First Impression of New Shoes

Earlier this week, my new shoes (courtesy of the onlineshoes.com giveaway on Wes's blog) arrived at my doorstep. I decided to debut them during my Thursday morning long run.

Before I get too far into this, let me back up a bit. I'm a neutral runner that runs on mixed conditions (trail, track, pavement). I typically run 3 days a week, shortish runs, but plan to ramp it up to 4 days and a little more mileage as I prep for a HM in October. Because of the shape of my feet, I prefer shoes with a wider toe box - narrow ones cause blisters on my big toe. For the past year, I've been running happily in Nike Zoom Vomero +3.

I originally thought that I'd use the gift certificate toward some trail shoes, but they didn't have the shoes that I wanted to try in stock in my size. So I decided to go ahead and look for a possible alternative to my Nike's. I decided on the Saucony Progrid Triumph 5. Here is what they look like:


My first impressions are generally favorable. I'm really only able to compare them to my Nikes, so that is what I'll do.

They seem to weigh about the same as my Nikes. They offer shock absorption, but in a more supportive way. That makes these a bit more suitable for the trail, in my opinion. Toe box isn't as wide as the Nikes, but it seems to be wide enough. At least I didn't notice any rubbing on my big toe the first time out. They have decent traction. One gripe I have with the Saucony shoes is the laces. They are really thin/flimsy and will need to be replaced.

For now, I think I will continue to run in these new shoes on my trail runs, and use my Nike's for pavement and such.

Thanks Wes and OnlineShoes.com!!