By Marissa Stephenson, Men's Journal
There’s a massive science experiment
about to commence in Monza, Italy, that has been four years in the
making. That’s how long the 20-plus person science, research, and
coaching team at Nike has been sweating the variables of how to get an
elite athlete to run 26.2 miles in under two hours.
[post_ads]And there are
many, many variables. Pacing and strategy, apparel and footwear, and of
course, the mental game. Nike is adamant that the Breaking2 project is
not about seizing a record — in fact, some of the factors they’re
manipulating disqualify the attempt from an official world marathon
record — but about creating the perfect circumstances to find out what
the true limit of human potential really is.
“Why didn’t we just do all
of this in a regular race?” asks Brett Kirby, lead physiologist at the Nike Sport Research Lab. “Because we know what happens in a marathon; these guys do that all the time. This is the new experiment. Focusing on the human without worrying about outside factors.”
By twisting every dial in the athlete’s favor, could Lelisa
Desisa of Ethiopia Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, or Zersenay Tadese of
Eritrea — or all of them — do what most running experts say is all but
impossible? Here’s how Nike has engineered the odds in their favor.
Set the perfect pace.
We don’t actually know
what it looks like for an athlete to push all-out in a marathon. No one
has gone from the gun as hard as they can, the Breaking2 team argues,
because the lead pack is always watching each other, and curbing their
efforts accordingly. They’re racing to win — not to run their absolute
fastest.
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For Breaking2, Nike will change that: A group of 30 elite
runners will act as “white rabbits,” with six pacers running in a
triangle formation around Desisa, Kipchoge, and Tadese at all times. The
pacers will run only two laps of the 2.4k Formula 1 track (so, three
miles), then they’ll be switched out with fresh pacers.
The objective is
two-fold: Allow the pacers to block wind resistance and create a draft,
and give the three athletes a perfectly consistent 4:33-per-mile pace
to hit. As Paula Radcliffe, the record-breaking women’s marathoner
explained, “To break two hours, they’ll essentially need to redline the
entire time, but not push so hard that they can’t sustain it.” Pacers
will ensure that happens.
But the switching in-and-out of fresh
runners is also the factor that worries Brad Wilkins, director of the
Nike Explore team at the NSR lab, the most about the attempt. “It’s a
dynamic strategy, and the timing has to be spot on,” Wilkins says.
Because
the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) doesn’t
allow pacers to be changed out during a marathon, the pacing model is
also one reason why the Breaking2 attempt won’t be eligible for a world
record. Says Wilkins, “World record or not, we hope this paves the way
for those in official marathons to have a shot.”
Dial in the shoes and kit.
All
three runners will wear customized versions of the Nike Zoom Vaporfly
Elite: the stitching of the knit upper, the stiffness of the
carbon-fiber plate in the midsole, and even the amount of proprietary
ZoomX foam — which is supposed to return 85 percent of the energy of
striking the ground back to the runner, versus standard sneakers’ 60
percent return rate — will all be exactly tailored to what works best
for the three athletes based of 3D foot scans.
In company-wide and
independent tests, the Vaporfly Elite shows a 4 percent improvement in
running economy. (The best part about all of this innovation, the
Breaking2 team assures the scrum of reporters in Monza, is that it will
trickle down to the average runner; the elite shoe’s commercial version
will be available in June.)
For apparel, the Nike team aimed to
knock down common problems. Number one: they found the athletes would
sweat one to two liters an hour during training, and the moisture would
collect in their clothing and weigh them down. Solution: Create a
whisper-weight singlet fabric that cools and wicks faster. Problem two:
the men’s legs, no surprise, got fatigued toward the end of a race.
[post_ads]So
the team designed compression tape to be placed strategically on the
shins (parts of the body that are moving the most and working the
hardest) to support the muscles and further cut wind resistance. Custom
compression arm sleeves provide the same support and streamlining
benefits, and also simply keep the athletes warm. For men who typically
train in 80-plus degree weather, the 50-something temps ideal for the
Breaking2 attempt feel especially cold.
Instill utter confidence.
“To tell an athlete they’re capable of breaking two hours is one thing, but they have to believe
it,” says Matt Nurse, vice president of the Nike Sport Research Lab.
Which is why the company invited Desisa, Kipchoge, and Tadese to its NSR
lab in Beaverton for a battery of physiological tests to help dial in
their performance. Using the results, the team showed the men that,
mathematically, psychologically, a human should be able to run the race
in under two hours; more important, each one of them should be able to
do it.
Believing that data has given the athletes the mental
tenacity essential to making the moonshot a reality. “All three athletes
absolutely believe that they can run a marathon tomorrow in under two
hours,” Nurse says. “To believe that, you also have to be a bit of a
rebel, and have a confidence that’s contagious.”
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