What shoes is everybody wearing for Ironman

Triathlon Forum
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Open to any shoe recommendations
Have worn Metaspeed sky paris, alpha 3 and on strike

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New Balance SC Elite or Pacer for me. Comfy and fast

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Saucony Endorphin Pro 4 for me

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Still using Vaporflys - I find them fast, stable and comfortable.

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My go-to carbon racers at this point for long-distance:

Rocket X2
Endorphin Pro

For shorter stuff, I’d probably go MetaSpeed Sky Paris – it’s the shoe I’m fastest in, but it’s also the one I see the most fatigue in.

Testing the new Diadora carbon shoe now. Still need to get my paws on AlphaFlys.

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Vaporfly

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hoka mach x2

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Vaporfly 2 and 3

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Metaspeed Sky (Tokyo) - race only, go to (agree with @rrheisler RE the fatigue)
Nike ZoomX Streakfly - for crosstri stuff
Mizuno Pro Rebellion 2 - new to me

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would those be the Gara 2s by chance? They look like Metaspeed Skys…looking forward to your thoughts. Have been fence sitting as Diadora rebuild their running cache.

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Adidas Pro 3 for the last 2 years- Zero complaints. I am interested to check out the pro 4’s and also NB sc elites

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Yes indeed!

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Nike AlphaFly 3

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Saucony Endorphin Elite

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Interesting, what is it about the Metas that you figure causes you fatigue, and where is the fatigue-do they smash your calves/achiles etc or just overall?

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Platform stability – it leans in toward the medial side, and as I fatigue I exacerbate the issue with my low navicular bone / super inflexible first metatarsal.

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I’ve been testing lots of super shoes lately and here’s my top 10 in order atm:

  1. Nike Alphafly 3
  2. Saucony Endorphin Elite 2
  3. Asics Metaspeed Paris Edge
  4. Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1
  5. On Cloudboom Strike
  6. Nike Vaporfly 3
  7. Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4
  8. New Balance SC Elite 4
  9. Hoka Cielo X1 2.0
  10. Asics Metaspeed Paris Sky
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I’ve used the sky paris, are you finding the edge gives you a little extra turn over off the bike?

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The Edge & Sky are identical shoes except for their plates. The Sky plate is flatter (has a very small curve below the forefoot), sits much higher (closer to your foot) in the midsole of the shoe & is wider. Whereas the Edge plate sits much deeper in the midsole, has a really aggressive curve under the forefoot and is a bit narrower.

I think what this does is a few things:

  1. It makes the Sky feel a touch more stable & “dead.” By dead I refer to the feeling that the shoe doesn’t feel as poppy or like it’s giving you the same energy return each step as something that feels a bit more alive.

  2. It makes the Edge feel much poppier. It has the more traditional super shoe feeling about it. It feels more aggressively rockered because of the curve in the plate. So if you land midfoot->forefoot in the Edge it feels like you get so much more back from the shoe than the Sky.

  3. Makes the Sky a little better for a heavier runner compared to the Edge. When I say heavier, I really mean someone who’s like 90kg+ and wants to wear a super shoe. If you’re in the 40-80kg range I don’t think it matters much, more about where you land on your foot and what feels better. This can be particularly true for training because in training you’re obviously wanting a super shoe that feels amazing but doesn’t leave you getting niggles & injuries. And I’d say of all the super shoes the Sky & Edge are two of the riskier ones. They’re not very stable, their platforms are quite narrow and they’re so light so things like the upper are very light and don’t add extra bits of stability to the foot like some other options.

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What do you mean by their platforms are narrow? I’ve got the Paris Sky and was shocked at how wide they are