I'd say it's most likely because of you, coach... considering all those Gales recently running under 4:20, 4:30, 2:00, 9:35, etc.!Trial Conclusions...
> Benefit increases with the length of the race... benefit is small(negligible) for the 800M
> Benefit is greater for faster runners
> Earlier adoption by 3200M runners
...
That is all true if comparing improvement to 10+ years ago but the recent spike from just 2-3 years ago is almost completely due to the shoe technology. New training/coaching and indoor tracks and other things has been around for a few years or more.It's the shoes..
But it's also the availability of training information. The ability of kids to connect with remote coaching year round. The influx of opportunities for kids to run on FAST courses in XC. The growth in high level opportunities on brand-new tracks indoors. The increase in year-round training. The "Milesplit effect" where every kid is obsessed with times, leading to more willing to push their limits to run fast. The increase in attention to high-level performances that social media provides. More connected coaches with more access to information than ever before. . .
Penn State meet tonight perfect example of this with 6 at this indoor meet. Villanova had 3 go not just under 4 sub 3:58. We all know what shoes they were wearing. It reminds me so much of the tech suits swimmers were wearing 15(?) years ago when all records were being crushed weekly and then they ended up banning them.I saw something last summer that since the carbon fiber shoe/spikes introduction the number of college sub 4 miles has exploded.