No Topos yet as they are harder to get in the UK but I do most of my training in various Altra shoes and I can't say enough good things about them. The toe box or the zero drop would be enough for me to love them but to have them both and also decent cushioning and design? Marvellous
I'd encourage anyone and everyone to get a cheap pair of last season's Timps and give them a go
inserthere wrote:
About 4 years ago, I had a case of insertional Achilles tendonitis that basically left me unable to walk for almost 9 months. Couldn't get anything to work to fix it. I had a microneedling procedure and PRP injection to fix it, which eventually worked.
In the time since, I've run pretty consistently in Topo shoes. I mix in others occasionally. As another posted noted, the lack of hard plastic heel cup is critical for me to be able to stay healthy while training. I wear the ST-5, which is closer to a racing flat. I can get about 400 miles out of a pair, and they're cheap, as long as they're actually in stock (my one gripe with Topo)
Great to see another ST-5 person on here! I wear mine for everything- training runs, long workouts, track work, gym (mainly training for 800m-mile right now). Got 500 miles out of my last pair when I usually can't get more than 350 out of shoes. They've improved their upper and the minimalist heel cup has always been great like you said. The low stack, low drop lightweight trainer is kind of a dying breed during this era of maximalist shoes. Saucony has beefed up the stack height of the Kinvara and a lot of similar shoes have just been axed. Since I need a wide toe box it narrows down the options to basically just the ST-5 and the Altra Escalante, which I wore for a bit a few years ago. But now Altra's quality and fit has regressed in my opinion with the VFC ownership and trying to be less niche. Ok the other hand I feel Topo has stayed true to their core identity and style. Can't recommend the ST-5 enough!
Yes, big fan of the ST-4 and ST-5 here. I agree that their durability could be better but, apart from that, I really enjoy them, in particular the wide toe-box.