Ultimate Case Study Compilation

Alright, here it is! The ultimate case study compilation of my personal running economy shoe testing over the last year. I have personally tested running economy on myself in over two dozen shoes/shoe conditions. Since not all this testing can be done on the same day, it can be difficult to make comparisons between all shoes. However, since on any given test day, I always use the same control shoe (Asics Hyperspeed) and a newer pair (<60 km) of Nike Alphafly, I have created a point of reference to better compare shoes across days. Essentially, I can make comparisons across multiple shoes tested on different days by expressing their benefit relative to the benefit of the Alphafly on a given day. This corrects for the day to day variability in the benefit I see in the Alphafly, which is 4% on average but can range from about 3-5%.

Testing Methods

You can read more about how I made the adjustments across days in the Data Analysis Example table included in the graphic below. There are some limitations to this approach, but overall I think it does a good job of adjusting the values for ranking purposes.

Other testing methodology notes can be found in my previous testing posts. But in general these are all tested at 6:00-6:20/mile pace for 5:00 reps in duplicate with a few exceptions here and there. Check out this link to see what running economy is, how it is measured, and how it impacts performance.

Results

In the results graphic you can see the test shoes ranked from top (most economical) to bottom (least economical with their percent running economy benefit relative to my standard control shoe adjusted across all days of testing.

🔹The gold standard for me here is the 4% running economy benefit I get on average out of a fresh pair of Alphafly.

🔹No shoe has bested the fresh pair of Alphafly for me on any given day of testing.

🔹Another thing that stands out is how consistent the responses are when the same shoe was tested on different days.

🔹Also funny to note just how good a popped pair of Alphafly are for me relative to all other shoes I’ve ever tested.

Take Home Message

The Nike Alphafly still reign supreme for me as my most economical shoe. I got a 4% benefit the very first day I ever tested them out the box, and no other shoe has bested them since. While different individuals will certainly respond slightly different to the shoes tested here, results from our larger group studies would suggest some of the general trends would likely still hold up.

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