Goodbye Old Friends

Back in August 2019 I posted about my Nike Vaporfly Next 4% shoes, which I had purchased that May. 

Here we are a more than a year later, with ~700-800 miles on these shoes (out of about 1200 miles total ....I have some other shoes I used too) they've been beyond ready for retirement for a while now. 

For a long time I could not find a replacement, which is why I ran these shoes into the ground,  but finally Nike came out with the Zoom Fly 3 (bought off Nike website), which is a slightly cheaper (and I think slightly heavier) more robust replacement for the Vaporfly.

As I mentioned in a previous post, these shoes with the carbon blade innersole are fantastic, not just because you can run fast in them, but because the stress on your legs is lower....I think the higher derivatives of acceleration are reduced.  My recovery times after hard runs / high mileage are noticeably reduced.

After all those miles the foam looks pretty shot,  but even now they still have bounce! Can't say that about an old pair of Kinvara's. 

A couple of months ago I bought a pair of the Saucony entry into the carbon tech: the "Endorphin Pro", they are pretty good too, nice and light, a more traditional upper, but the carbon blade is about half as stiff as the Nike. I've probably put 150 miles on them so far.

I have run the Vaporflys on gravel and dirt  trails for many of their miles (not ideal for them) and they are quite filthy. But they held up! The soles still have plenty of black sticky rubber ...which creates the amazing 'road-tack' they have. We'll see if the Zoom Fly feels the same. 

So many good miles together! Here's the old with the new....notice 'canoe taper' on the heel foam has been reduced from the original Fly.. 

Here's a side shot of the Zoom Fly 3, Endorphin Pro and  Vaporfly Next. Notice the thicker foam on the Nikes and notice how wrinkled the Vaporfly foam is after all those miles. But the carbon is still good!

I'm supposed to do an 18 mile run tomorrow...we'll see if I'm up for it. In any case should be fun to try out the new babies.

Happy Running!