I have recently fell in love with Nike’s Zoom Fly. I was surprised given my go to shoe over the past three years has been Asics Tartherzeal’s, which are very flat, thin, and a little hard. The Zoom fly are both more comfortable and feel faster for me. (using the garmin RD pod…the power numbers/speed agree with the perception.)
BUT…one thing I noticed on a warm 25km run this week with the Zoom fly’s is that they don’t drain water very well. I’m not worried about blisters, but I’m worrying about the shoes getting heavy if I douse my body with water etc during a tri. (I race in Asia…hot and super humid is the norm!) I guess I could go out and pour a ton of water into these shoes to find out…but they are a little expensive and so I’m appealing to the forum! Has anyone raced in these shoes or experienced what they are like when they get really wet inside?
I used them at Ironman Austria last year and did not think about that they got heavy when they got wet… I came in at 8:36 after a 2:51 run. The rest of the year I used Vaporfly 4% in Norseman and Kona, but in Ironman South Africa in five weeks I will again use Zoom Fly (have not found a new pair og VF).
Do you feel that the arch in the 4%s is slightly more pronounced than in the zoom fly? Got a couple pairs of 4%s a few weeks ago after running with zoom flys for a while and feel the arch when I run in the 4%s but not in the zoom fly.
That’s good. I’ve trued the ZF in stores and I think the toe is fairly decent as it is (just a bit narrower than Streaks) so the VF should be good to go.
You might want to try the Zoom Fly SP. It’s basically the same shoe as the Zoom Fly with a translucent woven nylon upper. I find they’re a lot more breathable and less hot than the regular Zoom Flys. I use them in training and like the upper much better.
You might want to try the Zoom Fly SP. It’s basically the same shoe as the Zoom Fly with a translucent woven nylon upper. I find they’re a lot more breathable and less hot than the regular Zoom Flys. I use them in training and like the upper much better.
The Zoomfly SP is a textile upper based on the Vaporfly, so its basically a Zoomfly midsole with a Vaporfly upper. Also, I recommend going .5 up in the Zoomfly SP because the textile upper is not as supple as the standard model.
The Zoom fly is a Flyknit upper with a backing mesh. That construction is the same as basically any training shoe. The difference of course is the Flyknit and with that you will get better drainiage simply because it’s a single layer. The 4% is constructed like a racing flat and has no backing mesh. You do that to save weight. Naturally less mesh mean’s more brethable and better drainage. All that said, are you planning to wear socks or not? Your socks are going to determine water weight gain more than your shoes. The thicker the sock the more water you are going to retain. Wear a single layer non padded sock, and then wear your Zoom Fly and you should be good to go.
I could be making this up, but wasn’t there a study done showing the benefits of the 4% only apply to paces below like 7:00 min/mile? I remember coming across something about how running slower in that shoe actually expends more energy. I’ll see if I can find it, but wanted to see if anyone here remember seeing that.
Puts me in the grey area for my 70.3 next week where I aim to run between 4:15-4:25/km. I suspect they are on to something as I do notice that I don’t like running uphill in this shoe very much but couldn’t describe why they felt awkward on my feet. They are huge winners for me on the downhills with the cushion and responsiveness.
My feet went numb and I got a burning sensation under the sole with the Zoom Fly, so I returned them to the shop. This was both during intervals and long runs (speed 3:50-4:30 min/km). I bought another pair of my trusted adizero Adios 3 which does the trick for me!
Head over to http://www.solereview.com and read the Zoom Fly review, they mention it there. Slower than 4:20 min/km and it slows you down (they say)
I can say without any reservation that it does not slow you down. For me, a 4:25/km threshold runner, it’s good for around 10"/km for equivalent RPE and HR at paces between ~5:00/km and my threshold. I definitely needed to adjust my foot strike from the forefoot where I normally run to what felt like the mid-foot, if not a slight heel strike to “switch them on”, but once I got them going I could light the afterburners and just keep pressing faster and faster!
If you can get your hands of VF4%s, I recommend getting a pair of Zoom Flys too to learn how to get the shoe working and break your feet into the specific style. The VF4% are too fragile to do anything but break in then race.
The comments about toe box width makes sense. I have size 10US VF4% and 10.5US Zoom Flys for proper fit. I tried 10US Zooms and they were too tight.
Congrats on such awesome performances!