Ride 17

It depends on you and your goals. The idea of a rotation is having a comfy, easy, miles shoe. A tempo, interval shoe and a long run shoe. They will be different. Firmer, cushioned, rocker, stable, less stable. Its also about sharing the load to your feet, knees, hips and muscles to prevent injury. I currently use saucony ride 17 for easy, boston 12, interval tempo, and nimbus 27 for long slow runs. They work for me to a degree anyway. So, two or three depending on your routine and goals.

What you wanna do is get two pairs. A stability shoe, brooks glycerin gts or asics gel kayano And stable neutral shoe. Superblast 2 and rotate between both. Always running in stability shoes is not a good idea, but rotation is a good idea. I overpronate on the left foot and get shin splints. I run neutral, saucony ride 17, when I can feel my shin splints starting I switch to stability till healed. Then back.

Saucony ride 17 or 18. Very durable shoes.

hate the 18, 16 and 17 (stocked up 4 pairs, almost done them)

I have the same rotation and am also looking for wide super shoes because of a mild bunion. The Elite v4 irritates my left Achilles due to its hard heel counter. My current rotation further includes the Topo Atmos (wide enough, but not a racing shoe), the EP3 (too narrow), and the Saucony Ride 16 and 17 (Wide). I'm eagerly waiting for the RunRepeat review of the Elite v5, but I might go for the Cloudboom Strike (not the LS version). However, I'm concerned it might also have a problematic heel counter.

The Saucony Ride 17 in navy blue with the brown outsole is fire. I specifically bought it so that after retiring it I would be able to wear it casually.

I'm 6'6" 210, the Ride is a good daily trainer that is really durable. I had 2 pairs of the 17's that lasted 400+ miles.

Are you sure you want softer? If you’ve got pain or soreness, it’s possible that softer will make it worse - maybe due to instability or just allowing your foot to compress and bottom out too much in the hotspots. If any of this resonates, You might want to look into replacement insoles for runners (in my case, PowerSteps are best, but many people like SuperFeet). But if you’re convinced that’s the right move… asics gel nimbus might work for you, I like mine for long slogs compared to Novablast. And I’m not sure if this is the right/direction, but saucony ride might be good answer for you, i kind of like mine but the shape/fit doesn’t suit me as well as asics for very long runs (they’re now my favorites for walking but not running). . In both cases i sorta feel like I’m wearing soft rubber underfoot, instead of cushioned foam. I don’t know better words for this but maybe someone else can describe.

I dont know what the trendy version is (if it's the throwback version, i think that's just colors). I'll lay out all the shoes I have/had so that the context and vocabulary maybe make more sense. I'm 49M, 185lbs, started running around 5 years ago, half marathon races usually between 2:05-2:15, my short run (under 6 mile) paces when actually trying to be quick-ish are between 8:00-9:30, best single mile was 7:00. I actually dont actually care much about pace, i tend to keep myself in z2/z3 (even in races I tend to do nose-breathing only until the last mile or two). Recent Max HR 184 (i think i got to 192 when actually trying a few months ago). Apple health says current vo2max 45 (i dont intentionally do vo2max sessions so i don't know what that might look like). 1- Adidas Evo SL: they make me fast, feel pretty firm but still comfortable, somewhat unstable but I'm not really afraid of twisting an ankle. When I'm done with next marathon, I'll do speed/pace in these. They really do make me faster, I'm surprised by the pace after the runs (i only look at the watch/data when I'm done, i dont manage HR or pace or anything, I just run how i feel). 2- Asics Superblast 2: firm, seem pretty quick. Haven't taken them super long distance but feel consistent throughout the run. I think these will be my main longer distance training and race shoe. 3- Asics Novablast 5: at first feel springy, on longer runs (half marathon and beyond) they seem a bit dead, and I think also past a few hundred miles they lose the snap. I had the 4's, I think the 4's might've actually felt better to me. They just felt fast and springy in the beginning, now I think not really so much. I might give these up, but also thinking whether the 4 was better for me. 4- Asics Gel Nimbus 27: (I also had the 25 and 26). These shoes seem to go forever, not springy but roll forward. Plenty of cushion, never seem to bottom out. I've done a few 20+ mile humid/hot slogs in these, they seem fine. Yes they're soft but I never feel like i'm losing stability. They do feel a little tall (high stack and pretty extreme rocker), I wouldn't want to turn lots of corners in them. I assume these are good for heel strikers. 5- Saucony Tempus: this has the least cushion of any of my shoes, they're stable, I wouldn't think to take them more than 10 miles. These are the most connected I feel to the ground, I mostly used them for hill repeats, fartleks, etc. They also breathe very well. 6- Saucony Ride \[edit: i think the 27\]: kind of like nimbus, feel like they go forever, but the fit is a little loose and the upper mesh gives a little too much for me, so on long runs i felt like my toes were gripping inside to avoid slipping. They're now a walking shoe for me, but the midsole (paint) looks chewed up so i deinitely would NOT buy colored sole version again, i probably wont buy again anyhow. \[edit: they dont roll forward like the gel nimbus, i assume much less rocker\] 7- Nike invincible (i think 1 & 2, or 2 & 3): felt like trampolines in the beginning, then after a few hundred miles were basically dead. Also had quality problems, i'm not going back to these. Shallow in the toe box, i got dead toenails from long runs despite feeling like a good fit with enough space up front. Not buying these anymore. 8- Asics Kayano (i think was the 30): the fit was terrible for me, the shoe felt like a slab of rubber/foam without any thought of actual running (the midsole might be similar material to gel nimbus but superflat for stability). These shoes felt like they're made for old people with wide feet who dont want to run.

I got 800 miles out of Saucony Ride 17 (although I didn’t like Ride 18 as much) I reliably get 500+ out of Nike Pegasus. Got a pair of Evo Sl approaching 500. ASICS Novablast and NB Rebels feel great at first but loose any responsiveness after a couple of hundred miles.