Inventions for Your Summer Athletics

By: Dan Honz

Although summer looks a bit different this year, people are still lacing up their shoes and hitting the road and trails to participate in fun summer running events, whether they be socially distanced or entirely solo.  A few of us at Advent are runners, so running technology is on our minds.  Here are a few running innovations to peruse as we look forward to putting one foot in front of the other (and repeat a lot):

U.S. Patent 10,212,989 focuses on a running shoe that provides stability to suppress overpronation, particularly for runners on the road for longer than 10km.  Overpronation is when the foot rolls inward toward the arch and can cause overuse injury, particularly for long distance runners.  The shoes include reinforced uppers (i.e., the portion mounted to the sole) to provide additional support to the foot while muscular fatigue inhibits natural support.

Triathlon events traditionally have athletes transition from swimming to biking to running segments.  U.S. Patent No. 9,144,262 focuses on problems athletes face in the transition segment from biking to running (the “T2 transition”) with a fast transition running shoe.  The shoe prevents the need for already tired muscles to balance or bend to put on the running shoes, while permitting quick entry of the foot into the shoe to cut down on time spent in the T2 transition.  Shaving time off those transitions is one way to focus on a personal best for your triathlon.  

Finally, here is one for the aid station crews out there.  U.S. Patent No. 9,890,026 is directed to a portable hydration and bottle filling station.  The station includes a portable liquid storage tank coupled with nozzles to refill many bottles/cups at once.  Gone are the days of lugging around pitchers and coolers to fill those sports drink cups!

We at Advent wish you the best in your summer training and activities!