I think Kipchoge did his sub-2hr marathon in the triple plated shoes didn't he? I remembering arguing with people at the time about it being down to the shoes and other things like him always being in a slip stream and his pacemakers being fresh. There's a guy I follow on Twitter who is big into the shoe research and how much benefit they have.
I'm with your coach about Farah. He was a middle of the pack runner for years and years then all of a sudden he's out at the front and winning golds? It's just too dodgy. It does take a massive effort like you said about Cheptegei and your experience of running at the same speed but PEDS make it much, much easier.
Yeah it's very dodgy re Farah. He was 27 before he became world leading but had never produced a performance to signal his potential before that. He mainly finished, like you say, in the middle of the pack at the major Championships, then all of a sudden he was shaving 20+ seconds off of his 5km pb when he was already elite? Pretty much unheard of.
Difficult with the Kipchoge one - on the one hand I admire that he has done the sub 2 purely from a physiological viewpoint - mere proof that technically the human body is capable. However, he had pacemakers (honestly a massive help), literal trucks driving round with windbreaking-sheets on them so he was running in as close to a still environment as possible, and the biggest boost - triple-plated unrated carbon plate shoes that have never before or since been available. To anyone. The shoes also were never submitted to the IAAF for the typical testing they'd be scrutinised under - so god knows that they would've been like to wear and what sort of boost they afforded Kipchoge. Don't get me wrong, the man is super human - but in controlled conditions he takes nearly two minutes off the world record? Even over that distance, that's huge. Nike were hugely evasive about releasing the actual specs of the shoe - they still haven't, in there entirety, and you can see on pictures of him running that they weren't the same as the Vaporfly Elite lots of pros were wearing in the aftermath.
The midsole looked bigger than is now legal, presumably to hide an air pocket in the front to keep that propulsive effect going wherever the foot strikes the ground. You can also see in pictures where Kipchoge was holding the shoes after the run that there is a section of foam missing from the midsole, presumably again to shave weight or to allow the air bubble to compress in it's entirety, causing a sort of bounce effect in the foam to again lend to it's propulsive qualities. Nike put in for a patent in 2018 of a shoe that was ostensibly never produced - one which has dual air pockets in the front on either side, an easily reproduceable upper and thicker midsole with the three plates and much more grip than standard. I think it's a fair assumption this likely became Kipchoge's race shoe.
The shoes caused such consternation internally to the IAAF that I think they were the main force behind the banning of multiple plates and the new rule that anything used in an event has to become commercially available in the exact same specs to consumers within 9 months of race debut I believe. Hence shoes now being available at a £300 price point.
Isn't 2hr marathon pace about 17 seconds for the 100m?
Fucking ridiculous
Quick calculation puts him at doing 422 reps of 100m, with no rest, each at 17 seconds
It's just otherworldly.
