ASICS - EVORIDE SPEED 2

Evo SL is not best suited for heel strikers. The heel is unstable and not very durable as there are numerous reviews on Reddit and elsewhere complaining about heel durability. From personal experience, running at anything less than an 8-8:30 min/mile pace isn’t very enjoyable in the SL. Superblast 3, I’d imagine, would be a good option for you. Asics always feel great to me no matter if I’m heel striking or mid/forefoot. I have the Superblast 2 and it’s a little on the firm side, but very durable and works well for slower paces.

If you’re a beginner, you will see no benefit from a plated racer, and if your foot isn’t strong enough it will eventually be irritated or hurting. Assuming you’re above a 18 minute 5k, You’d be better off with just using your novablast or upgrading to a megablast or EVO SL. But honestly those will both be minor benefits like 2-3 seconds / km. you’d be fine with novablast. The metaspeed is for experienced runners for specific purposes. You will also likely have significant stability issues with a metaspeed if your feet aren’t conditioned for it.

Well, to be fair I do say “assuming you’re above a 18 minute 5k” before making the rec.

Dealing with the same, ended up peroneal tendonitis in the middle of marathon training. Already invested in a nice rotation of neutral shoes like you (evo SL, novablast 5, boston 13, superblast 2) like the other comments here, iso work, strength training have helped me recover much quicker and continuing to keep my volume up. I had to drop the evo SL (loved it for workouts but noticing my ankles were getting blasted the days after) and the novablast 5 (just too much squish, now just wear casually) realized my feet are responding better to firmer shoes, so i'm now using SB2 as my daily/long runs and B13 for workouts. in the meantime I am trying out currex/superfeet low arch insoles as a temp stopgap as I was recommended to go with custom orthotics... want to see if PT and strength work can help mitigate injury before moving to new shoe options or orthotics.

I'd say you don't necessarily need stability shoes, but stable neutral is helpful. Novablast 5 are quite soft and I collapse inwards myself, so I am using Novablast 5 and Evo SL only from time to time. I haven't tested the Velocity Nitro 4 but they would be my first try if I needed daily trainers for that distance. Besides that: for a bit of stability, go for shoes that aren't too soft, have a wider base and a good fit. Superblast and Megablast are excellent choices but a bit over your budget (although I always wanna point out that the durability compensates the price quite well). For your knee pain I unfortunately can't really help here. Generally I think that too soft shoes on legs that are not well stable (ankles, knees, hip) are not the best idea. I have to do more strength work for sure but I completely moved away from stability shoes to stable neutral and can even go with Evo SLs for quicker workouts from time to time.

The Takumi Sen 11 is the most extreme example I have experience with. RunRepeat has the sample size 9's heel width at 72.6mm, apparently the fourth most narrow show reviewed and nearly a full 2cm narrower than average. And yet, imo it's actually a pretty nice heel. It feels maybe a little bit flimsy, but it has a gorgeous posteriolateral heel bevel and transitions really swiftly and without any perceived disjointedness. My training rotation also consists of mostly narrow-heeled shoes: Hyperion 2, EVO SL, SC Elite v5 (I just became aware that this last one apparently has a *narrower* heel than the Takumi Sen 11, but I sure as hell hadn't even noticed it until now). This might be a bit of a "YMMV, biomechanics are super individual" thing. But I only ever see forefoot-striking reviewers flag heel width as a potential heel striker issue, and it doesn't line up with my experience well at all.

The midsole is a technological marvel. My pair of Megablasts weighs about the same as my pair of EVO SL's (\~248g in a men's US11.5 in both), but the Megablast's higher stack, fuller base, and later rocker mean it clearly packs a far higher volume of foam. I find it believable that the energy return between the two is about on par, too. Asics deserves kudos for being so far ahead on the tech. But since I've raised the comparison, personally I prefer the midsole of the EVO SL. I prefer the gradual early rocker of the EVO SL, I like the more moderate stack, it has a more flexible forefoot which I prefer, and I find the EVO SL midsole strangely stable, despite the mild medial cutout, probably owing to a firmer foam and a generous posteriolateral heel bevel. The Megablast has a far less flexible midsole owing to the greater stack height, so it relies far more on the big rocker to transition to toe-off, which at least in theory shifts load to the hips. (I've recently rehabbed a femoral neck bone stress injury so this might not be great for me.) Also while I don't feel that the Megablast is *unstable*, and it does have a wide base and no midfoot cutout, the midsole foam is softer, and I believe that does result more stabilizer muscle recruitment as my feet get a little more "lost in the foam" as compared to the EVO SL. Finally, the elephant in the room is the upper. The Megablast's upper is pretty bad. I strongly suggest you get it on foot before making a purchasing decision. If you're lucky enough to have a foot shape which matches the Megablast's last then you may be very happy with them, but I probably would've declined to purchase if I had tried it on first. The heel cup is clumsily overpadded, which, combined with questionable lockdown at the top of the eyelet chain, a tight forefoot, and a stiff midsole, resulted in a bit of heel lift for me. But the worst part is the forefoot, it's kind of a low-volume torpedo-esque fit that you might give Puma crap for. I experienced a bit much tightness around the metatarsals, but most concerningly squeezing/chafing of my little toe and some abrasion of my big toe. My right foot went numb during my first outing in them. The fit has relaxed a little bit after \~40km in them, but my little toe still takes a bit of a beating in them, which is the main reason I don't take them out more. To continue my comparison with the EVO SL, that shoe is notorious for its upper problems, but I'm lucky enough to get a Cinderella fit in them so everything kinda falls into place and I have a great experience in them. The EVO SL also just has an objectively better heel cup. I think the even-handed consensus to reach here would be that both the Megablast and EVO SL have fail-grade uppers, but depending on your foot shape you'll be able to forgive the faults of one, the other, or neither, but probably not both. I think both brands should do better with their uppers, the means exist to make race uppers which accommodate a wide range of foot types and they are both negligent for failing to implement them.

Hey man! This is not my post but I feel like it can also help, I actually made a post asking for a second pair recommendation. So basically I got the supernova rise 2 back in December, and I was thinking I could get a second pair to rotate and also to get a different feeling when running. I’m still unsure of what I want to achieve as I’m just running for fun right now so usually I do 5-10k and maybe once the weather gets better I can do longer. I used to do track and field (400/800m) and stopped running a few years as I got tired and have started running a bit. What would you recommend to me? I noticed you talking about the B13 but those have the carbon plates right? Would it be too harsh on my legs? But maybe could be fun running in them as they are a faster shoe right? The evo SL I liked them but I could see how unstable they were hence why I went with the supernova rise 2. Thank you and sorry for the this xD

not necessarily true, the evo sl 1. lasts 500 miles and more 2. only gets better as mileage increases cuz of lightstrike pro 3. costs $150 . Except maybe it has a horribly short tongue and slippery insole the rest are top notch, so it really depends on what you prefer...

dont have too much mileage in \~100km ish, but the exposed lightstrike pro (by far the most vulnerable part) are unscratched and unharmed (i run on tarmac/ tar roads so maybe thats why)

Rebel is lighter feeling than novablast, noosa tri or evo sl. Less cushion, especially in front. Wide toebox. Slim heel. Less bouncy under midfoot and feels like no cushion and bounce around forefoot. Felt dead and no guidance in forefoot. Evo sl felt much better. Noosa tri 16 was more bounce than 14 but felt same all around. Fit and step guidance of noosa is awesome. For one shoe go for evo sl or noosa tri. I ended up with adidas takumi zen 10 (love them and first non asics for 20 years) for race (so far two 6 km races and 5x 8km fast trainings), nb5 for daily (and one 10 km race nonpavement so far). Waiting for noosa tri 17 to replace nb5 in 4-7 months. Right now i am looking for and trying nikes pegasus trail for outdoor adventures and weekend camping all day and running shoes.

I’ve ran 1100 km in my superblast 2 but am so confused about whether I should get them or these. Can anyone help? I like Superblast 2 for the most part as I ended up running 21K more than 15 times in them just last month. I don’t think any other shoe would have protected me the way they did but they do feel clunky and it feels like an effort to pick up pace in them or sustain that pace. There is also EVO SL. I’ve done around 250 KM in them and although I love the transitions I can have in them much less clunky than SB2, I’m not sure if I should completely switch to them and buy them instead of Megablast or Superblast. For reference I ran a 46 minute 10K in evo sl this past Sunday and have done 2 21Ks in them this week.

Thank you so much for your response. Tbh your review did sum up things really well and in profile I’m a similar runner to you (6ft) albeit a bit slower slower but I totally agree with HR being higher for Evo SL part too that you mentioned in the review. I’ve observed this too on my runs. Although I don’t use a heart rate monitor or smartwatch I do feel that evo sl due to maybe it being more of an uptempo shoe keeps my heart rates elevated even when I’m not pushing myself too hard. Could be wrong but I certainly have felt that way switching between SB2 and Evo Sl. I guess Superblast 2 would be the choice then and keeping Evo sl as the secondary shoe to switch to when I’m bored of running in SB2.

I tried the Evo SLs and also found them wildly unstable for me so settled for the Boston 13s. Not quite as snappy but I love them!