportshoes.com, get that price down!) and perhaps sooner a successful life extension of the fragile Mizuno Universe 5s.

It should also be noted they have a 6mm drop- at the lower end of acceptable for fast people in a marathon.

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All the best,

Hart

Boosting of Takumi Sen! - Adidas Takumi Sen 3

As yet, I have not had any Boost material under my feet- This is because I have not purchased any rather expensive and heavy Boost shoes, however I have researched this material online and done some squishing of my friend's Supernova Glide Boosts. It is noticeably more 'squishy' than the Adiprene which was the flagship foam of Adidas before the Boost.

Since I was put off by the weight of the Boost shoes (Adios is the lightest at 8oz- 227g). This would be the heaviest shoe I have used since I started running seriously. I then looked around for Adidas' lightest shoes:

Hagio 2:            6.1 oz (173g) and 17-12 stack

Adios 2:            7.8 oz (221g) and 24-15 stack- I currently own these and plan to use for marathon

Takumi Sen:     6.1 oz (173g) and 25-19 stack

6.1 oz seems like a fairly acceptably light weight. While I don't really like a 6mm or 5mm drop, I could live with it. My preference of these three would be the Takumi Sen since more cushioning for the same weight (as the Hagio) will increase efficiency apparently. However, I would really like that famous 1% oxygen use reduction with Boost. The Hagio seems to have been discontinued so I was really looking forward to a Boosted Takumi Sen- This might even make these shoes less rare as Adidas like to push their Boost shoes.

Shoe

The Takumi Sen 3 has many of the same characteristics as the original:

Stack: 22.5-16.5 =6mm drop
Weight: 6.1 oz (173g)

It also has the Torsion system which is in my Adios 2s and I really think is a great addition to any shoe- It gives a gradually changing stiffness getting stiffer closer to the heel which also is reported to make running more efficient.

Given the cushioning, energy return of the Boost, torsion system and fairly lightweight nature of the shoe, I suspect it could be faster than the Mizuno Universe! I suspect this because during last summer I often found myself using my 175g Adidas XCS4 spikes over the Universe on the track and these didn't have Boost, didn't have a lot of cushioning and are rather low on the market in Adidas terms.

So...

So, I will try to purchase these at some point and do a review- probably at least when people actually start selling them but I will probably wait until my Mizuno Universes resemble sandals with a holey sole. I'm looking forward to the tight forefoot and bouncy feel of all my previous Adidas shoes. I might even push them to a marathon if they feel soft enough.

Some negatives?

While I predict these will be great shoes, I would ideally like a rand of some sort to stop these popping out at the sides like all my 'dead' have (cause of death) because I'm sure that like the Adios, the sole will hold out like a boss.

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Until next review, adieu.

Inov-8 X-Talon First Impressions

Inov-8 X-Talon Review

Yes, so I finally bought a pair of these shoes out of absolute frustration with the Mizunos. The Shoe Goo was OK but was peeling after a few runs and created blister bringing bumps in the shoe. I got the X-Talons for a number of reasons: Firstly, the full length rand from toe to heel to toe. Hopefully this suede like material in combination with the very thick mesh will hold up at least a year (should be about 800 miles for this particular shoe). Also, the minimalistic approach: the shoe has a 6mm drop and weighs only 212g (hence the name). While this is not as flat or light as you can go, you will be lucky to find a randed shoe with zero drop.

The shoe also hits a lot of sweet spots for me: I like shoes with mild responsiveness (somewhere between the Adidas Adios 2 and the Mizuno Evo Ferus) and this shoe is so far doing exactly that: the shoe gets stiffer as you travel backwards from toe to heel and has a nice spring; not deadening like the Evo Ferus but not overly stiff like the Adios 2. The cushioning is also in that nice area where it is not pillowy and not rock hard: it is nicely balanced.

The grip is also beyond any other shoe I have used. I was so confident in its grip that today I went for a Strava CR down Watlington in Oxfordshire (and up too) and despite being a slippy day, I set CR up and down. I was able to hurtle down the around 20% slope to get 1:28 over 450m which is pretty fast. The X-Talon outsole grabs dirt, gravel, rocks, slush and grass like an absolute boss. I'm glad I got the shoe fitted in store so I could get a close to foot feel which gives me absolute confidence which bombing down hills or up slippy mud.

So, I have really high hopes for this shoe and think I might use it for some of my more gravelly school cross country races over my spikes! Anyway, I will be recording the milage for this shoe and will get back to you when it breaks (my bet is 600 miles?).

My Dream Running Shoe!

Introduction

Recently I got into a discussion with my dad about running shoes (mainly centred around durability concerns). Inevitably big companies have profit as a priority over durability. Although I think the companies do actually care, I don't think they pay attention to durability as much as they should. So my dad asked me how would I make a running shoe; I have had some time to ponder this and here is my answer:

Firstly, different configurations are good for different situations (race/train) and terrains (grass, track, trail, road). This shoe will be one I would be happy to use for all my training (50% trail, 30% road, 20% grass) and all my non xc racing (mainly road racing when you exclude xc).

So what do I want? I want close to zero-drop, lightness, durability, speed and less importantly, good looking.

Manufacturer

I have often asked myself whom I would like to be sponsored by if I were to become a big shot. I think that given my great impressions of the XCS4 and Adios 2, I would chose Adidas. The only problem is that they don't really deal in trail running, but hey, this is conjecture anyways. I would like Adidas to make my shoe because of their spot-on use of materials, attention to detail and polished look. I will not restrict myself to Adidas materials though.

Outsole

Here, I am tempted by the flat Continental Rubber on the bottom of Adidas' marathon shoes and the sticky rubber compound on the Inov-8 255's sole that has received so much praise.

The Adidas sole has the advantage of durability on the road and less luggy discomfort whereas the Inov-8 has the ability to really stick to fell material. I think that the Adidas' superiority on roads makes it a better choice as I prefer race performance to training performance. The Continental rubber is the most durable outsole material I have ever run in so it should easily protect a minimal midsole!

Midsole

This category again involves Adidas- the boost material's stat as the best energy returner on the market earns it a place on the shortlist. The Adiprene + from the now outdated Adios 2 has also impressed my with its responsiveness so this will have a shout. The u4ic midsole (and outsole) on the Mizuno Universe 5 is very light but is very weak and probably a bit squishy if you make it thicker.

I think that the Boost's lightweight, durable, energy efficient characteristics make it the right choice however we will need to get rid of that heel drop. Let's go all out and make it completely zero-drop and hope I would be able to adapt to it in time for a marathon.

To make it light, we'll go with a 10mm flat stack height and to give it that very Adidas snap, we'll put in that bit of yellow plastic they can a torsion system. In order to make this shoe a little more versatile and suitable for longer distances, I would include a set of insoles so you can swap and change the stack height to suit the distance. I'm thinking (in mm, heel-toe) 4-1, 4-4, 7-1, 7-4, 7-7, 10-1, 10-4, 10-7, 10-10.

Upper

So far we've basically made an Adidas shoe but here in the upper, I don't think Adidas have enough durability (if only they made randed shoes). It should be obvious by now that I want want want more randing on shoes. How much? I think the Inov-8 x-talon 212 does it nicely leaving no possible points for breaking to occur. I might reinforce it a little just to make sure:

I would also keep the pull on strap at the back of the heel and the lace eyelets which transmit the tension down to the sole so that the laces do not pull on the weak upper. I would however replace the thick material of the top of this shoe with the extremely light upper from the Mizuno Universe 5 since I have never had a failure in this area and it would allow the shoe to breath and be light!

 I would use a very minimal tongue- Like the one used on the Universe 5 but I would take away that silly plastic 5 at the top which just gets in the way.

I would then give it to Adidas to paint perhaps asking for red or orange- I love their designs!

Summary and weight

Given what I have specified, I would expect this shoe to have a weight around 100g and it should be rather durable, fast and good looking!

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Shoe Goo- A very good investment!

It's been a while since my last post- I have been rather busy with Cambridge interview preparation and November tests. I am now on my winter break so hopefully can add more posts in the coming
weeks.

On to the meat of this post: As many of you will be aware from my previous blog posts, I have a history of popping all my shoes (trail or not) at the sides of the upper seriously curtailing the life of the shoes. This means I often throw away shoes with nowhere near enough outsole wear! I have previously cited randing as a possible solution to this which seems popular on a number of Inov-8 shoes (trailroc 255, roclite 243, x-talon 212) and Salomon (S-Lab Sense 3) shown below.

However, as much as I'd like to buy all these shoes right now, I only bought my Mizuno Evo Ferus shoes in August so I am reluctant to shell out upwards of £50 for these. In the Evo Ferus post, I described how the upper had popped earlier than expected and how I had tried to use superglue and stitching to heal the sides. This arrangement only lasts a few runs and I think the superglue becomes brittle after a few days and is not water resistant.

I decided to buy a tube of 'Shoe Goo' to fix this problem. It cost under £10 with delivery and I immediately attempted to fix my Mizuno Wave Universe 5s (yes they are really suffering now) and Evo Ferus shoes. Since that, I have done a race 10k road race in the Universe 5s and a number of shortish runs and general exercise in the Ferus. The Goo remains fairly flexible indefinitely so does not crack in the fashion of the super glue. The only problem I have found is that if you use it on the soles (as I did with my Universe 5s), it does rub off in the fashion of a blister. As an upper healer, it certainly does a sterling job- I certainly think that it will extend my shoes' lives by around 100% or more. Even for a randed shoe, a splurge of Shoe Goo could help to toughen up that vulnerable area.

Watch this guy's video on how to apply it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zzd3pJwkoQ

I look forward to getting some more miles out of my Evo Ferus shoes: If you ignore the poor durability, it is a zero drop, under 210g shoe. My only remaining dislikes are the fit (still a thumb too long) and the flexibility of the sole (some people will like this and to be fair I should probably be grateful for its foot strengthening effect).

In the meantime, I hope more shoe manufacturers use rands on their shoes so I can buy a finished product.

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