(feet pounding on treadmill)
- Morning Trainiacs.
Little 90 minute ride.
When we, you know, 40 minutes total around race effort.
15 minute run, 5 minutes at the end of race effort.
Getting back into it.
Somebody said (shakes bottle)
these Spirulina drinks are like
Tony Stark's, (pops bottle top)
is that Iron Man 2 drink?
That kept them alive?
(unscrews lid)
(pops lid)
(bangs table)
(sips drink)
Nailed it today.
What I was running in there, that I've been using
for some of my base models lately is this.
This is the Hoka One One Mach 2.
And we're gonna talk about how I feel about it today.
(phone rings)
Wanted to feel different ways about it than I do.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat dance music)
So these are the Hoka One One Mach 2's
in a lovely greige color.
Not quite gray, not quite beige.
Greige.
They have a five millimeter heel to toe drop
with a 27 millimeter heel and a 22 millimeter forefoot.
They are a $140, and in a men's size nine,
they are 7.8 ounces.
So they are, in theory, just as the specs show,
a very racey, kind of nice lightweight
but cushioned, because it's Hoka, racing shoe for the road.
Now what Hoka says is this is a highly cushioned
lightweight running shoe with a super responsive ride,
lightening fast and ready for racing.
Now why I use those air quotes for racing
is because you would think based off of all those specs,
all of that hoopla by Hoka, the description of it,
that this would be a really fast shoe.
In fact, that's why I got this shoe.
I had intended to race in this
coming into Half Iron Man Puerto Rico.
I thought it was going to be super fast.
In fact, a few years ago, when this first came out,
some pros that I talked to actually said
that they had ordered this to be their racing shoe,
and they had a similar experience to me,
in the sense that it is a racing shoe.
So they've got a really nice light, breathable upper
as you would expect from a racing shoe.
Super minimal.
They are very flexible as far as Hoka's go.
They don't have a really big heel cup,
so there's nothing digging in there.
They don't have much beyond just this tiny little tab here
as far as getting it on in the middle of a race.
They've got no loop to grab onto.
But they've got a really nice thin tongue.
Nothing's too big and bulky.
And these oddly long, skinny laces,
which you can actually feel as you put them on
and then run around in them, like they flop around.
They've got an all-foam outsole,
whereas some of the other shoes,
like the Hoka One One Bondi has a rubber portion
on the outsole to make it more durable.
This is nothing but foam, so while you're going to get,
you know, workhorse kind of miles out of Bondi
and a lot of the other Hoka shoes,
this is not going to last that three, 400 miles
that you would get from this.
The sole is just going to degrade as it gets scuffed up.
And it's also not super grippy,
so don't expect this to do really well
if you're using it for trail running or off-road running,
gravel running, things like that.
Like this is made for the road.
So why the quotes?
Why all these funny faces that I'm making?
Why this story about pros who thought it was going to be
their racing shoe but aren't actually using it
as a racing shoe?
Well, fact of the matter is that the specs,
everything about the design of it,
should lead to it being a racing shoe.
But I tended to lean more towards just base steady miles
on the treadmill, long runs outside,
walking around, a little bit of working out in the gym,
but definitely not my speed runs,
and my experience, this was a nice, cushioned shoe.
Like it did take away some of the impact from my body.
But as far as responsiveness, as far as energy return,
as far as lightening fast, I would actually say
this is one of the most dead shoes that I have tried
in the past two years.
There is just literally no responsiveness,
no energy return, that is shooting you forward.
And when you've got shoes like the Adidas Boost,
the Nike VaporFly 4%, the Newtons On Running Clouds,
which are all starting to be able to offer
that feeling where after you land off the ground
and you start toeing off, you get shot forward a little bit.
That's sort of the new standard of racing shoe.
So when we have this shoe that just has no energy return
in my experience, it's kind of a let down
when it comes to racing shoes.
As a running shoe manufacturer now,
you can't just take a bunch of weight out of a shoe,
put a nice thin upper in it,
make it nice and breathable,
and say that it's a racing shoe anymore,
because people have better options.
One thing to note that might lead to this being
just a little bit less responsive for me
and not quite as drastic is that it fits quite large.
This I ended up getting the shoe size
that is my normal shoe size, and it has a ton
of room all around the sides, all in the front.
That tends to lead to a little bit less responsiveness,
more flopping around.
So it's probably not as bad as I'm saying,
but it's certainly not as good as it could be.
And if you are getting the shoe,
probably go a half-size down.
So that leads to the question
of who is the Hoka One One Mach for?
Why would you consider getting this?
Well you might consider getting this
because it's a decent all-around shoe.
It's a shoe that you can wear on your long runs.
It is going to provide a fair bit of cushioning
with that nice Hoka sole that we've got.
But it's also nice and light,
so you can go out and do some speed work.
So if you're the kind of person
that only has one shoe, this is not a bad one to get.
However, when I compare it to other shoes
that I've reviewed in the past.
The Hoka One One Bondi.
This probably has more energy return,
it's going to last a little bit longer.
I actually even found this to have decent performance
in speed workouts, kind of similar to this.
It's not nearly as breathable though.
It's a little bit more heavy, so it's not going to
perform as well in like that really high-end speed work.
But this is only $10 more, and in my opinion,
it's probably a better shoe.
One of the only differences
between the two is that this shoe here
actually has a bit of a wider base than this shoe.
So while this shoe I wore all around my travels
in January, and like it kind of felt tippy a little bit,
because you're sitting really high up,
and the platform is fairly narrow,
this I traveled in walking around
in Half Iron Man Puerto Rico,
and I really liked it for that.
And if you also want your running shoe to be your gym shoe,
this is the shoe that pro triathlete Tim O'Donnell wore
for a whole bunch of the pro triathlon training
strength training course.
So like it's kind of like a decent all-arounder shoe,
but it's not really good at any one thing.
I wanted to really like this shoe.
On paper, it's a great shoe.
I just have kind of come to the point
that I like shoes that are specialty shoes,
shoes for going long and taking a lot of the load
of your body.
Shoes for going fast and still having some cushion
towards the end of a race but being really aggressive.
And this doesn't quite accomplish that.
Now that said, there are a some very good shoes out there,
and what I would recommend is going to our pals
at Tri Shop in Plano, Texas, who sent this out,
and my boy Raoul, who himself is an ultra-distance runner,
he actually likes this shoe a fair bit.
And they're really good solid people,
and if you are a Team Trainiac member,
you can get 10 percent off anything
from Tri Shop out of Plano,
because they do online ordering all across the U.S.,
and the coupon code is in teamtrainiac.com.
So thanks to Raoul and Tri Shop for sending this out,
letting me try them.
I'm sorry I can't give them a better review.
But those are the Hoka One One Mach 2.
That's my review.
If you like these shoe reviews,
and you aren't already subscribed,
we're working hard to be able to do more shoe reviews
over the course of the year.
Apparently, a lot of people like them,
so hit the subscribe button below.
Later Trainiacs!