9 Shoes I choose in review

Shoes, shoes and more shoes!

    Recently I realized how many pairs of training shoes that I rotated through on fairly consistent basis and thought it would be pertinent to give my personal review on the shoes that I wear. As a note to the 3 people who may actually read this, I have received these shoes through various channels which I truly appreciate. I have won a couple pair of shoes from races, received a couple pair from the TrySports ambassador team/ TrySports Run Club through coaching, and through Saucony racing.
 

   Listed below are the series of shoes that I have in my current rotation and below will be a short synopsis of my thoughts on each shoe and how I prefer to use them.

Trainers:

Asics Neo33

Saucony Mirage & Mirage 2

Mizuno Wave Elixir 7 x 2

Brooks Launch

Brooks Cascadia – trail

Kswiss – Blade Light run

Mizuno Wave Inspire LE Osaka

Racing shoes:

Brooks T7 racer

Saucony Fastwitch 5

Asics Neo33 - I recently added this shoe into my rotation as I wanted to see how Asics compared to other brands in a supportive yet "natural" shoe which is similar to minimalism. This shoe has been good to me but from my experience I think I will stick to recovery runs with this shoe. I have done one long run and one tempo in this shoe and I had some adverse conflicts with them. On my long run, my PF started to flare up a couple miles in and I had to tie a stranger hold on my foot to prevent any slippage and pressure on the wrong area of my arch. During my Tempo, I once again felt my PF flare up but most importantly I felt towards the end of my tempo the shoes felt incredibly heavy from what I am accustomed. 

 Saucony Mirage - This was my main training shoe while living in Australia and only because it was the cheapest shoe I could get while Down Under. It ended up working very well for me as it is a light weight trainer with some minimal features. I prefer to use a shoe like this on tempo's as they are flexible and lightweight, creating the fast feel I sometimes need during tough mental workouts.

 Saucony Mirage 2 - This shoe is just appearing in stores come February but I was lucky enough to get a hold of the new 2012 fall edition just this week. While looking over the shoe, not much has changed if any on the platform but Saucony used a new material to keep the upper nice and fitting. Taking away the standard leather style overlays, they incorporated a newer lightweight synthetic material most similar to what could be found on a racing spike. Haven't ran in these enough to comment on any differences, but I like this shoe so far!
Check out the review here - Saucony Mirage 2 review

 Mizuno Wave Elixir 7 -   This shoe has been a favorite of mine for the past 3 years and I have been pretty loyal to this shoe as I have been through about 10 pairs of this awesome lightweight trainer. Some of my friends have had some problems with PF from these shoes after a few small changes but I really haven't had too many issues. I think when I have had problems with PF it relates to my mileage and workouts, so I have been careful to monitor and treat PF as it flares up. Overall this shoe is great, The only run I don't like doing with these shoes are ones that are 17+ miles as it appears the flexibility pulls on my calf a bit too much over that length of time.

 

 Brooks Launch - After starting to experience some pains in my shin and knee's I decided I needed something that had a bit more padding under neath the forefoot and inquired with Jinnie Austin about her recommendation and she immediately recommended the Launch. I was a bit hesitant at first, partially because I like flashy shoes and well these were black and white. Soon after I slipped them on I really felt at home so to speak. The bounce was amazing in this shoe, especially compared to the Elixir and Mirage, so I took them. I think of all of the shoes I have used over the past 3 months this was my most reliable shoe without having any injuries flare up. Unfortunately I left these shoes in New York while visiting over Christmas, but hope to get a new pair soon. 

 Brooks Cascadia 6 - This shoe was kind of a hand me down as it did not suit a friend to well and I gave it a shot. I have only ran in these shoes twice and after the first time I truly HATED this shoe. I just felt bad running in this shoe, I can't really put a science to it but it just did not feel right, not cushy, just awkward. This is to be slightly expected when you wear a trail shoe on the sidewalks and roads when it is meant for trails. This past weekend after winning a free entry into a local trail race set for January 21st I hit the trails at the US national whitewater center. The 1st day I knocked out 11 miles with my Mizuno Elixir's, they did OK, but I certainly had a few close calls with slips in the dirt as did everyone else running. The very next day, I laced up my cascadia's and decided, "why not give them one more chance on their territory?". Wow, I was amazing, I felt like I went from a bald tire in the rain to a high performance racing tire with incredible traction. The grip was so good, I started pushing the limits and never once did I slip, this will be my trail racing shoe without a doubt!
Cascadia Review

K-Swiss Blade Run - this shoe has been my casual shoe for the most part, I have used this a couple times on run and for a fartlek it seemed to do a decent job. The shoe is very vented as it is designed for the triathlete, so on cold winter days this shoe is not the best choice. Looks like I will be saving it up as a spring/summer tempo runner. 

Mizuno Wave Inspire LE Osaka - I noticed this shoe in the 2012 Mizuno Catalog while doing some ordering and just thought I needed something cool just to kick around in. Eventually I buckled and took these babies on a couple of easy morning runs. Nothing remarkable but they are a solid shoe for sure. Trying to keep em clean as my work/gym shoe, until the ol shin start hurting.

 Saucony Fastwitch 5 - Picked this model up in Australia and used it for my Half Ironman and have never once had any issues with this shoe. I must say going forward I will use this shoe for every marathon I participate in unless I stumble upon something else. Even during the marathon in Savannah I never once had any PF issues but of course I had some fatigue setting in. Great supportive racing flat which has good road grip, solid overlay system and flexibility.

Brooks Racer T7 - This was my 1st shoe purchase once I got back into the states, to attempt racing well at Greekfest. Well that goes to show you that super light shoes only get you a mile, fitness matters. Anyways, these shoes are SWEET but I have quickly realized that i cannot race above 10k in these shoes. They are so light and flexible, it beats up my body much more than I than I like once I get over 3 miles, so 6 is pushing it. I never would have thought that I could wear this shoe but I am sure glad I gave it a shot, hope it takes me to some PR's this year.

Take a look below at Olympian Alan Culpepper's take on light weight trainers, my personal favorite training shoe.

Lightweight Training Shoe

    This is my almighty summary of the shoes that have worked for me and that are currently in my rotation. This weekend I am looking forward to using the Brooks Cascadia trail shoe to hopefully grip the dirt and to burn the paths up! Any further recommendations on training shoes would be appreciated as well as feedback on the shoes that I am currently using. Hit me up, give me your pros and cons of these shoes, mileage goals with each shoe and so forth. One of the things I have learned about my body is that I just run in my shoes until my knees/shins and ankle start to feel that certain way; the way my body feels when its about to cross the line of completely breaking apart, fun times.