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The Run Testers Podcast | What Are Super Trainers?
2.5k Plays1 year ago
This month on the podcast the team is talking about super trainers; what are they, why would you buy them and what does the future look like in the space?
We'll also be talking about loads of other stuff, from our current training plans to the latest products including kit, running shoes and tech.
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by Saysky and listeners of the podcast will also get a discount to be used to save 15% at the online store: https://saysky.co.uk
Perfect for that Sunday long run.
Big thanks to Fear of Tigers for the killer intro music. You can listen to more of his stuff over at https://www.patreon.com/fearoftigers
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Preview
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey, Tommy from The Run Testers, and welcome to The Run Testers podcast. In this episode, we are going to be talking about lots of stuff, including the training and racing that we're doing at the moment, loads of information on the latest kit coming out, and we're going to be diving into a big talk about super trainers. So those are daily trainers or faster trainers that have a lot of tech in that you'd normally associate with super performance shoes.
Sponsor Spotlight: Seiske
00:00:27
Speaker
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by our friends over at Seiske. Now if you're listening to this or watching this you probably already know about Seiske but if you don't it's a brand that comes from Copenhagen and it designs really nice looking kit. So throughout the year you'll get loads of different colourways, loads of different seasonal designs and if you're into really fashionable looking ribbon kit Seiske is probably a good bet for you.
00:00:52
Speaker
The interesting thing about Seisuke is that it's not just about looks though because a lot of their kit is really well designed for performance and Seisuke have a focus on something they call everyday heroes and that is athletes, sub athletes, anyone really that wants to really get some great looking running kit that is designed for tackling stuff like sweat, the heat, all those things that you need when you're looking for performance in your running kit.
00:01:18
Speaker
The brand was set up in 2013 by Lars Pedersen, the CEO, who was actually a pro windsurfer who wanted to take the ideas of the chilled out vibes that you get in those sorts of sports and bring it into the world of running to make it a little bit more accessible and enjoyable for people to buy a winning kit. Stacy Key has also given us a discount for all of our listeners and readers. So if you want to get 15% off at the online store, you can use the code TRT15 and get yourself some nice kit.
00:01:47
Speaker
Right, let's dive in and do the podcast. Evening, gentlemen. How are you doing? Hello. Hello, evening. Very good. Thank you. You? Very well. Thanks for asking. Just been out for a killer session. Yeah, I see you're looking nice and sweaty. I enjoy the video portion of the podcast for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not off to the shower. I sort of sweat. Oh, right. You just stamp. I'm not coming straight in from a run. I'm not coming in fresh.
00:02:16
Speaker
No, good, good. Well, I might as well jump in. I talked a bit about training, but let's jump into what we're all up to at the moment.
Kieran's 100-Mile Berlin Wall Ultra Training
00:02:25
Speaker
Kieran, what's your vibe at the moment? Well, I'm now what I think about three weeks away from doing the 100 mile Berlin Wall Ultra. So it's an ultra 100 miles long, 160 kilometers that tracks the
00:02:40
Speaker
where the Berlin Wall once stood. So it's the Berlin Wall Trail. So I am basically just getting lots of miles in each week, as many as I can, lots of long and slow. And my last major kind of training exercise, I'm going to try and run for 24 hours, but running something like two or three miles every hour for 24 hours to basically recreate the conditions of being sleep deprived, essentially, just get used to that running through the night. So I'll do about 50 miles and then
00:03:09
Speaker
but over 24 hours. Is it all road, this Berlin Wall Trail, I assume? Right. It's all very flat. There is some sort of light off-road, but most of it, there's quite a lot of tarmac from what I understand. Yeah. So yeah, it's quite urban. In fact, you get very, very big penalty time, penalties and punishments if you don't stop.
00:03:32
Speaker
and obey the green man. Oh, really? The ample man. Yeah, the ample man. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. You're getting very into these road alters, Kirid. Well, I like the flat, Tom. Every time I've been to a mountain, it's handed me my arse and I much prefer just truncling along the flat. This is a good one. There can never be. This is a fast, 100-mile course to set a nice time you'll never be able to beat in the mountains, I guess.
00:04:02
Speaker
It ought to be, yeah. So for me, I'll be very happy if I can finally, or basically this is the second time I've done 100 get round in under 24 hours. That would be the end of the story.
00:04:11
Speaker
You get a special belt buckle if you do. They take it away if you disobeyed one traffic signal. Exactly. Just one belt buckle. It's not different belt buckles for different time. No, there's just one belt buckle. Actually, one says 100 miles in a day and the other one doesn't. So you want the one that says 100 miles in a day or whatever the German for that is.
00:04:38
Speaker
I think this penalty is for bad German as well. So that's it then. You're not planning your next one because it's not very far away. No, I'll get round that one and we'll see where we go after that. Meet someone else after the race who gives you an idea about another race to go to.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, so you basically just daisy-chain the races from... Come and do the Orion Ultramate. That's the really big one. Well, yeah. Is it hilly though? That's the question. No, it's flat. No, no, it's flat. I think it's only like... I think in each five-mile loop, it's only 100 meters. So you're doing about 1,000. You're doing about 1,100 total.
00:05:16
Speaker
Okay. I know that. Well, let's talk about your big training plan for the Ultra then,
Nick's Trail Running Plans in Gower
00:05:26
Speaker
Nick. Well, I'm not really in a plan. I'm still in fairly new kids, quite relaxed running stage. I'm doing a couple of sessions a week doing
00:05:33
Speaker
My mileage is creeping up again after my various Achilles things doing a lot of car phrases. I'll tell you that lads, doing a lot of car phrases. And just generally looking after myself. I am going away for a week to the gower, which is going to be a lot of nice trail runs. I was planning to do my, a really long run there for like a practice for the thing, do like a 50K. But I do want something quite interesting to test for that. And I was going to use a Nike ultra fly and it hasn't landed yet. And now it's kind of like, well, maybe I'll just wait and do that with an interesting shoot. Otherwise I'll probably just, I don't know, I might just go back and get out the speed goat or something.
00:06:03
Speaker
won't do those views, will it? The old speed go. So, but yeah, I do love the Gower. It's one of my, I think I did a 30k run last time I was there. It was the most beautiful run thing I've ever done in my life. I think the weather's not going to be as good this time, but I'm still planning to do, plan is to do quite a lot of nice trail running there and do maybe a 50k one day, which would be the longest distance and time I've ever run. So it'd be quite an interesting thing to do anyway, in a very nice spot to do it.
00:06:29
Speaker
and the airbnb is a hot tub so it seems like a good time to do this kind of thing but yeah at the same time just muchin just muchin really it's quite a relaxed summer very relaxed
00:06:40
Speaker
first year I've known you where you haven't got a big marathon coming up in the autumn? No, yeah, I'll do the half, I'll do my club championship half marathon the week before the ultra. Do the ultra. Plashe? Plashe, the big one. Plashe half, great race in Essex. But it's, I mean, at the moment, anything can get cancelled any day depending on what's going on. And I don't want to have the stress of trying to fit in really intense training. So London 24 will be my next big marathon attempt, I think.
00:07:02
Speaker
As you, Tom, you're finally fit at doing the sessions again now. I wouldn't say fit. Yeah, you're not fit. I can run properly now, but I'm struggling. I'm struggling. I'm getting back there. I don't think I'm at my speediest over a short distance, but yeah, I'm hitting it hard at the moment now, training six days a week. Nice. And Berlin... Yeah, it's a long session. It's straight back into them. And no, in Berlin, you're still, so Berlin's back on now. Berlin's fully on.
00:07:31
Speaker
I'm fully set on it. But PB, do you think now? Or do you think you've lost too much time? I think a PB is possible. I originally wanted a sub 250. I think I've lost too much time to go for that. So I'd be happy with a sub 3, but I might claw my way to a 254.
00:07:51
Speaker
which would be a PB.
Tom's Berlin Marathon Goal
00:07:52
Speaker
Interesting, interesting. What shoe are you using? Do you know yet? You already had to start these doubts yet? I've put a fair bit of doubt in your head just before Chicago last year. Well, it's a bit, well, there's, I don't, we don't know about any of the shoes getting released, race shoes coming up over the next couple of months, so. Won't be much now. I think everyone's done for the year. Potentially there'll be new balance, haven't done, but they usually later. I, from what
00:08:14
Speaker
I don't have entitled knowledge on this, so it's not like I'm scooping or anything, but I don't think Adidas are planning to update, necessarily, this year. So, I don't know. Well, you really don't know. What are you going to use for Berlin, Kieran? Both in Berlin. I like different distances. Well, I might shock you here because I'm seriously thinking about using the Kinvara Pro.
00:08:35
Speaker
Oh wow, that is a shock. That's a long way to wear the Kamara Pro. And do you know why though? Because I feel like that extra bit of cushioning that it gives.
00:08:46
Speaker
I don't know. I've got a feeling like it might just be the right shoe for that distance. Later on into that hundred mile, you need something that is going to feel a bit soft and a bit mushier. So it's on the list. But also I'm thinking of maybe even the Triumph 21 for something a little bit firm. I might even go for two shoes and change out halfway. So you've got something that's a bit
00:09:07
Speaker
bit more racy if you want to call it that at the beginning and then something that's a bit sort of softer and more protective towards the end. Or I might just go back and I might just go back and do basically because I trust it. I might just go back to the Speed 3. Oh okay. You wouldn't do the Elite, Adulter Elite for that distance you reckon then?
00:09:25
Speaker
I don't think it's going to protect enough towards the end, no. I feel like that's the 55 margin. And they're pretty beaten up. Also, you know, there's others, Mac 5 maybe even, something like that. All those shoes are a consideration. You've got to have something that is nice and wide in the toe box as well though.
00:09:45
Speaker
My bet for you was the back X, but I didn't think about the toe box actually, so yeah. Yeah, I think that'll be a bit too cramped. Yeah, it's going to be a difficult one, but yeah. People who have lost your nitro too, I'll say it now, just so the people who get really angry at how I mention it can get angry. Well, I could edit that out because I can't handle it. I'm tempted to do this 50k in Gower Inn actually now, just to wind people up.
00:10:10
Speaker
All right, well, before we jump on to running kit news, let's do... He's got a little smile. What have you got for this week, Tom? I've been playing around. I've basically run out of running facts. I'm saving the celebrity marathon times. I've just got some marathon quiz questions for you. Okay. Running quiz questions. Right. And they're not necessarily the sort of questions that you might expect
00:10:39
Speaker
to be in like, for people that are obsessed with running, they're more like general running ones. So let's, first one, in the 1994 movie, Forrest Gump, how long does Forrest Gump keep running for? Nine months. It's distant, time. I don't think I ever gave a distance. It's like the whole country, isn't it? Yeah, nine months. It's across and back, isn't it? It goes twice, doesn't it? Well, is it just like a year, exactly a year, maybe? I was thinking about Forrest Gump the other day, actually.
00:11:06
Speaker
How long? The other day I saw the guy who became the real life Forrest Gump popped up on my Twitter as well. So it was a guy who actually became the first person to follow the course as it would have been. But I can't remember how long he ran for it. It was over a year, I feel. I'll go for 18 months. Three years and two months. There you go. Miles off. Mike would have got that. Yeah, Mike did it. Mike would just Forrest Gump every weekend though.
00:11:37
Speaker
Gump must have done it slower then. This guy was definitely quicker than that, I think. I think Gump took the Eddie Izzard approach of stopping to chat to everyone and then just basically make sure he was running constantly because he had to stop constantly to talk to people. Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, the quiz question in a bit.
Running Gear Releases and Super Trainers Discussion
00:12:00
Speaker
Okay, so running kit news. It's been a little bit quiet, I think it's safe to say at the moment. Sometimes we have a massive influx of new things, but it's not been really- There's loads of super trainers, but not much else, I guess. And we'll talk about them later, sorry.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, let's dive in. I'm going through the list of what we've been through here, some of these things I don't actually know about. So what's this UYN Italian kit? Yeah, well, it's actually, it's got a very strange, I mean, the name, when I first heard about it, it's basically, it's new to me as well. It's an Italian brand. They're not very big in the UK. They're trying to grow the market. And it's spelled UYN, but it's actually pronounced win.
00:12:39
Speaker
And they do quite a lot of high performance apparel, basically. Lots of cycling, but also crossover into running for road running and trail running. Talking about kind of base layers, base layer shorts, socks, that kind of thing. And for me, I think it's quite interesting. The socks are toe socks, a bit like in gingis. I can't get on with those at all. Can't get them on my feet. But the products I've got in for testing, I think are interesting to me because they have this sort of same sort of technical fibers and fabric. It's a very close match to me for XBionic.
00:13:08
Speaker
So obviously the big Swiss brand that do really high tech kind of heat gear and cool gear for running that are quite popular with the Desert Ultras and that. So that's why this has sort of sparked my attention. It's very soft, very thick fabrics though. So I know Nick, you've had a few of them into, you've actually had a run in them. Yeah, I've been using the, I use a t-shirt for a couple of runs and it's like a base layer style t-shirt. It's like a real tight one. And I've actually taken to using it a lot on the indoor bike now. So maybe that's partly because it's good for, you know,
00:13:36
Speaker
Keeping you cool and the very sweaty environment there, but I've got the trail running shorts in because and they have two zip pockets on the side of the thigh Which is rare to see and a little bit of a little bit of a treat after say who's in pockets We know we know we have dropping pockets on shorts on the side and the thighs that they're dropping but with zips
00:13:54
Speaker
Wow, secure. It's so secure, so I mean, it's not actually that easy to undo zips on the run, but these are very well-made zips, so it's okay. But yeah, it's interesting stuff. I also, I mean, we've been sending pictures of our feet, I've been sending pictures of feet to the group because I have insane toes that, I say toe socks are a bit tricky for me, but I'm going to do my best to get them on at some point. I think I'll give toe socks a miss.
Tech Talk: New Gear Reviews
00:14:18
Speaker
All right, Corus has got a new heart rate monitor out. I haven't got these. No, Kieran, you've got mine.
00:14:25
Speaker
I've got two. I've been wearing yours to test yours for you, Tom, as well. Yeah. Oh, thank you very much. Double double straps as well. Yeah. It's an armband monitor, which is, you know, it's always a bit interesting because chest strap is still the most accurate just because it's using electrical signals. But it's a, you know, they're a bit easier for some people, armbands. I mean, I do like the fact basically it turns on automatically when you pull it on. There's no buttons. It's got a decent standby battery. It connects very easily. I've used it now for a run.
00:14:49
Speaker
run and a bike ride and it has been a track for it run this was as well and it was literally beat for beat with a heart rate chest strap so you know when you've got an optical monitor on the arm i think it works quite well even with my pipe cleaner arms things you've got more muscle is even more accurate so it's just an interesting thing to come out because i know it's quite expensive you know it's 79 and i still you know when i'm when i'm looking at these i don't mind wearing a chest strap i suppose some people might just really hate it but i think it's a quite a it's quite a high price point it seems like a good product but
00:15:19
Speaker
Polar's Verity Sense is cheaper than that, and that's always been very reliable for me as well. Is it a bit cheaper, Polar's Verity Sense? I think it is. No, it's a little bit more. It's... RRP is 99, so it's a little bit shorter. Oh, I think you can hit price. Okay, yeah, so that's... Mike undercuts that, and it's a similar job. Yeah.
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah. But it's, and it's got slightly longer battery life, this as well, but it's a bit chunkier than the Verity Sense, isn't it? It's like a bit bulkier, but... Looks like a whoop in many ways, but it's much more accurate than a whoop, which is good because I've had a whoop quite poor on accuracy. I do like it, the fact you just pick it up and put it on and it turns on and that, and connects. And, you know, there's no fussing, which is quite nice. But,
00:15:58
Speaker
I'm going to take it away and use it all this week when I'm away and not bother with the heart rate strap because I have to change the coin battery and my heart rate strap, which is always a bit of a faff, which obviously you don't get with this, but you do have to charge it more often than replace a coin battery. Lovely. OK, Garmin updates. Garmin update. Yeah.
00:16:14
Speaker
Have we got a Garmin update? Did you put this down? I did, and I have to confess, I don't know all the details. What I do know is that I've got a lot of emails for different models of Garmin. 955. Oh, software updates. Yeah, basically. So there's new running dynamics kind of features and mapping and various bits and pieces, depending on which Garmin you already own.
00:16:36
Speaker
you can get access to different updates that are coming down. So things like the Hill Score and Endurance Score. Yeah, and they've rolled them back quite far, like to the 955 is good because that is the watch we think is the best for me. Is it to the 955? Yeah, the 955 is still getting stuff, which is really good. Very nice. And it is a bit of a departure from what we've seen from Garmin in the past, I'd say, because they've not always been the best at that. Is that going to make the Phoenix 7 as good as the Phoenix 7 Pro? Yes.
00:17:06
Speaker
Oh, should have got the Phoenix 7. I talked with you this several times on your line. Could have watched the 20 videos we did about the watch on the channel where you refused to, had no part in it. No, I wasn't interested. Wait, actually no, what size Phoenix 7 Pro did you get? 47.
00:17:23
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, that would know what you wouldn't be because you wouldn't get the flashlight and you love the flashlight, Tom, so the flashlight. Oh, thank goodness. Yeah, I've made the right choice. There's not a lot of sunlight at the moment anyway, so I'm really making the best of it. All right, then. Shock's open fit. We've got a review up on the channel now of the open fit. It's an interesting one. It's causing a lot of comments and debate.
00:17:44
Speaker
because I think it's quite an interesting concept, but one that people aren't quite sure about yet, especially considering the price. It's a hefty, hefty cost for these. What did you guys think to these in the review? When we and Kieran did this review together, I think we both kind of end up at the same place, but with quite different standards. I love these headphones. I think they're great, but the compromises you make at the price makes it a really hard sell. And then a lot of people, Kieran didn't get on with their fit and stuff, did you?
00:18:15
Speaker
not huge, you know, I found them a little bit, they wobbled around a little bit more than I would like. And then yeah, then you've got the kind of the sound is much kind of more full, it's much louder than the bone conductors. But then it kind of cancels out the idea of the awareness, which is one of the reasons to be buying this kind of form factor. So I just found them it's a bit confusing about the why basically, why would you want them? And and then as Nick said, when you lump in that price, it just it feels like you're making a few too many compromises for that spend. But
00:18:41
Speaker
When I was testing these out for the first few runs it was really windy and I had the volume up full and I couldn't hear anything because as soon as you get wind in them you can't hear anything but when there's no wind they're quite loud so I didn't for the first few runs I was thinking these are these are really quiet.
00:18:58
Speaker
But then as soon as the wind was gone, I suddenly realized actually that it's quite loud. So there's definitely some things that there's times when they work quite well in times where they don't. But I understand what you're saying about that awareness thing, because I was just out running in the park and somebody shouted at me from the running club and I couldn't hear him, which might as well have normal headphones on. One thing I haven't tested yet, though, is how loud they are if you're if somebody else is wearing them.
00:19:23
Speaker
Can you hear that sound? They don't leak very much. I tried that with people around and like most shocks are actually aren't too bad on that, but they're pretty slightly better than bone conduction on that. But yeah, I really like a bit choice. Looking at the choice out there, like, for example, this I'm about to go away for a week. I'm going to need open headphones and I just I'm going to take the open run. I prefer the open run. I prefer this.
00:19:44
Speaker
you know the feel of them the sound is not much better on the well the sound is a lot better on the um open fit but not better enough that makes me so i'll take you know the open run and then probably a set of linear headphones or something like that or uh so yeah it's uh i i really like them got on them really well i thought they're fantastic i thought oh it's brilliant it's the nicest fit i've had in these and then you guys all started saying oh the fit's not really working that well i was like oh this is just a
00:20:08
Speaker
I like the fit. It fit me well, but I don't like the fact that I can't feel them on my ears. I like to know I've got headphones on, because I'm constantly worried that I've dropped one all the time. If I've not got them on, I'm constantly checking my ears to see if it's fallen off. Which I suppose is not a bad problem to have, that you don't notice them on your ears. I like the band of the shocks, because I know where it is.
00:20:35
Speaker
There we go. I also found the battery life drained far quicker and I think Mike had a few problems with that as well that he reported and that was another thing for me. It seemed to burn through a lot of juice pretty quickly. You and Mike are the bass boys and you got rid of the battery life quite quickly I think because I was most listening to podcasts it was all right but when I did have a couple of days listening to music it did certainly drain a bit quicker.
00:21:00
Speaker
All right then, so this isn't a new one, but it's new to you Nick and you will not shut up about it.
ASICS Superblast Praise
00:21:07
Speaker
The A6 Superblast. Yeah, Superblast. The shoe that's I think finally made me like stupidly high stack shoes. It's just brilliant, isn't it? I think it just does. It does everything. It does do everything. It's really comfortable. You can go any pace in it.
00:21:25
Speaker
I took it down the track and I openly gushed after 200 metres of a rep going, you can't feel anything in this too. Obviously it's a ridiculously high stack. I'd really know how fast I was running. Oh, look at 200 metres. It feels quite controlled. I can't feel that very quickly to slow down for the rest of the rep. But I do think it's a really nice all rounder shoe, really expensive, like a real luxury shoe. It's one of those shoes that, there's a lot of shoes we get on, things like the Camaro Pro, I don't care, might use it for 100 mile per hour. I don't really see why you're spending 200 quid on this shoe. I don't really know what does.
00:21:52
Speaker
I do super blast. The answer is just simply it is really fun to run in the shoe and to do almost anything. And that is enough to make really maybe some people who got disposable income and have this insane enthusiasm for shoes to go and buy it because it does make a lot of runs really fun. But yeah, we'll probably do some versus. So I get because obviously, Tommy, you've had it for a while and done the reviews, but it's a really interesting shoe. And it's a
00:22:13
Speaker
It's almost, you can see now why ASICs refuses to put that foam across the rest of its training line. It's only in the Superblast, but that's their next card to play, I guess. If they next up, when they next up at the Metaspeed, we'll see the Nimbus, the Carno, I guess all starting to get this turbo foam. And because it's not an unstable foam, but it is very bouncy. So it is kind of the best of both worlds. Give it in the Super foam world in that it's just not, you know, it doesn't feel like it only belongs on carbon shoes. Can do a bit of everything, really.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great shoe. Very nice. Not sure Kieran would like it. I don't know, because it doesn't feel like you'd expect it to feel when you look at it. It's because it isn't squishy, I don't think. It is just bouncing. Should I be thinking about the 100 miler in it? Should we just bounce around? I'll be at the top of my list for a 100 miler. You've got enough shoes on your choice list. Generally, that would be the shoe I take if I was doing it right now, yeah. Although it's, I don't know if they've got the regs in your race, because it is above regulations.
00:23:09
Speaker
I'm glad you've got them because you know when you're testing loads of shoes, one that you really like, if you get loads of shoes and you're testing them, you sort of forget about it, it falls down in the pile and you don't pick up. So recently, I've been picking up the met speed quite a lot, and I'm getting back into that now because I'm doing a lot more faster sessions, intervals and stuff like that, and I'd forgotten about the Super Blast completely, and now I'm marathon training, doing a lot longer runs. I'm gonna pull it back out again, because when I was testing it before, I wasn't marathon training.
00:23:36
Speaker
I do feel Essex is having a really good year, actually, broadly speaking. I was thinking about it the other day because, you know, last year, we all raved about what Saucony was doing. We thought they had a really good year and they still got a few cars to play this year, I'm sure. But Essex this year feels like it's really nailing high cushion shoes that aren't
00:23:53
Speaker
Annoying to run in I guess like even the gel Nimbus gel card are quite enjoyable shoes to run in you know I don't really think about the stack in the same way I have with other high stack shoes and and Then they've got the magic speed 3 which I think is a terrific plated alternative to the full super shoes Metaspeed hasn't been updated But it's still just you know one of the best carbon shoes so and the super blast is just in a slightly different Category and league of its own so yeah, I think they're having a really strong year all around
00:24:17
Speaker
Mm, I would agree. I would agree.
Nike Vomero 16 First Impressions
00:24:19
Speaker
Right, so from a brand that's having a really strong year to one that may be a little bit more questionable, Nike. What's going on? Well, we've just got some cushion shoes in from Nike, and the Romero is really interesting. Kieran, you've run in that. Oh, yeah, I'm keen to hear it because I've got it in, too, and I'm looking forward to using it. What have you been finding with that?
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah so I went out last night in it actually and I've got a cold so I didn't really want to run but I had the thing that I had to go to. So it's one of those where you you know I was basically dragging myself around London and I was just hoping and praying the shoe I've just put on is going to give me some help and
00:24:50
Speaker
and make it a more pleasant experience. Initially I'd found it a little bit soft and a little bit soggy. I was hoping that it would, you know, the cushioning just a little bit sinky for my liking. And then after a couple of miles, actually I just got into the role with it. And I actually found there was, there's just about enough kind of, it's more, it's like bounce basically coming back from the Zoom X. There's a little bit of punch coming back from it, which is, it's just enough to cancel out that initial kind of sort of slightly soggy landing.
00:25:18
Speaker
And overall, I mean, the rest of it, you know, it's super plush, sort of the uppers wrap nicely, super comfortable. All of that kind of step in stuff is there and exactly what you want in a shoot that you're going to go and do.
00:25:30
Speaker
you know, long slow plods in, which I think is what this shoe is kind of aimed at. And by the end of the run, I found myself actually enjoying just clipping over nice and easy. I was running very sort of slow, really low paces. And I felt like I could run on in it. So I did about 10Ks in the end. So it was sort of very early impressions.
00:25:49
Speaker
It's a bit more, you know, if you, if you're thinking about other easy shoes or whatever, you know, I put the sort of Nimbus and all these in this in the category there, it feels a bit more traditional as well. It's not, it doesn't feel hugely high stacked, you know, it's, it feels in the whole.
00:26:02
Speaker
the silhouette of the shape. It feels a bit more like a traditional running shoot, but with a bit of... Yeah, I think I looked at the stack. It did surprise me how high it was. It looks like the Pegasus to me. It does look at a very similar shaping to it and that. I think it's a bit higher, but it's like the least heralded of all of Nike's cushion shoes. The one they seem to put this figure some, but it looks the best to me on paper just because
00:26:21
Speaker
infinity we've just started running and they've changed to make it really heavy and the foam is lost it's I think the infinity had a pleasurable firmness to it that you could actually use the rocker and it just meant yeah the ride was all about the rocker and just rolling along whereas now they've made it a foam that's more energy returning but it's squishier and you get lost in it it's muddy and it's really heavy and
00:26:41
Speaker
I only done one run of it, more testing, but I wasn't that impressed. Invincible 3, we all thought, Kieran, you just hate it entirely, but we also thought it was better than worse than the Invincible 2, which I think was really fun, so you had to not bounce to it. It seems to have lost that with the third one, and the Pegasus is fine, but you know, it's just fine. The Vomero, yeah, on paper looks like it, you know, it's got that zoom X in the mid-cell, proper zoom X, not recycled zoom X, and then a layer of the old Kushlon foam underneath for hopefully a nice dual density effect, so it doesn't get too mushy by having just all zoom X like on the Invincible.
00:27:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting. I'm quite excited. I'm not going to take that away to use any on any road running I do while I'm away or off the trails are very dry. I'll take it on there as well. But yeah, it's quite a quiet release compared to some of the others. I think you could have hit the nail there, Nick. That's kind of what I was trying to say with a lot of the other shoes you've seen come along. They feel like a lot of shoe. There's quite a lot going on, you know, when you put on
00:27:28
Speaker
even the old infinites I haven't tried the new ones but and that's why I didn't like the invincible it just feels interruptive to me it's like a I'm very aware of it and I think this one actually is more disappearing overall it just feels a little bit less but still cushioned and I yeah I'm really interested to do more miles in it actually
00:27:47
Speaker
yeah and it's also not outrageously heavy which i know weight isn't everything in shoes but nike has got a bit of a thing going on with weight lately where they just whack 50 grams onto the next version of a shoe and it's like that significantly changes the character of a shoe like um and it just it was just really surprising yeah i just i just
00:28:05
Speaker
I know. I mean, obviously, it can't be an issue on the market at large. Maybe we just pick kind of people who overrate this kind of thing. But it just really surprised me with the infinity in particular to see it suddenly jump so much in weight on what was already a reasonably heavy shoe. All right. Well, do you want to finish this section with a quiz question? Do I? Yeah. OK. OK. The athletes in the Chariots of Fire were taking part in which Olympic Games? Hmm. Ooh.
00:28:34
Speaker
Good question. Pretty tough one. Pretty tough old question there, Tom. How's it a guess? 1952. Yeah, I was going to say 50 somewhere. 1924, Paris, France. I did think it was Paris, France, but I thought maybe I was thinking about when the film came out. I don't know when it even came out rather than when actually it was set. 80s came out.
00:29:04
Speaker
Good to know. I've not actually seen it, if I'm honest. I know the story of the guy. Well, I would imagine that would be your favourite film. Nah. All I want is a film about that marathon I sent you both, about the marathon at the 1904 Olympics, where
00:29:20
Speaker
like they the guy like who won originally had a lift in the car and was waving spectators for some of it and then they had to cancel it and the guy who actually won was carried over the line while they moved his feet like he was running and would be dosed up on strychnine throughout the race as a performance dancer and yeah it's it that's the one I want to talk about I'm obsessed with this.
00:29:38
Speaker
There's so many things, or any article you read about it, it does sound like a Will Ferrell film, where there's a cast of characters. There's just one guy cutting the legs of his trousers at the start line going, maybe I should be in shorts. They just got two African guys who happened to be in there. You can run a marathon.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it was the winner as well, he ended up with a really bad stomach because he was stealing, he was scrumping apples along the way because there was no hydration on the course because they wanted to test what happened to people in extreme conditions without hydration and it was a really dusty road so they all choked up their guts. There's got to be some sort of documentary that exists for this. I know, yeah. I'm really keen to find out and if not, I'll write a spec script to send it in. It's going to happen. It sounds like Netflix should be definitely on that one.
00:30:24
Speaker
All right, let's jump onto different gear.
00:30:38
Speaker
Okay, guys, so super trainers, a term that is, to be honest, I've never heard it
Understanding Super Trainers
00:30:44
Speaker
before. This is what you call them, Nick, but they're essentially versatile shoes with a lot of fancy tech in them. Yeah, basically, I think they're shoes that started as training partner shoes, like the first batch of them were things like the Endorphin Speed 3. They were designed to be used as your
00:30:59
Speaker
training partner to a full carbon shoe, and they basically brought elements of the tech in carbon super shoes to training shoes. So super foams, you know, the lightest bounces phones that brands have plates in particular, obviously rods with Adidas. And that's how I think of them super trainers are basically
00:31:16
Speaker
choose your use for training that have elements of super shoe technology in them. It's getting harder to specify them though because early on it was they were fast shoes and now actually people are really going down the more the all-rounder route with them and actually almost designing these trainers to use for easy runs more than anything else and
00:31:32
Speaker
It's getting a bit nebulous. I do even have to have a plate in them like the ASIC super blast. I kind of consider a super trainer, but it doesn't have a plate in it, but it does have ASIC's best foam. And then there's things like the Hoka Bondi X, which I don't know what that shoe is for, but I guess it's kind of a super trainer in a sense. So it's getting more nebulous, but yeah, the overall overarching concept is you're getting shoes from
00:31:51
Speaker
Basically brands have these very expensive shoes that were quite a niche item. I think they thought this technology will apply really well to trainers and we'll sell a lot more of them as well. So now we've got these super trainers or I guess plated trainers is another word if you are excluding stuff without plates, but or as you call them daily super shoes, Tom.
00:32:09
Speaker
But yeah, they're now massive area on the market and some of I think the best shoes available are in this area. Hmm. That's a trick. It's interesting you bring up things like the Bondi X. There is an element of this where just putting in some technology in a shoe is very marketable these days. Just saying, oh, we've put a plate in it. I could keep doing it by putting X on the end of shoes and sticking a plate in. Doesn't necessarily always work or need to be done. So
00:32:36
Speaker
Kieran, what are they designed to do, these super trainers? Yeah, so I think Nick's covered off a few of the points here. They started out, some of them were being kind of partners to the marathon kind of racing shoes. And I guess when those initial plated shoes, super shoes came out for racing, a lot of them weren't particularly durable. So I think these kind of started to fill a gap where you had a shoe that could handle more kind of daily mileage.
00:32:59
Speaker
some of those other shoes, although now those sort of top end shoes actually go for longer as well. I think we sort of store a lot of people were basically spending quite a lot of money buying what we would consider ratios and actually using them for training as well. So I guess the big thing overall is these are designed to improve efficiency and running economy, right? We're looking at getting efficiency gains so that you can do all of your training
00:33:23
Speaker
or your racing and you can end it with your legs less beaten up so that you can train again and get more out of your training. That's essentially what they're designed to do. And I think initially you sort of think about these being shoes that you're using for your sort of top end sort of training sessions. So your faster runs, your faster sessions.
00:33:41
Speaker
but actually I think they've broadened out. And I overall, you know, I'm quite happy to run in a plated daily trainer across a whole range of my runs, everything from really kind of slow and easy and long up to short and fast as well. And so they're starting to feel, I think, a far bigger sort of remit. And I even think, and some people will drop down when I sort of say this, they might not agree, but you can race in a lot of these shoes now, I would argue, you know, we're talking about margins, but there are many shoes on the market. I think lots of people could take
00:34:11
Speaker
and run a marathon in as well as doing all their training. To me, they kind of start to fit this role of a shoe that can do almost everything.
00:34:19
Speaker
and give you added efficiency. Yeah, I agree with that. I almost think that the popularity and the performance of these maybe even took brands by surprise, because everyone, when you pull on a carbon sheet for the first time, like the original Vaporfly, it also just feels amazing. You are very fast, but it also feels amazing. So the idea is, oh, they want to sell that feeling every day. You get that feeling every day. And actually, like you say, they end up being shoes that you do use kind of for everything as a result, because they are, you can just use them for everything. And then they've now probably started to try and
00:34:48
Speaker
make them more niche again, having initially gone for that all rounder appeal, and now they're pretty keen to have them in a box. So there's more of a rotation available. And I mean, I guess I guess for me, the obvious sort of example, which I'll bang on any given opportunities, is the Danube, you know, a lot of people said to me what you're going to run the Danube in the speed three, which is obviously a plated
00:35:05
Speaker
the early sort of play to choose and it just worked perfectly for that and it worked across all kind of paces that I was running and it was it did the right kind of job and I think yeah that that's where for me the sort of versatility kicks in as an example of this doesn't necessarily have to be just used for when you're doing your all-out intervals.
00:35:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's difficult with these shoes because with cardboard shoes, for cardboard race shoes, you know what the desired use for those shoes is straight away. Nobody's designing cardboard super shoes to run slowly. But these new daily ones, it's a bit harder. And as a consumer, it's quite difficult to pick up these shoes because I think most people would still look at these shoes and go, oh, that's a fast training shoe. But it's not really the case now because I would, you'd probably class shoes like
00:35:48
Speaker
It even goes far to say that the Invincible is in some ways one of these super trainers because it's got the highest end technology that Nike's got and a lot of it in there. And it's very specifically designed to do something that goes beyond what you'd find in most running shoes.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yeah, they are really hard to classify. To me, I think they've got to be able to go fast at times to really hit the box for me. But there are some that are coming out that are purely even ones of place in that are designed much more for easier. And I guess the design part of it is that they are more approachable, more accessible to people than carbon shoes, not only because of price, but they're more stable, more durable.
00:36:27
Speaker
better suited to style paces probably for some people. So there is a lot of that going as well. It's almost democratizing it. But we'll come on to talking about you know, whether that they still have value as, as those kind of shoes, because some of them, I think democratize it so much, they don't really end up much different to just a normal old fashioned cushion shoe, which will probably cost you half the price.
00:36:47
Speaker
All right, well, let's talk about going up against traditional trainers.
Super Trainers vs Traditional Trainers: What's the Difference?
00:36:53
Speaker
How do they differ? Really, like I was talking about at the top, they've got just some of that tech from the top shoes in there. So traditional, generally, brands would have a different racing shoe to the rest of their lineup. I mean, in the old days, it probably wasn't that much different. It was just a lot less foam and stripped back. But when the VapeFly came out,
00:37:09
Speaker
that was all that stuff in that was confined to the vapor fly, the plate, the zoom x foam, then the plate went to the zoom fly, they started to introduce zoom, zoom x foam to other shoes. And that's really what how they differ, I guess from in the past, you'd have a trainer which would be built for to be comfortable, you know, durable, relaxing, but now people are happy to spend a bit more and get a shoe that has the foam and the plates and the rods and the geometry and speed roll geometry in case of sock any things like that, that
00:37:35
Speaker
has that stuff that's come directly from the carbon racing shoes and is now being brought to training shoes. And I played devil's advocate here with you. If you take something like the Hockemak 5, fantastic shoe for very versatile shoe, you can do a lot of stuff with it. There are various of these super trainers out there. I would still pick the Hockemak 5 over many of these super trainers. Does that suggest that there's not a massive difference between what you're going to get from having some of this technology in it?
00:38:05
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I think this was the year I thought super trainers were going to go interstellar and become everywhere, but I think almost they might be in danger of jumping the shark, because I do think actually some of the early ones that were absolutely amazing, like the Endorphins B3, we all laughed. I thought that was what they were all going to be like, and that isn't the case at all. And actually, when you look at more simple shoes, a lot of them do really good jobs. And I certainly would agree with you, Tom. I don't think they're necessarily outperforming trainers as a rule. It really depends on the individual shoes.
00:38:34
Speaker
And they're definitely more expensive. Yeah, actually, they're the big difference. Yeah, they're like twice the price. No, they're already, yeah, they're a fair bit priceier.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah. The other thing that I look at as well is when you think about them in comparison to, I guess, the super sort of race shoes, is that they're shoes that when you look at them, you do feel a little bit more like, well, actually, every day I want to put this on where there's plenty of the carbon ratios where you think I can wear this for the three hours or whatever I'm going to try and smash this marathon out in. And I'll, you know, I'll basically that's OK, but I don't want to be putting that on every day. And I think they sort of bridge the gap with that. So you look at it.
00:39:07
Speaker
even around the heel collars and the tongues and everything's a little bit more kind of plush and approachable. And then I think the Mac X is a great example of where maybe that doesn't quite do that. When you look at the Mac 5, is it much more, is it should you look at much more readily and sort of think I've, for every day I want to wear that over and above the Mac X, which to me is a bit kind of stripped back as well. So yeah, it's all, for me, again, it's getting a bit kind of muddied where that sort of daily comfort for daily sessions
00:39:34
Speaker
It's not necessarily happening with all of those shoes either. Yeah, and also a lot of the carbon shoes now are better for, you can actually just pull them on a lot of them. If they haven't got too aggressive an upper or too limited an outsole, there are certainly some of those that you could pull on every day. And I think a lot of people are doing that. And that's probably one of the reasons again, they introduced these supertrains. But I do think
00:39:53
Speaker
It's definitely that approachability, certainly. Because even with some of them that I really like, like the Boston and the Magic Speed 3, they almost feel too racey, like an upper and a fit for a trainer for me. And that's something that does differentiate them from the race and choose a lot. They should try and make them a bit more approachable.
00:40:09
Speaker
Well, I've just, I do a lot of intervals and fartleks and stuff at the moment. And I still, even though I've got lots of these super trainers, I generally will go, if I've got a hard session, I will still go for a complaint ratio. And when I go out, if I'm just going to have an easy run, an hour long, easy run, hour and a half, easy run, that's when I'll pick these shoes up. So I'm not, I don't know if I'm using them to the extent that,
00:40:33
Speaker
the technology suggests I should use them. Because what I look for in these, if you look at the Mac X and things like that is, I want to go out, I want to have a nice fun run, probably not going to run that fast, might run a little bit faster, but not much more than that. And I think that probably doesn't justify the cost of the technology that's in it.
00:40:50
Speaker
Well, I think there is a bit of a problem with real world usage with these shoes is that a lot of people now have a couple of old pairs of carbon shoes kicking around that are still great for training sessions and or have a pair of carbon shoes like they are using for their biggest sessions just to really get that massive boost. But yeah, if I was designing rotation from scratch, I'd probably pop a super trainer in it. But if I was picking from the shoes I have available, I'd go, OK, well, my my Vaporfly 2s will be my workout shoe now and my Vaporfly 3s are racing kind of thing that
00:41:18
Speaker
I think that is one area where they do struggle, especially with pricing, because older carbon shoes are not cheap, but cheaper than they are. Well, we talked a bit about the traditional trainers now, so let's delve a bit more into what are the differences between the real carbon plate super shoes and these new super trainers. Yeah, I guess we've covered up a few of them.
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah, they tend to be a little bit heavier. I think, you know, the uppers tend to be a little less racy, generally speaking, that's the way they've been going. I think you tend to get a little bit more cushioned, a little bit more comfort overall, and they're designed for longer miles over sort of day to day to day rather than sort of single stints. But yeah, and I find that, yeah, a little bit more cushioned, a little bit more protective overall. So they've got that sort of added versatility.
00:42:07
Speaker
like you said Tom, for a lot of these you can be very happy running at very sort of easy paces in them as well as sort of ticking up to fast wear. For me the best carbon ray shoes are the shoes that probably perform only when I'm running at my best in a way if you know what I mean. It's like there are some shoes, this is why I'm a big fan of the old vapor flies, it's like you really only had one way to run in them so when you wanted to go fast in them you had to
00:42:29
Speaker
on it and then when you were they worked really well. Yeah I was just going to say to finish off that I've then dismissed a whole swathe of shoes that have got brilliant versatility for race shoes as well and that's a bonus but yeah. I always think there is certainly an element of difference in geometry as well and it's something that's not always easily apparent or very easy to explain sometimes with shoes but
00:42:47
Speaker
I think a really good example of this is the new, new balance SC Trainer V2, which has fuel cell, mid-cell foam, carbon plate, a rocker design. It's all of which is exactly the same as the SC Elite V3. The SC Trainer is a lot heavier. They've probably got a slightly different formulation of fuel cell, but I think it's almost the geometry that makes a big difference there. And it's just night and day. The SC Trainer, the SC Elite, the racing shoe feels very fast, really aggressive, pushes you onto your toes, really going for it. Similar stack height, same foam, same energy rocker in theory on the training shoe, but it feels
00:43:16
Speaker
really much slower in transition, much more geared for sitting back and running slowly. And that's quite a difficult thing to do for brands. And I think some of them don't do it. Some of them make them very similar, like the Endorphin Speed and Pro often have quite similar geometries, although varies with the various stack heights. But I think that New Balance one really explains sometimes how the trainers have been geared to handle that easy running just by making it a slower feeling shoe in the more comfortable way.
00:43:41
Speaker
All right, let's talk about the big question, the big point that is probably a bit of a sticking point for most people, the price.
Why Are Super Trainers Expensive?
00:43:49
Speaker
Now, this is the major thing. If you're shopping for shoes, you can pretty much instantly tell from the price tag if it's a super trainer nowadays. And with quite a lot of them coming in almost at the same price as some or most of the complex shoes at the moment.
00:44:06
Speaker
Why are they so expensive? That's a good question. I think it's just they've got that super shoe sheen to them. Originally they weren't that expensive because they would build as trading partner shoes. I think still the best of these supertrains, things like the Endorphin Speed, the Alias Boston 12, the Magic Speed are priced a level below super shoes according to their status. But now it feels like
00:44:28
Speaker
once you've got a high enough stack and have got some kind of foam or plate in there, you can do what you want with the pricing, but they are outrageous. Yeah, it seems to me that the price of the shoes is actually, I mean, we live in a world where everything's getting more expensive far beyond probably what it needs to be.
00:44:45
Speaker
But if you look back at some of the things like the Hocka Rocket X, that was a very affordable shoe. Nowadays, I can't see it being that cheap. I think that would have wacked up the price quite a lot. That was a bit before its time, I think, before the big super trainer boom. So I'd be surprised. I think that was 130, 140. Yeah. And it was billed as more as a racing shoe, really. And then
00:45:08
Speaker
I think it feels like there are some maybe they're being viewed a little bit as a license to print money because it's selling carbon and stuff technology to a wider audience than traditional super shoes, which probably are, you know, they don't feel niche to us because we spend so much time talking about them and see do races and see people using them. But they are still a relatively niche product, I'm sure.
00:45:27
Speaker
I guess the super shoes have raised the ceiling, right? The super shoes have given a little bit of wiggle room. They've made a nice little area in the middle where these shoes can neatly slot in. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, the carbon, the Hoka Carbon X I think was only, I think that was like 150, 130, 150 when that launched. And even now, if you look back at that original one, you might say, well, is that just a, is that really just a sort of a super daily trainer? Or was it a race, you know, there's like, now if you look back at them.
00:45:55
Speaker
I think brands are definitely feeling their way around this area a lot. I still remember talking to people two years after they fly came out and they're going, oh, it's a niche thing. It's not a thing. This isn't going to be popular. And then racing to catch up and they realized that everyone was buying these shoes. And I think now they're worried to get, they don't want to get caught out on supertrains potentially and people coming in pretty, pretty aggressive with their pricing strategy.
00:46:16
Speaker
I find it a vague area, though. Racing shoes, carbon plate ratios, if you buy a racing shoe for £280 and it makes you slightly faster, you can equate the value of that to the money. That's what people are paying for, isn't it? They're not going to get a ratio that makes them slower. But with these daily shoes, there's no actual quantifiable value to the additional price, which I think is going to be the tricky bit. Because what
00:46:40
Speaker
know, most people are just going, oh, yeah, I had a few all right runs, it cost me 220 quid. It's a difficult proposition for people buying. I was going to say that's a really interesting point, because if you think about, you know, the original super shoes came out with a flurry of kind of research behind them, right? So you had that big 4%. None of the none of the
00:46:57
Speaker
the daily super trainers or Nick and Tom's. None of those have any of that kind of evidence behind them yet, which is interesting. I think we'll all agree that they don't perform like that. That's the thing. I think that's the one that I agree don't like about them and some of them is that they're selling the idea of a super shoe to people who don't use traditional super shoes either because they don't find them approachable or too unstable, but they're not delivering in the same way as super shoes. You aren't getting
00:47:27
Speaker
the four percent, whatever it was at the start, you know, the efficiencies from some of them that I think they are just quite nice training shoes. That's all they are. And if you're selling the idea that they've got a carbon plate in them, so they're going to do those same things, it's not always the case.
00:47:39
Speaker
Well, you look at the Hoka Mach 5. The Hoka Mach 5, everybody, we all love that shoe. People commenting on it saying they just need to put a plate in it and it will be the best shoe in the world ever. You create the Hoka Mach X. It's not the Hoka Mach 5. It's a completely different shoe, isn't it, the way it's designed? But for the
00:47:57
Speaker
general consumer, that looks like a superior version of the fantastic Cocker Mac 5, which is not. It's using some technology to make it sound like it's a superior version. And that's the risky bit because people are spending a lot of money, although the Mac X isn't the most expensive option.
00:48:13
Speaker
I thought the Mac X was going to be the best shoe of all time. I like it, but it's like you say, I don't like it more than the Mac 5 necessarily. It just shows what you can do with a couple of normal layers of foam. I came into this last couple of months really excited. I was so looking forward to all of these shoes. I thought they're all going to be my favorite shoes. I love the Endorphin Speed so much. I really liked the Magic Speed. There's been a couple that I have loved. The Boston 12 is a fantastic shoe and it's incredible.
00:48:41
Speaker
the cheapest one of all of these but it does what it says on the tin you know it does what it says it's going to do super blast i think is a genuinely novel and exciting experience to use although whether it is a super trainer because it hasn't got a plate who knows but overall i've been left a little bit underwhelmed actually by this the new batch and
00:48:57
Speaker
as a lot of me thinking, oh, maybe, you know, this is this is actually not a thing. And I've been overexcited. And, you know, I like to get excited. So it's a bit
Favorite Super Trainers Discussion
00:49:06
Speaker
of a shame. All right, let's finish off then with final question. Give us two picks each. Give us two examples, good examples of super trainers that you rate. Kieran, go.
00:49:17
Speaker
Well, you know what? I'm going to say straight. The Speed 3 is one of the early ones, one of the originals. I think it's got brilliant versatility. It's lovely and lightweight, but it's balanced in terms of the comfort and cushioning. It's got a pop. You can run easy in it. That's magic. I actually quite like the Mac X. I wish they called it something different so that it may not have drawn the same
00:49:40
Speaker
the comparisons that it gets with the Mac 5, because I actually really enjoy running in it. I think it's quite a nice kind of racy shoe. I prefer it for the faster end rather than the easier end, but I'm really sort of happy to clip along in that shoe. I very much enjoyed it. It was one that I'd sort of happy slot into a rotation, but those would be kind of my two. There's a few that I haven't tested as well. I haven't tested the BOS 12 and I haven't tested the ASICs either. So yeah, those would be my picks.
00:50:06
Speaker
I think I know what Nick's going to pick. Well, for me as a super trainer, it's got to go quick and it's got to be versatile. That's what I think it is. The endorphin speed is still the shoe that does that the best. I really clearly remember using the first version for a 5K all-out race in the morning one day and then taking it out for an hour easy recovery run in the afternoon. It's just the shoes that I think can do that are quite
00:50:28
Speaker
small. As a novice B3, still my top pick. I really do like more than two shoes because I'm going to be annoying now. But yeah, I really like the Boston 12 in that category, but I have been pretty blown away by the Superlast. I've really enjoyed using it just for so many different kinds of runs. And it's a shoe that
00:50:43
Speaker
is expensive, is a bit silly. It feels like faintly ridiculous at times, but I love using it. And that is probably the other big ingredient of a Supertrainer. You've got to love using it. That's what it's trying to make it do. It's trying to give you a semi-magical feel to a daily run. And there are very few shoes that do that, and Superblast is kind of one of them. How about you, Tom?
00:51:01
Speaker
Well, I'm going to have to go for the endorphin speed because it is the best of them, I think. It's like the vapor fly of that super trainer world where it's just held its own for so long with so many different brands trying to come up with their own version of it. And it's still the best. Super Blast, I would have as well. But I think you're saying that Super Blast may not be a super trainer.
00:51:24
Speaker
So that price, you better expect it's a Super Trainer. But I think that's the thing as well. It's the same with ratios and stuff. Carbon plate doesn't necessarily, it's not the thing that makes the difference, it's the foams. And the Zuplast, it's all in that foam. And to be honest, the Zuplast does feel like it's got a plate in. I was surprised that it didn't have a plate in the first time I ran with it.
00:51:45
Speaker
It's got a really nice dual-density mid-size. It is very much to me like a souped-up peg turbo almost from the past where you've got that bouncier top layer over a firmer bottom layer. You're the one I want to flag up. We are going to have a round-up soon and talk about these all in more detail, but I think if you're looking at it as a different brief, whereas these plated shoes are really
00:52:02
Speaker
Cheaper alternatives to full racing shoes. The only one the one that fits the bill the best for me on that front is probably actually the magic speed three Which isn't actually that first. I think it is a very racy very race issue indeed And that is quite interesting. That is one other benefit of these I suppose you didn't talk about so much is like if you want to go and get a very very good racing shoe But don't want to spend 220 pounds the magic speed three is 160 pounds wherever it is and actually at the parker and I did it at the weekend
00:52:26
Speaker
produced very similar kind of times and performance to carbon shoes. And actually the people all around me at the front of that race, we're all in things like the magic speed, the endorphin speed. And it kind of becomes your like second tier racing shoe. If you have a carbon shoe or even just your racing shoe, if you don't want to spend huge money. All right. I think that covers us for super trainers. Yeah. Big round up coming next month when I'm back from Wales. We're going to talk about them in detail, moan and praise and have a good time. Can't wait. And then we'll all pick the endorphin speed three at the end. Nice.
00:53:04
Speaker
Okay guys, so what have we got coming up in the next few weeks, months? Yes. Yes. Running belts. We're going to be looking at running belts again. A popular video from last year will be doing a reprise of that, where to stash your phone and your gels. I was just saying I worry about loose popularity because we use shorts so much now with high storage shorts.
00:53:28
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Maybe belts are now old hat. We've basically moved on with trend, right? Well, so we've got... So, I'm going to be doing a big daily shoes full list guide. Yeah, and I'll do one where we pick out our favorites, a couple of daily shoe vids coming up, because I think we've now tested all of those. We're probably not far away from carbon shoe round up season, actually, to be honest, because like I say, there's not too many of those coming up.
00:53:53
Speaker
Yeah, and then ultra fly is going to be in theory on the agenda. We've got our first run video up from Jane. Kieran and I are still looking out the window waiting for us to arrive. Hopefully, hopefully soon. Yeah, but that'd be nice to have in because it's a nice time to go out and do nice long tests of that because it's a comfy shoe.
00:54:15
Speaker
Nice. All right. Well, if you're interested to this and you want to contact us, you can email us at team at the run testers.com. You can find us on Instagram at the run testers or at youtube forward slash the run testers. Thanks a lot for listening. We'll be back next time. We will.
00:54:38
Speaker
That's it from us this month. Thanks a lot for listening. Don't forget to give us a subscribe on the podcast provider of your choice and leave us a review if you can, because then if you're enjoying this, for the people who can find it. Thanks a lot for listening. Catch you next time. This episode of the podcast was presented by Tom Wheatley, Kieran Alga and Nick Harris-Pry. The podcast was produced by Tom Wheatley. The music was by Fear of Tigers.