sooooooo... i've switched (tentatively) to altras for trail and topo athletic for the road.
let's start with my trail shoes first and then move onto the road shoes...
these shoes are fantastic! they are incredibly light weight, have great tread, are zero drop, have a wide toebox, and hold up well in sloppy conditions. they only weigh 7.5 ounces which is an additional bonus as i truly hate heavy shoes. i've recently run in some pretty snowy conditions (4-6 inches) of what i like to call "snowsand" which is like running on a beach of dry sand or possibly imagine running through mounds of slippery sugar. it was challenging for sure but not at any moment did i feel unsafe or like i would fall. there is no doubt that i will add ice spikes or screws to my shoes to run once the trails are covered in lots of ice patches, but until then these are doing a great job.
i like to stick with the same companies when i find something i like so i went ahead and bought a pair of road shoes from altra too. again, the ones i purchased, provision 2.0, were on closeout (likely because they were the 2.0s) making them a really economical purchase, and i was pretty excited to try them out. i ran in them twice for a total of 8 miles and i was not happy. the toebox is again nice and roomy, but for whatever reason, my left heel kept slipping no matter how i tied the shoes or how i tried to remedy it. i returned them and tried the provision 2.5 (maybe the update made a difference?)... no such luck. the 2.5s were no different than the 2.0s. my left heel slipped and i didn't even bother to test these on a run. i just returned them and started a web search for "wide toebox" shoes.
in the meantime, i continued to use my new balance 1500s for indoor runs.
i finally found a shoe that looked promising... from a brand i've never heard of before... topo athletic.
so i purchased the topo athletic fli-lyte. this shoe is AWESOME! granted i've only run a short 3 miler in them but i LOVE them! these shoes have a 3mm drop and weigh only 6.7 ounces. i love the sea foam/tangerine color combo and as a bonus (if you like that sort of thing) they give a second set of laces to change up the look. my heels don't slip and my toes feel great with the more anatomical shape.
their mission statement is pretty awesome too. i can't believe i've never heard of them before. no matter... they're on my radar now and i'm sticking with them. bye bye, new balance... onto newer things!
so that's what i think about that.
what are your favorite shoes and why? have you ever heard of topo athletic? what are your thoughts about the natural toebox vs standard toeboxes? how do you feel about zero or low drop shoes?
tell me your thoughts in the comments! i'd love to hear them.
2 comments:
I've long struggled with running shoes, but my last pair (Nike Free 4.0 Flyknit) and my current pair (Nike Free RN Motion Flyknit), have worked pretty well for me. Both were cheap Nike outlet finds. My first running shoes were also Nikes (Free 3.0), and they worked well, too. I went away from Nike for a while, though. I had custom designed a pair of Free 5.0's that ended up too narrow in the toes to run in (they're my stair climbing shoes now... my feet look fresh to death in the stairwell!). I went to PRO to try others, but they were all too narrow, too. I ended up getting a pair Saucony Kinvaras, which were okay. They did the job, but my right pinky toe eventually busted a hole out the side. Then I tried a pair of ASICS (can't remember the style), but I eventually busted the whole side open on the right one and the pinky spot on the left one.
At various points w/ both Saucony & ASICS, I also ended up w/ weird minor foot pains and/or foot injuries (although the ASICS were super comfortable when they barely covered my feet anymore). I've not encountered that w/ the Nikes I've worn. They're more durable, and I think the Flyknit material lets my toes move around better.
Also, for what it's worth, and this is just me, but what a company or any of the higher-ups at a company stand for is of no consequence to me as a consumer. I could probably take issue w/ something at a pretty large number of companies (and/or their higher-ups) that make products I appreciate and/or work best for me. No one's perfect, and you're never going to find someone who believes 100% the way you do on things. That said, I really do admire you seeking to purchase from companies who most closely align w/ your views! Do your thing! And I'm glad you're finding some good shoes in the process!
I use to run in pair after pair of great big clunky Brooks Adrenaline GTS shoes. They're heavy (the current model runs at 10.7 oz.) and they have a massive drop of like 12 mm that promotes heal striking. I got them because I pronate in my left foot and during a running analysis way back when I was told I needed a shoe that would provide 'stability' and correct that tendency. In hindsight, while that might be true, all of that heal striking caused lots of injuries in my shins and knees that never really let me run for more than six months at a time before I had to take time off for an injury time out.
About two years ago I switched to Saucony Kinvaras and I'd never go back. They're feather light at 7.7 oz and have a drop of only 4 mm. There was definitely an adjustment periods where I learned to run with more of a mid-foot to fore-foot strike, but now that I'm converted I haven't had a single injury since the transition and my weekly mileage has doubled. I'm on my fourth pair this year.
I haven't heard of topo athletic, but those are pretty sharp looking shoes. I do tend to lift my toes when I run which occasionally causes some bruised toenails, but that's more of a toebox height thing then a width thing. I have pretty narrow feet so I've never had issues with breaking shoes down on the sides of the toebox. As described above I love low drop shoes, I don't know if I could handle a zero drop shoe.
Nearly all of my running is on hard pavement, so I feel pretty good about my shoes from a road running standpoint. I am planning on switching to more trail running this year - I signed up for the IAT50 miler, so I better figure it out. :) I've been looking at Salomon trail running shoes a lot, probably something with either a 2mm or 4mm drop. Maybe a pair of S-Lab Sense 5 Ultras (http://www.salomon.com/us/product/s-lab-sense-5-ultra.html?article=379456). They're really expensive, but people claim they get a 1000 miles out of a single pair, so if that's true then they'd be cheaper per mile then my road shoes.
I love how many options are out there for shoes. Foot size and running form very so much from person to person that the only way to really find the right shoes is to keep trying until you find something that works. Just reading other people's opinions might get you pointed in the right direction, but just because something worked for someone doesn't mean it's going to work for you. My injury experiences also directly point to the shoes, that was literally the only thing I changed and now I haven't had a significant injury in a couple years. Keep looking, the right pair is out there.
Post a Comment