How Tech Will Transform Running Welcome to a world in which your shoes can talk to you

It’s only 20 years TECHNOLOGY SETS QUITE A PACE. since we strapped on our first GPS running watches, barely a decade since the first runner chased a Strava segment and only a few years since records starting being served up on carbon plates. In less than a generation, we’ve swapped basic stopwatches and manual pulse reads for real-time heart-rate tracking, VO2-max estimates and recoverytime recommendations. Wearable tracking technology has already colonised runners’ bodies, with a sensor for every limb and extremity, but in the coming decade, we’ll see it get right under the skin, literally, of running performance. The next wave of tools for managing training, racing, recovery, nutrition, hydration and even shoe selection, will be smarter and more personalised. Out will go generalised recommendations; in will come targeted insights that unlock some of the complexities of our own unique physiology and biochemistry. Here’s what’s on the way.

Golden fuels

What works for one runner doesn’t necessarily work for another. That golden rule goes for training, shoes and fuelling. And when it comes to the latter, it means more than gel-flavour preferences.

Research shows we all process carbs at different rates and that some foods ‘burn’ faster in some people than in others.

And those differences are significant: a Frankfurt University study found that the speed of glucose uptake varied by up to a factor of six in different individuals.

Despite this, we still rely on generalised advice when it comes to how much, how often and what we eat to power our runs. But in the near future, we’ll be able to switch from blanket guidelines to bespoke fuelling.

Polar’s FuelWise watch feature already uses physiological data to suggest fuelling strategies for racing and training, based on the duration and estimated heart-rate intensity of your run. The recommendations adapt in real time if your effort levels deviate, but it’s still a rough estimate.

Skin-worn, real-time Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) – created for diabetics – will make run-fuelling a more precise science. Available now, and already adopted by Eliud Kipchoge, these CGM biosensors insert tiny filaments under the skin and read your glucose levels via interstitial cellular fluid (the fluid in the spaces around cells). Stats are beamed to smartphone apps such as Levels and Supersapiens, revealing the immediate impact of what you consume on your blood-sugar levels.•