I used mine first time at a race this past weekend and I really liked them. Used the tracer a few shoes before and I would say its like a tracer but with more "snap" to it. The race was a 15k and they felt great all the way through. A little more cushion I would say than the tracer. The only downfall I would say is that there is an opening on the bottom of the shoe to I guess show that there is really a carbon plate there but rocks will get stuck in there which gets annoying. Other than that love this shoe for 1/2 distance

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/11645943 https://www.instagram.com/timeforicecream/

How was the sizing for you? compared to the Tracer?

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

Love my Hoka Cliftons and I run in Nike Pegasus (mostly on the treadmill). I quickly ditched my Nike Vaporfly 4%'s because the just felt terrible for my gait.

I was just about to pull the trigger on the Hoka Cabon Rockets when I saw the 1mm drop. Anything with a 0 or 1mm drop also shreds my calves, to the point where they'll stay sore for a week after a single run.

they run true to size so I was 11.5 tracer and 11.5 evo. I did have to put the laces in the tops of the shoe in order to keep my heel from slipping but after that they worked magic.

I would not be afraid of the 1mm drop as I was too and I can't tell the difference at all. It is not hard on the feet or a shoe that uses different muscles because of the 1 mm drop IMO.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/11645943 https://www.instagram.com/timeforicecream/

You should read the RTR review : https://www.roadtrailrun.com/...et-multi-tester.html

Sam (the main reviewer) is a heel striker using mostly 5 to 10mm drop, and he says the 1mm drop does not look like such, and mostly seems like 5mm.

A bit like when he review the ASICS Metaride, zero drop but does not feel like that.

So I want to use these in a sprint in a few weeks but haven't run in them. I've seen some reviewers state there needed to be some break in time...I'm mostly running in Napalis right now, how many runs do I need to put down in these to get after it?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I went straight out the box to a 15k race and they were just fine. I had a 3 mile warmup before but get great out of the box

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/11645943 https://www.instagram.com/timeforicecream/

Sweet.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

He doesn't take into account the fact that lack of drop and rocker will alter his stride/gait. That changes everything.
Going from a classic 10mm drop shoe to this with out a mindful transition is a good way of getting hurt. The VF4% is not a classic 10mm drop, btw.

Apparently, he constantly have shoes with drop between 5 and 10mm in his rotation.

He have a lot of experience

And he said that these zero drop (Carbon Rocket as well as ASICS Metaride) do not fell such.

Having such a shoe in rotation with 5 and 10mm drop shoes is not an issue.

The issue will be to move brutally from exclusively 10mm shoes to exclusively zero drop shoes.

I know him, I know the effect such a difference in drop and sole shape has on our mechanics and I also have (too) many shoes in my rotation with drops anywhere between 10 and 0mm in drop.
I bet if he did gait analysis he would find the same unless he's an outlier.

I ran a marathon in mine, but I put about 40 miles in them prior to racing. I didn't ever have an issue with the shoes, but I did notice it felt a little different to run right out of the box. Maybe it was in my head, but I feel like my turn over was a little quicker and my stride a little bit longer. Probably was just a mental thing and was running quicker, but def give them a short run. To me, they don't need to be broke in like some other shoes.

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Use this link to save $5 off your USAT membership renewal:
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I ran about 100 miles in mine. I was hoping to find a new marathon shoe...

I have run for years in the past on Altra and never had issues back then with the zero drop. I stopped using Altra simply because it was becoming very hard for me to find them locally. I ran all my recent marathons on Cliftons, only my first ever marathon wasn't a BQ (latest being a 20min buffer), and when I got on the Topo team (I use Fly-Lite in triathlons, half marathons and shorter races), I tried the Magnifly (no go for me) and the Ultrafly (which was good, but not good enough). When my most recent pair of Clifton died, I was wondering if the Carbon Rocket would replace it and get me the little oomph I needed for a personal PR goal.

This shoe is not for me. My achilles are sore from using them. I thought it might have been the treadmill (go terrible winter / weather) but now that I can run outside, I can tell it's the drop. They do feel fast, they are fast, I had good training runs in them, but for me it's just not working. But that's really personal.

What is not personal is the durability. I can see that after 100 miles, they don't have much life left. Perhaps another 100 miles. At most. The main issue is the sole / rubber / cushion whatever you want to call it. It is disintegrating. After one long run, there was a dozen rocks that was in the cushion - not between treads, but inside the plush material itself. Removing them created holes in the sole, and the holes are not closing back.

Back to Cliftons. If it ain't broken...

So I put in 6 miles in these. The feel is a bit different. For the most part in HOKA's I'm a forefoot striker. I think my foot striking even fatigued is solid.

This was kind of weird, last week I decided I was going to push myself on my Wednesday runs to pick up some speed over time since I've mostly worked on negative splits rather than an actual threshold pace runs since coming back from a broken clavicle. This is nowhere near the fastest I've ever ran, but it's definitely my fastest first mile in a long time and my pace kind of dropped off after awhile.

So, the Carbon plate does "something". The responsiveness when you run at pace is pretty obvious. The cushioning felt better the faster pace than the slower pace. But it is not a shoe you can do LSD stuff in. You gotta be moving for this to feel good I think.

I think they need to do a little bit better work on the heel cup but that's about it.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.