Today I went a picked up a new pair of sneakers. My Saucony Kinvaras have their share of mileage on them and need to be pulled from the daily grind, they still have a little life in them and I may go to them now and again. Love the Kinvaras and highly recomend them to anyone. The toe box could use to be a bit wider but it will be enough in most cases. I went to my local running store and bought a pair of NB Minimus Roads, I have been quite excited to try them out and my LRS got them in before the official release date of March 1st. I am still on the road to recovery from a split tear of the peroneal brevis so my run today was only 2miles long and I enjoyed every step. The very first thing I noticed was a feeling of almost like a lateral posting which was interesting because there is no clear posting in the shoe but as I started out I could tell that between the lateral “posting” and the undercut heel the shoe was quite aggresive in promoting a mid-foot strike. By 2miles in my calfs were feeling a pump I have not felt in a while and I attributed this to the harder road feel as compared to the Kinvara. Even though my foot strike remained the same. The shoe is light and comfortable. As someone who has tried most of the new wave of minimalist shoes I would not suggest these shoes to first time “minimal” runners as I can tell if you just went out of the gate from say a pair of trainers to these you would be crippled with calf pain for a while (as seen by people who go right to VFFs for their daily training) If you have had Kinvaras, Frees, Newtons, VFFs et al then these will be worth a try. If you are looking to make the jump I would suggest the Kinvaras first. I am super excited to take these out again tomorrow and after a couple weeks will post another update.
How is the toe box on these? Also do you know if they have the same heel/toe drop as the kinvara?
I am currently running on kinvaras and terra plana evos and the evos feel so much nicer on the flats I suspect because the toe box is a bit wider. Would be nice to get something with a bit more support for something more than a 10k though.
What do you mean by lateral posting?
The two problems I have with the kinvara are:
-The back of it flexes quite a lot when I am turning corners, which makes it feel like I am going to twist my ankle if I am under 6min/mi.
-The toe box is a bit narrow, so it feels a bit constricted in the front.
Would be great if the NB minimus solved these 2 things. I still wish someone made a shoe like the evo with a bit of a sole on the bottom. They are super fast on flat ground/the track.
Toe box is MUCH larger than Kinvara. I put posting in quotes because I know there is no real posting at all in the show but when I put it on the first thing I noticed was a feeling of support on the lateral (outer) midfoot portion of the shoe. I felt no slipping at all a nice wrap around feel with the upper. Notable much harder road feel than the Kinvara which translates into calf strain so take it slow. Much like Newtons the package is loaded with slips of paper and stickers that warn you not to increase mileage faster than 10% each week.
oh and 4mm heel to toe same as Kinvara
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