Does The Brand of My Spikes Really Matter?
Track spikes are the most essential piece of equipment that a track athlete owns. Without track spikes, the times you run would be uncompetitive and not reflect your true skill. Track spikes are important to have and keep well maintained but the question that all athletes seem to ask is: “Do top of the line track spikes make me run faster?” The answer to this question is complex and requires a full in depth analysis of a lot of different factors. For times sake I am just going to cover a brief overview of what I think and provide a bit of evidence as well.
In my opinion your track spikes don’t shave off that much of your time. Sure it might make you run a tenth or two faster but in the grand scheme of things, unless you are running the 100, a tenth doesn’t really matter that much. There are a lot of other things that you can do to make up for that tenth or two that you lose by not having the most up to date and technically advanced spikes on the market. The way to get faster is to train better, not get better spikes. It also ultimately comes down to your physical build. As a 5’7 110 hurdler I have accepted that no matter what I do, I can’t break the world record just because my height doesn’t allow me to do that.
The research also supports this conclusion. From what I have seen, there is no official data published yet but it looks like people are claiming time reductions anywhere between .1-.3 seconds off when using top of the line. I am a bit skeptical about all this because those people aren’t publishing everything that occurred just that they ran a pb in the spikes. Why this makes me skeptical is because they could have easily done the tests months apart in which they improved their mechanics in the time between. Until an official test comes out I am going to place an asterisk next to the big time reductions. Yes, the spikes can definitely improve your time by a small margin, but I am not fully buying into the crazy time reductions that I have seen.
In conclusion, you shouldn’t buy spikes only with the reasoning that this specific shoe will make you better. You should buy your spikes with comfort and performance in mind. You can easily improve and beat other athletes that are using those top of the line spikes by working hard in practice and in the weight room.