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How much do the air units on the Alphafly impact performance? I have been curious about this for a while. Thanks to a gently, used donor pair, I was able to test this out.
Testing Methods
I ran in the Nike Alphafly with intact airbags, as well as the Nike Alphafly with all of its airbags popped, along with my typical control shoe (Asics Hyper Speed) for 1 rep each at 6:15/mile pace while measuring oxygen consumption and energy expenditure. Check out this link to see what running economy is, how it is measured, and how it impacts performance.
Here is how I popped the airbags following the intact trial. Don't get too upset. They were used and donated for this purpose.
Results
I got ~4% running economy benefit out of the intact Alphafly as usual. When I tested them with all the airbags popped, they still gave me a 2.7% benefit over the control shoe.
Take Home Message
Somewhat surprisingly, I still got nearly a 3% benefit from the Alphafly after popping the airbags, which is better than a lot of other racing shoes I test. I’m certainly not suggesting you run in Alphas with popped airbags, but was more curious about the impact of that element of the shoe on running economy, at least for my mechanics.
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