Crippling Knee Pain From Nike Zoom Fly 3s ???

I got a pair of Zoom Fly 3's and when I first put them on and walked out the door I thought they felt pretty odd because of the toe rocker. I didn't like them at all, but after a few faster paced runs in them I really started to like them.

Your problem is obviously the result of knee "injury." Is it a new injury caused by your recent running, or did you have a previous knee injury?

The shoe isn't causing the injury, but perhaps it is not a good combination with your form and/or your pace. The Zoom Fly 3 feels clunky and bad if I am running over ~7:00 min./mi. pace, but faster than that it's pretty good. That number remains constant regardless of my fitness. That is, the shoe feels good faster than that and bad slower than that no matter what my effort level is. Must be due to the way my foot interacts with the ground at the different pace regimes. If I'm going out to run at 7:30-8:00 min./mi. pace, I'm definitely not going to wear the Zoom Fly's, but for me it just feels odd. I can't report any real injury.

A). Your body isn’t accustom to running. 2.5km is ok and 6km is too far. Now you have your boundaries to work in.

B). You bought a unforgiving carbon plate shoe that is NOT meant as a daily trainer. Do better research next time. The Zoom fly 3 is a good shoe at fast paces but otherwise brutal at slow paces.

C). Additionally you are running in a carbon plate shoe, a stiff one at that. ZoomX foam + a plate is a nice combo, but React + a carbon plate is stiff. A high stack carbon plate shoe will aggravate any imbalances in your legs, especially feet, ankles, knees. So it sounds like you already had an imbalance and the plate WILL make it worst until you up your conditioning and address the imbalance.

D). Go back to the store and buy a pair of Nike React Infinity’s or Pegasus 37s. These will be much better daily trainers, don’t have carbon plates and will help you and your stride adjust to the Nike rocker (which is amazing) without the harshness of the Zoom fly 3.

i own a pair of zf3 and do not have same problem

Well never had any knee pain prior to this, been at a steady level of mileage and feeling good since April 1st. Interesting what you said about paces, could it be that this shoe was just not designed for going slow in?

During that 2.5km run to the store I was ran at an average of 7min./mi. and had no issues at all with pain.

But during the 6km run where I first got the pain, I ran the first 3km under 7.13min./mi. then I was tired toward the end and ran the final 3km between 7.40-7.55mi/min. The nagging pain came on at about the 4km mark too coincidentally.

Yeah, that seems to be exactly right.

The real pain that you have is concerning though. You shouldn't have real pain just because of a shoe, and you probably have a bigger problem that is the root cause.

Also, "a steady level of mileage ... since April 1st," is not a very long time to adapt to regular running. You are not adapted to that "steady level of mileage" yet.

Really appreciate all the info. Any preference between the pegasus & react infinitys?

I cant go try them on with the lockdown, so I have to just buy them online.

Anyway to address/work on the imbalance myself? No physiotherapy places open for the near future to assess me. I did injure my left glute over a year ago which made it a lot tighter on the left side.

Thanks again.

Nutsack McGee wrote:

The real pain that you have is concerning though. You shouldn't have real pain just because of a shoe, and you probably have a bigger problem that is the root cause.

Yeah Im beginning to think its because of my left glute injury that happened a year ago.

But I am just surprised that I get 0 pain when I do 5km in those 4 year old Adidas Tubulars or 6km in my Vapormax shoes.

0 pain when I climb stairs or squat either.