Are the Adidas Boston good for forefoot runners?

AhWhatTheCheese wrote:

The toe spring in the Freedom Iso 1 is an odd thing. It is fine at first, but the toe spring becomes very aggressive after a lot of miles. The shoe is durable, but that does change the ride quite a bit after hundreds of miles.

The Freedom ISO with some sort of midfoot shank or torsion unit, probably something that extended into the forefoot, would be a much better shoe, IMO. The upper is nice and simple, the outsole performs well and is extremely durable, but the midsole is too flexible and soft, at least for someone heavier like me. Maybe it rides better for lighter folks.

The toe spring seems like poor design, though. The point of a toe spring is, afaik, to help with toe off in shoes that are stiffer and won't allow the big toe to dorsiflex properly, although some toe spring is used in most running shoes to make the ride smoother and less demanding in regards with big toe mobility. But here it is just too abrupt, as it would be in some stiff rockered midsoles, and I happen to land almost on top of it, which feels really awkward -- at faster paces, with less ground contact time and stiffer feet, it's okay, but at easy paces it feels unstable and almost forces me to pick up the pace if I don't pay attention.

I don't mean to be too critical of the Freedom ISO: it's a good shoe that I'll buy again if I find them at a decent price (80€ or less), it just isn't the most versatile ride for me, and the changes in v2 don't seem to improve on this, just made it softer underneath and more structured in areas where I had no problem with it. A bit closer to a generic trainer. I wish Saucony had pushed the shoe in the other direction and gave it more of a performance feel. It's a good tempo shoe.

I used to run in the evo wave cursoris 2 before I broke my ankle.

I always wanted to give Mizuno another shot but the newer models outside of the sonic just seemed pretty heavy and clunky.

Yes, I see what you mean. Besides the Sonic, you have the Wave Emperor 3 and the Wave Aero 16 or whatever version is current. I don't think the Shadow is heavier than the Peg 35, is it? And it's definitely a faster shoe.

So you find good durability in the Epic React? Interesting, with all that exposed foam. I wish Nike released something similar but lower to the ground.

Mizuno fanboy wrote:

Yes, I see what you mean. Besides the Sonic, you have the Wave Emperor 3 and the Wave Aero 16 or whatever version is current. I don't think the Shadow is heavier than the Peg 35, is it? And it's definitely a faster shoe.

So you find good durability in the Epic React? Interesting, with all that exposed foam. I wish Nike released something similar but lower to the ground.

Ill check them out, MizunoUSA has the shadow 1 for $55.

Surprisingly yes its totally gotten a bad rap from nike themselves. Its not the overly soft shoe its made out to be and the react foam is fairly durable. After the initial wear marks which I think is where people freak it subsides.

Also a lot of shoes (Hello Hoka/Saucony) have exposed eva so its not really different from that.

The shadow is lighter than the Pegasus. Some of the other Mizunos on RW were like 12oz though.

Does the wave plate offer anything beyond stability and added firmness the way Nike does with their plate?

Mostly it adds torsional stiffness. For heel strikers it offers some cushioning and guidance, which makes Mizuno shoes inherently more stable than other neutral models. If you land mostly in the forefoot, then they don't feel a lot different from other shoes, at least not due to the Wave plate.