Shoes are personal so recommendations are difficult, my feet are not your feet. I've both the Sonicblast and the Novablast 5, I won't be buying another pair of the Sonicblast (too hard/rigid for me, not as quick as the carbons, not as comfy as the Novablast) but I will get more of the novablast great cushioning good all rounder for me, I have over 500 miles on them, a colleague has over 1100 miles on his). I have way too many pairs of running shoes (>15 active pairs) and currently rotate between ASICS carbons (metaspeed Sky and Metaspeed Ray for sessions and races, and the Novablast 5 for my hour or so easy runs).
Gait analysis is bit snake oily for me - bad experiences being told I need stability shoes for overpronation multiple times (maybe salespeople aren't qualified, maybe stability shoes sell for more?), when eventually a more detailed analysis in a sports science facility said my pronation level was normal. Possibly things are better now as this was several years ago, but I'd still probably not get gait analysis done in a shop trying to sell me something based off their analysis - unless it was a hardcore running shop with a great reputation.
Don't wear the Metaspeed Ray for fulls, I made that mistake at Arizona and rolled my ankle. I've worn the Metaspeed line for all my Ironmans and 70.3 the past 2 years. Paris this past season and will wear the Tokyos this season.
I wore them for the first time at Ironman Arizona.
They were super fast but forced me to run a very specific way - on my toes, which is what I normally do.
The problem I ran into was that 2 miles of the loop (which we had to do 3 times) was on an uneven jagged dirt path. These shoes were just not stable enough for this dirt path. I ended up rolling my ankle the 2nd loop and had to do the last 16 miles with a sprained ankle. Still did the run in 3:17 but I'd say the ankle injury outweighed any benefits I got from the shoe. Also turning in them especially on the parts of the course which involved U turns was unstable too.
If the entire course was on concrete, they would have been fine, although I think this shoe is better suited for the half marathon distance or less. For future Ironmans and marathons I will stick with the Tokyos.
I strongly disagree with the guy running 11:30 miles about how they are stable. I was averaging 7:05 miles the first 10 miles of Ironman Arizona and even wondered if I was running too slow for these shoes.
Most people walk a significant portion if not all of the run leg in a 70.3 or full, so they smartly don't waste $300 shoes with a very short lifespan on a race they aren't going to do a lot of running in
I wear Metaspeed Toyko for fulls and Metaspeed Ray for halfs but I ONLY WEAR THEM IN RACES. They have too short of a life span to wear outside of a race setting. No idea why people waste $300 shoes with maybe 100 miles of life in them on a slow training run
1:50 is way above average. At my 70.3s I finish before a lot of athletes are done with the bike, so I watch them come into T2 as I wait for it to open up so I can get my stuff.
You'd be surprised at how many start walking right out of the run start gate.
I have them and love them! I tried the metaspeed sky Tokyo and the midfoot was way too snug for me. Leaving me with my foot hanging over the edge of the foam (similar thing happens with the vaporfly). They are much more accommodating in the midfoot- also note I have had my feet checked at multiple stores and they run narrow if anything. They have similar squish to the adidas pro 4’s and Saucony endorphin elite 2’s. That being said, if you don’t have good mechanics or run fast, they won’t be for you. You have to have strong ankle/ lower leg muscles to make them work as they are super compressive. My last session in them was 16 miles at 6:30ish pace and it felt so much easier than in something more substantial like an Alphafly 3 which I race in frequently. I will admit the plate not going to the end is a strange sensation, like the shoes bends in on itself when you toe off because it’s so flexible. No issues with the foam degrading/upper/or traction from what I have seen so far. Hope this helps!
Metaspeed Ray. They're so comfy and are the fastest super shoes I've used by a noticeable margin. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone without a very strong running background and neutral footstrike though.
I did one 10 mile run with some race pace efforts to feel the shoe out. In my experience most carbon shoes perform great right out of the box so I'm not worried about breaking them in prior to a race. But I do like to do a test run if I plan on racing in a new model.
Daeve42
