World records in running - what to make of the insanity

56:42 half marathon.

12:42 5k.

7:22 3k.

3:46 mile. No, now 3:45.

It’s been world records galore over the past two weeks. 

While it’s been fun as hell to watch, I found myself reflecting on all these insane performances the other day.

I thought - what on earth is going on?

The half marathon world record in particular. Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda ran 56:42 in Barcelona. That is 4:19 per mile.

4:19 per mile!!

I ran right about 4:18 for the mile in high school. This dude just ran that for 13.1 miles.

So what is going on?

I’ll do my best to tell you. Some of this is inside knowledge, some is inference, and some is educated guessing. Stick with me and let’s sort this madness out.

Supershoes

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way.

Supershoes came on the scene in 2016/2017 (2019/2020 for track superspikes). Suddenly, top pro times started to explode.

And over time they’ve certainly gotten even better.

But they haven’t gotten THAT much better. Not so much that all the sudden world records are falling left and right after some already wildly fast years in 2020-2024.

Back in 2021 when two college guys ran 3:50 for the mile indoors, I had a conversation with a good friend of mine.

This isn’t just some random guy. He knows high level track, and he has intricate knowledge of the shoe technology.

We of course agreed the shoes were at least somewhat responsible for those insane times. But he made an observation back then that I think is now proving poignant.

He said: “They obviously make you race faster. 2-3 seconds/mile seems reasonable. But the question will be how much harder/faster/longer people can train in these things.”

I believe that is what we’re seeing now.

It’s been reported that many of the top pros are doing all of their harder/longer sessions in supershoes. They do this because it allows them to recover quicker - they don’t feel the same junk in their legs like they used to.

So with supershoes, I think it’s a combo: (1) they just plain make you race faster right away and (2) guys and gals can train at a higher level than before.

Sodium Bicarbonate

You may have heard about athletes using “bicarb” before races.

Bicarb = sodium bicarbonate. Otherwise known as baking soda. 

You know the little orange Arm and Hammer box you almost certainly have under your sink?

That’s bicarb.

Now, most athletes are using the Maurten Bicarb System. This is essentially baking soda packed into what they call a “hydrogel.” The idea being that this helps alleviate the potential GI distress that can very easily accompany bicarb.

I gotta say, as someone in the running/endurance industry, I give major props to Maurten for this. It’s hard to make a nutrition product or supplement that’s actually revolutionary nowadays.

OK, so why on earth are athletes taking baking soda?

You probably know about lactate. The stuff that builds up when you run harder and longer and creates that burning feeling in your legs.

Lactate goes high enough, your body becomes more acidic, and you will slow down, no matter how tough you are. That’s why we do lots of lactate threshold training, to raise that point where lactate becomes unbearable.

Bicarb is alkaline. This can help to buffer that acidity buildup, thus delaying fatigue and potentially helping you run faster.

It’s that simple. Take bicarb, run faster for longer.

This is definitely part of all the insane times.

Wave lights

Many tracks have introduced “wave lights” - basically lights that line the track that act as a rabbit (like in a horse race).

You can see wave lights in action in Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s world record indoor mile from last week.

This is a relatively new concept. None of the track world records set prior to the last few years had wave lights. 

Here’s the thing - I don’t think this is that massive of an advantage.

No doubt it helps. I mean, you have bright lights right next to you pressuring you to run faster, or giving you confidence that you’re ahead of pace. That has to help.

But if that were the only thing going on? 

In that case, I’d point to one other deep dark secret of professional athletics.

Doping

Yeah, I’m sorry. We gotta talk about it.

Let’s accept a few facts first:

Doping occurs in all sports.

Doping occurs with or without major financial incentives. Though those certainly raise the stakes.

The cheaters are generally ahead of the testers. Every time a major doping scandal is uncovered, the perpetrators got away with it for years before finally slipping up (usually a dumb human error gets them caught, or blabbing to other people).

Any athlete can dope. Let me repeat - ANY athlete can dope. I don’t care if you know him personally, or she’s religious, or he’s a pillar of his community, or she’s a really nice person.

None of that matters.

Floyd Landis was a pro cyclist in the early 2000’s. He grew up in a devout Mennonite community in Pennsylvania. And he won the 2006 Tour de France - an increidble underdog story.

Well, he wound up doped to the gills.

“If the Amish kid is dirty …”

Now, with all of that out of the way - we have to at least discuss the possibility that some or all of these insane world records are the result of performance enhancing drugs.

It’s just too easy, guys. It really is.
Do you know the half life of EPO? That’s erythropoietin, a hormone produced by the kidneys that stimulates your bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.

More RBC’s = more oxygen = faster running, better performance, more power, more stamina, more vitality, just all in all better everything.

OK, back to it - the half-life of exogenous EPO is 4-8 hours.

That means athletes are not running a huge risk of testing positive when taking EPO. Especially if they microdose (we can talk about that another time).

And that’s just one example. You may recall - Shelby Houlihan (US 1500m record holder) was banned for nandrolone, which most people didn’t even think would be helpful for mid-distance running (it is, any anabolic steroid can help mid-d running).

So the question is - is any of this just doping?

Good news: I don’t think so.

I think the shoes + bicarb are the biggest factors right now.

That’s not to say I don’t think any of these guys are doping. I have my suspicions about one of them in particular.

But on a macro level, I don’t think all of this is because suddenly guys are mega doping in a way they were not before.

The 90’s are now known in track as the “EPO era.” Guys were blasting EPO all the time because there was no test yet. So you saw otherwordly performances compared ot the prior decades.

I don’t think there’s a new superdrug. I don’t think these guys are all smashing EPO, HGH, and testosterone.

I think all of the above factors are just so huge - especially the shoes, and the ability to train in them and recover much faster. 

If it were just doping, we’d mostly see outlier performances at the very top. 2nd and 3rd tier athletes typically don’t dope, mostly due to financial circumstances. I say this from experience - I was a 2nd/3rd tier 1500m runner from 2010-2015. I legitimately could not have afforded performance enhancing drugs! 

Instead, we’re seeing insanity across the board.

The NCAA takes 16 men per event for the indoor NCAA track and field championships. Currently #16 in the mile is 3:54.15.

That’s faster than the collegiate record was until 2013.

Are people training smarter? Sure. And I think high school kids are training way smarter than before, allowing them to really blossom more and sooner in college.

But do you think the 16th best guy this year is better than the very best guy in 2012?

It’s across the board. It’s macro. It’s endemic.

Which to me, points to the shoes + bicarb as the biggest factors. The shoes being 90+% of that.

Now, what should you do?

This could be a whole separate email. So I’ll keep it simple here:

Get supershoes.

Do your 1 biggest workout of the week in them. You can do more if you want, but they’re not all that durable and that cost adds up!

Try bicarb.

For goodness sake, don’t try it for the first time on race day.

Experiment with workouts. If you’re training for a marathon, don’t use it before a 4 mile easy run and think you’re ready for race day. 

Get yourself some good ol’ EPO.

Just kidding. This stuff is not to be messed around with.

That’s all I got! See you next Tuesday.

Michael