 running. I wouldn’t slow down because my heart rate was five beats too high.
[00:28:51] However, having now this knocked power, I need to come back and say one of the benefits of it– there are some benefits but if I want to pick the best pair of shoes for me and people say, “Oh, it’s the Alphafly. It’s the Vaporfly. No, it’s the new METASPEED from ASICS.” Well, I’m just going to get on a treadmill and I’m going to fix a few metrics, say I’m going to pick 1% gradient because that is equivalent to running outdoors, and I’m going to pick the speed at my 10k race speed, I’m going to make this at 3 minutes, 30 seconds. So, everything’s fixed, and then I’m going to put my power meter on and I’m going to run 5 kilometers. I’m going to measure what the number is. At the end of that, we’ll say the number comes out at 250 watts average for the 5k. I’m going to then take my ASICS METASPEED shoes off, I’m going to put my Vaporfly shoes on, and I’m going to do the exact same thing again. Now, I don’t need to worry about heart rate because the heart rate can go through the roof. All I’m doing is fixing the same metric, 1% gradient, 3 minutes 30, and I’m going to measure how much power I use.
[00:30:02] Now if I do that same test, and my power meter with Alphafly or the Vaporfly is measured 240 watts, means I’ve now saved 10 watts difference. That obviously means I’m more efficient. The lower the number, the more efficient you are. So, in that case, I would say, “Oh, I have a lower wattage output running in Vaporflys than the METASPEED. Therefore, my new chosen shoe to racing will be the Vaporfly.” And then, when ASICS come out with the METASPEED Turbo version 5 and then only 200 watts for the same, oh, I’m even more efficient, I’m now going to drop my Vaporfly and run in the ASICS new Turbo Boost METASPEED. So, it’s quite good. It has a purpose in there that you can actually monitor what shoes the most efficient to run it, and scientifically come up with an answer.
Mike: [00:31:06] For your individual. [crosstalk] Another good thing that you can compare with cycling, when we go for a bike ride, it’s good to know what our average wattage was for the whole ride. The same with running. You might go out and it might be windy, there might be lots of variations. Your time might vary, but it’s good to know if you’re on– As long as the terrain doesn’t vary too much in terms of mud and concrete, you can measure the wattage output, and think, “Well, I was slow, but it was a really windy day, but my wattage output was the same. Therefore, I still worked at the same effort as I did.” You don’t get that information clearly with just heart rate alone. Watts can give you an average watt for the whole run and you can compare runs and see which average workout was better. Over time, you might even do a rest run like a 5 kilometer on a course and over time, find out that you’re actually putting out less walk as you’re going around, which means you’re becoming more efficient. You’re changing your running style, you’re learning to land, better push off, the muscles are working more efficiently. So, you’re actually using less wattage to go the same speed, that’d be quite useful, little tools like that.
[00:32:22] Also, you can get a treadmill, and I could say okay, pick your cadence up, and let’s run with a higher cadence, slow your cadence, and let’s see what wattage is best, which is the most efficient for you. We can use it in the lab, and I think it’s a very good tool in the lab to test to see how our power output varies with different running styles, different cadences, different stride lengths. So, there are lots of useful tools for it.
And then, finally answering your question, Stryd is a very small company out of Boulder, Colorado. It might just be that they haven’t got the sponsorship fees for Kipchoge who’s with COROS or for Alistair Brownlee or Jonathan Brownlee or Tim Don. That could come to the fact that these companies, it’s not on their list of priorities just yet. When they’ve got more disposable income, it’s selling more, they can afford to sponsor more athletes.
Daren: [00:33:21] Good answer. I like that answer. I’ll take that one. Speaking of Stryd, what other companies are there that are doing power?
Mike: [00:33:27] I only really know of Stryd as a good reputable company. Garmin do it, but it’s based on an algorithm in the watch, it’s not as accurate. A lot of other companies do have a very simple algorithm, they just put it in the watch. You put the Polar Heart Monitor on and they’ll give some power coefficient. But Stryd is by far the only really reputable one that I know of. Again, I think COROS might do it. I’m happy for the listeners to correct me on this, but Stryd is the only one I know, Garmin do some sort of power coefficient although that Garmin actually works with Stryd. I would suggest that if you’re going to use power, I would buy Stryd and link it up to your Garmin.
Daren: [00:34:15] How would you sum up someone using run power and getting into run power?
Mike: [00:34:22] Personally, I think it’s beyond 90% of people listening out there. Most, when I talk to them, they have no idea what they’re doing in heart rate. I talk to runners that use heart rate training, and they are using an optical heart rate monitor. They don’t know what the maximum heart rate is. They don’t know the minimum heart rate is. They don’t know the threshold. They’re just into the metrics. I think a lot of people will get into power just to know the metric that’s interesting. If you’re geeky and you like that and it excites you, get into it. It has a useful place in the lab. If you can get a treadmill, it’s very useful to test– choose for example, to test your running efficiency, change your stride. And for me, that’s fascinating. Change your running pattern, change your cadence, change your stride length, relax your arms, more lean forward, do lots of different tests. Come up with your own test and just measure the wattage output and see how efficient you are at different ways of running and what it varies. So, there’s uses of it there.
But running, actually out training, I’d rather run to feel. I still think that I’m happier with just getting out there and learning to run the feel. I think most people would still be much better just learning how their body functions at different paces. So, I think for most people, they just need to learn and understand their own bodies a little bit more before getting into power.
Let’s move into the cooldown.
Daren: [00:35:57] As we do, here is a question for the listeners. We want to make this a two-way conversation. So, please write in your answers, either Instagram or you can email– What is it |||EMAIL_ADDRESS||| Mike: [00:36:12] Instagram is the easiest. Direct message me @run.nrg.
Daren: [00:36:20] The letters.
Mike: [00:36:21] The letters, yeah. I tend to reply to everyone.
Daren: [00:36:26] And you can also go to his poll, because I probably do a poll, we’ll both probably do a poll.
Mike: [00:36:28] I love doing poll [crosstalk] as well, yeah.
Daren: [00:36:31] The question is [drumroll] would you rather run with a high cadence or a longer stride length? Which would you choose and why? Mike, your answer?
Mike: [00:36:45] Speed is cadence times stride length, so I would pick them both. [Daren laughs] If I were to go quicker, if you keep one variable, so if I keep the stride length the same and pick the cadence up, I’m going to go quicker. If I keep my cadence the same and lengthen my stride, I’m going to go quicker. Both of them work. According to Professor Dan Lieberman, Harvard, 170 to 180 [unintelligible 00:37:19] should be running up. Obviously, shorter people higher, smaller people lower.
Daren: