In what is quickly becoming the season of change for Lionel Sanders, the Canadian athlete shared yesterday that he would be ditching carbon plated shoes in his training sessions this year.
The technology, which is widely seen as one of the biggest drivers behind a rise in running standards at the top of the sport, is currently used by the majority of pro fields in triathlon.
However, having grown “addicted” to wearing the so-called “supershoes” over the last three years, Sanders revealed in his most recent YouTube video that it was time for a change.
“The carbons have been taken away”
Filming a workout on the track, the Windsor native explained why he had made the decision to leave the fast shoes at home until race day.
“We are now reintroducing some top end stuff [in run training], but the catch is that the carbons have been taken away. After three years of growing addicted to them, I do think you lose something from doing all your training in them.”
Admitting that he had decided to drop the shoes based more on his gut feeling than any type of studies, the 36-year-old said he felt wrong relying so heavily on the carbon plate.
“I don’t know what it is, I don’t know if there have been any studies, but going back to these [regular trainers] and trying to run quick is like really hard.
“Somehow we have all grown addicted to them, maybe not all, but many of the people I know and after three years I just feel like I have lost something from doing that and I’d like to get it back.”
“The difference is mind boggling”
Post workout, the two-time IRONMAN World Championship runner-up heralded the “old school” approach and highlighted the gulf between his effort levels with and without the shoes.
“Wow. Incredible, absolutely incredible. The difference is mind boggling. “There’s something here, with certainty. There’s something here for sure. That was incredibly hard.
“I must be really lazy, when I put on the shoes. It must really help me, because that was just a weird hard, like I can’t produce the speed.
“It was wonderful though, if you train like this, you won’t want to post your workouts, because everyone will laugh at you, so that was cool, it was fun and it was old school.”
Going back to his origins, Sanders said, was the best part of all. The change, along with many others this year, is part of what the Canadian calls a deliberate reversal to his old method of out training the competition.
“It feels wonderful to just go back to my original method, which was to out-train them [the competition]. I don’t give a f*** what they’re doing, I will out train them and find a way!”
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