Thursday, June 30, 2011

Loonie about Lunar.....

This season I'm using Nike shoes as my shoes of choice. The only thing is it can get pretty confusing with all of the models that are out there and what they do/don't do. If you look at the Lunar line of Nike shoes there must be at least ten different models. So far I have tried the Lunar Glide, the Lunar Swift, the Lunar Racer 2, the Lunar Elite 2 and the Lunar Racer.


I really liked the Lunar Glide, as I never had any problems with it as some people had and they still look good after using them for two seasons. I like that the stability part only kicks on when you need it as I need it towards the end of my long runs.


The Lunar Swift, is a good shoe although it takes a little while to get used too as it is very stiff when its new. This stiffness in the sole makes for a weird feel when you first run in them. These also have a stability component on them like the Glides but I'm not sure it works as well.


The Lunar Racer 2, is a shoe that I didn't like, for some reason it didn't work for me. I found the feel to be very springy which was great at first as it encourages leg turnover I also got blisters in places that I never got blisters before such as the outside edge of my foot or in middle of my arch. But what I found was there is next to no stability in it and as the shoe breaks down this became very problematic for me, the other thing I noticed is as the shoe breaks down it began to feel like I was running on a soft surface, so just after the foot strike  when my heel landed it felt like the shoe was compressing even more. I tried to use a soft ortho in the shoe but it gave me a feeling of constantly running on the outer edge of my feet, the other thing I noticed when using the insert was that it made the foot strike really loud, I think I could use it as a bear deterrent if I ran in the mountains with them.


The Lunar Elite 2, At first I was skeptical about trying them as they feel very much like the Swift in that they are Stiff initially but as I use them more and  I've really began to like them. As the season goes on I'll add more to how they are working out.


The Lunar Racer 2011, I read some really good reviews about these shoes before I took them out of the box and they are supposed to be more stable than the LR2, they are on a slightly different last than the LR2 in that it is more curved than the 2010 model. So far I have done one run on them so I can't say yet how they'll workout. But like the Lunar Elite 2 this will be an ongoing review.


It seems to me that Nike is really pushing the Lunar line and appears to be doing less with the Zoom line of shoes, now I don't know if that is a good thing or not as I like the shoes that I've tried so far from the Zoom line such as the Elite4 and the Marathoner.

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