Inov-8 Rocfly G 390 Hiking Boot Review

Inov-8 Rocfly G 390 Review: A Lightweight, Nimble Hiking Boot for Tackling Any Terrain
By Contributor Ryan Flugaur and Social Media Wizard Bach Pham

The Rocfly G 390 works to blend the comfortable and lightweight feel of a trail shoe with the protection and ruggedness of a trail boot. This was my first time in an Inov-8 shoe and I really enjoyed my time with it. Living in central Wisconsin the terrain is mostly flat, rocky, and wooded, however, about 30 minutes North of my hometown lies Rib mountain state park. This is Wisonsins biggest “hill” coming in at 1,942 feet but is dwarfed by many other true mountains throughout the rest of the United States. I was able to take the Rocfly G 390 out multiple times in a variety of conditions varying from flat muddy trails to steep rocky inclines. This shoe is designed to be a bouncy hiker that blends the worlds of trail running shoe and hiking boot and does a pretty good job doing so.

December 2021 Round Up: Best Trail and Brands of 2021, New Achilles Podcast

 

This year has been absolutely crazy for us at Doctors of Running. Over 110+ reviews, 16000+ miles run by our team. We grew our Instagram to new heights (14k followers!), we started earning revenue for the first time ever at Doctors of Running, and we added three amazing new team members. We couldn't have done it without your support and we're so excited for what's ahead in 2022.

Before we dive in, we're looking back at the busy month that was December. We dropped our annual Best of 2021 features, diving into everything from plated and non-plated performance footwear to stability and racing shoes. Today we're rounding things out with a few loose ends we wanted to tie up along with a busy month of reviews.

Adidas Adistar Review (2021 Release)

Adidas Adistar Review: For the Long, Slow Run?
By Chief Editor Matthew Klein

The Adidas Adistar series was a staple stability shoe within the Adidas line a few years ago. It has been 6-7 years since the Adistar Boost, which was classified as a stability shoe and was the introduction of boost into the line. The new Adistar, like many running shoes today, has transitioned away from being a stability shoe to a neutral shoe with geometric guidance and a maximal stack height. With no medial post, the geometry of the outsole and midsole are used to facilitate forward motion. With all these new features, the Adidas Adistar is a completely new shoe that carries some small hints of its past.

Mizuno Alpha Eco Apparel Review

 

Sustainability is the hallmark of the new Alpha Eco apparel line at Mizuno. In partnership with the National Forest Foundation, each piece of Alpha Eco sold a tree will be planted by Mizuno during the lifecycle of the product’s existence. As Mizuno continues work on the Alpha Eco line, they plan to make the products more and more sustainable year by year. Our team took a full dive into the apparel line to give you thoughts on each piece along with our favorite picks in the line that you should check out.

Best Racing Shoes of 2021, DPT Approved

 

We are continuing our run through our DPT Approved Awards! Our team has tested over 110 shoes and ran over 15,000 miles in 2021 (so far) and we are ready to dish out our picks for numerous categories of shoes.

Our final category is a fan-favorite: Best Road Racing Shoes. We talk through our individual contributor picks for both shorter and longer distance road racing with a focus on "super shoe" options. We are believers in more traditional road racing flats, but those will be reserved for another time. 2021 was a sneaky year that brought a lot of very solid road racing options, and we talk about many of them in this episode. Make sure you check out all of the super shoe options we've reviewed in our Carbon Plate Resource Guide.

Adidas Adizero Takumi Sen 8 Review

Adidas Adizero Takumi Sen 8 Review: Racing for the Fastest 5k/10k
By Chief Editor / Founder Matthew Klein & Senior Contributor David Salas

The Adidas Takumi Sen series has traditionally been a high level, low profile, exquisite racing flat. For years it was one of the top choices among Japanese marathoners. Despite being so firm and low profile. Versions 1 and 2 were clearly the best, with the classic extended forefoot torsion system, a firm Adiprene sole and an aggressive outsole. The remaining versions got muddied with Boost and did not have the same magic as the originals, so sadly I lost interest. The Adidas Adizero Takumi Sen 8 returns as a completely revamped shoe. No longer the low riding firm racing flat, the Takumi Sen 8 returns with a significant amount of cushioning, yet retains its function for most as a shorter distance racing flat, while those who can handle more will easily see this return as a marathon racer. 

Blue Takumi Sen 8 with pink stripes

New Balance Beacon v3 Review

New Balance Beacon v3
By Contributor Andrea Myers

The New Balance Beacon v3 is a neutral shoe that can do it all - easy runs, intervals, and long runs. If I were stranded on an island with one pair of running shoes, these would be my pick.

Deckers X Lab Review: XSCAPE Knit Low, Wool Low, Evrst and Ba Da Da

Deckers X Lab Recovery Footwear, Late 2021
XSCAPE Knit Low Full Review, Wool Low, Evrst and Ba Da Da
By DOR Contributing Team

Deckers X Lab came into the recovery game with a bang over the past two years with the KO-Z and XSCAPE footwear lines. Both of these lines continue to develop with more advancements and materials to create a more expansive usage for these recovery lines. The XCSAPE Knit Low is an advancement of the original XCSAPE utilizing a knit upper that is reinforced well and softer than the original and provides a more sleek look aesthetically.

Featured in this review:
- XSCAPE Knit Low Review
- Thoughts as a DPT: Comfort and Recovery
- Contributor brief reviews of the XSCAPE Wool Low, Evrst, and Ba Da Da

Find the rest of our Deckers X Lab thoughts in our original review here.

Best Stability and Stable Neutral Shoes of 2021

 

We are continuing our run through our DPT Approved Awards! Our team has tested over 110 shoes and ran over 15,000 miles in 2021 (so far) and we are ready to dish out our picks for numerous categories of shoes.

Today's roundtable focuses on one of our favorite topics, which is stability within running shoe construction. We are dishing out two awards today. First is the "Best Stability Shoe", which is defined as "a shoe that has intentional design to help guide the foot as it moves across the platform by utilizing some formal stability construction". The second award is "Best Stable Neutral Shoe", which we define as "a shoe that was not built with formal stability measures, but its construction lends it to being more stable compared to other shoes within the neutral category." If you're looking for our nitty gritty through on the nuance found in stability footwear design, you won't find it here, but you can get started by checking out our Stability Guide.

Adidas Terrex Apparel Review

Adidas Terrex Apparel Review
By Chief Editor/Founder Matt Klein

I have a particular thing for elite/pro Adidas gear. The shirts and shorts have always fit me well, but I never tried anything from the Adidas Terrex line. Terrex is Adidas's outdoor/adventure line that includes apparel, gear and footwear for trail running, mountaineering and more. The last year has seen the debut of some eye catching apparel designs that once I saw, I had to test. These apparel pieces have been a staple of my running the last month as the days have gotten darker and I have spent more time on the trails. For visibility, style, comfort (mostly) and performance this gear has been interesting to test.

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 22 Review

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 22 Review: An Update That Refines the Ride
By Chief Editor Matt Klein

The Adrenaline GTS series has been a long running, top selling shoe in the Brooks line. GTS stands for "Go-To-Support", which for Brooks Running means the use of medial and lateral GuideRails across their stability line. The Adrenaline series was one of the first high level stability shoes to move away from traditional posting a few versions ago, which was a shocking change at the time. Now with a greater diversity of stability methods even among maximum stability trainers, it is not as unique, but still has a few characteristics that make it different. Now, the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 22 returns this Winter of 2021/2022 as a further refinement of this evolving yet classic stability shoe. 

Brooks Ghost 14 Review

Brooks Ghost 14 Review
By Senior Contributor Nathan Brown PT, DPT, OCS

It has been a long while since we have taken a look at the Brooks Ghost. In fact, the last reviewed Ghost was the Ghost 6, all the way back when our founder was a student physical therapist. The Ghost has been, and continues to be, a very popular shoe among the running and non-running community. This review will look at Brook's design decisions and how they had more than just the beginner runner in mind when creating this shoe. 

Pair of Run Visible Brooks Ghost 14 in black with yellow graphics.

COROS APEX Pro Review | Endless Battery!

COROS APEX Pro Review
By Contributor Nathan Brown PT, DPT, OCS

COROS continues to grow it's user base by offering a myriad of watches that boast a very long battery life, a continually improving interface, and by aligning with some of the world's (and USA's) most beloved runners -- I'm looking at you, Kipchoge and Molly Seidel. The APEX Pro is a premium multi-sport watch built for the most diverse adventures and for data geeks who want as much info about performance as possible. 

Best Plated Performance Trainers of 2021

 

Ready for about 100 tangents? Well here they come. Today we are continuing our run through our DPT Approved Awards. Our team has tested over 110 shoes and ran over 14,500 miles in 2021 (so far) and we are ready to dish out our picks for numerous categories of shoes. We break down the best plated performance trainers in 2021 while presenting our individual picks and our team's consensus pick. We define performance trainer as "a shoe that specializes for uptempo running, workouts, and can even double as a racer for some. It's even better if the shoe can handle warm-ups well and do a few easy miles on the ends of workouts, but typically isn't as comfortable for daily mileage."

We discuss that some plated shoes designed for racing may function well (or even better) for some in a performance trainer capacity, but that does come with a higher price tag. This was the first time where all three members had the same three shoes in their top 3 (albeit in different orders).

Brooks Cascadia 16 Multiple Tester Review

Brooks Cascadia 16 Multiple Tester Review
By David Salas, PT, DPT, CSCS & Matthew Klein, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT

The Brooks Cascadia has been a top trail running option for many runners for quite some time now. The Cascadia 16 continues upon this lineage and provides an all around balanced feel that does well in a large variety of trails. Some things that contribute to that balanced feel is a comfortable fit and upper, a well integrated rock plate, and a geometry that works well for smooth transitions in a variety of terrains. 

November Round-Up: Science Friday Blowout

 

Hey runners! Before we get to our Round-Up we HAVE to talk about some racing action going on this weekend. At the time of release, our team's contributors David Salas and Megan Flynn are off and running at the California International marathon! They've spent the past few months building up for this day, and we're so excited for them as they race to their goals. Meanwhile, down in Southern California Chief Editor Matt Klein enjoyed some action at his local 5k, running a 17:24 time to win his Reindeer Romp! Contributor Nathan Brown also dug deep yesterday for a local five miler and managed to pull away with a win as well at the YMCA Frostbite! Let's go #DOR!!!

November was a busy month for us as we knocked out a bunch of reviews we've had on deck for awhile along with starting our end of year awards! We also cleared our 100th review this month, and are on the march towards 120 reviews this year, shattering last year's 75 reviews. Crazy. Read on to find our latest from this past month and a sneak peak at some Hoka's in for testing as we get into 2022.

Best Non-Plated Performance Trainers of 2021

 

We are continuing our run through our DPT Approved Awards! Our team has tested over 110 shoes and ran over 14,500 miles in 2021 (so far) and we are ready to dish out our picks for numerous categories of shoes. Today we break down the best non-plated performance trainers in 2021 while presenting our individual picks and our team's consensus pick. We define performance trainer as "a shoe that specializes for uptempo running, workouts, and can even double as a racer for some. It's even better if the shoe can handle warm-ups well and do a few easy miles on the ends of workouts, but typically isn't as comfortable for daily mileage.

Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2 Review (2021 Release)

Lateral view of the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2 in white/blk/silver.

Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2 Review: Slight Refinements, Same Speed
By Senior Contributor David Salas

The shoe that changed the game is back. The Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2 is a top shelf racing shoe that utilizes Zoom X midsole (PEBAX based) with a carbon plate to help with responsiveness and fatigue resistance. The Next% 2 updates the upper from the Vapor Weave upper to a more synthetic mesh like upper that is more breathable and has a tad more flex to it. The geometry and midsole composition is all the same compared to the previous version. In a world of "super shoes" the Nike Next% 2 is still the shoe seen on the feet of most, even compared to the AlphaFly. Lets dig in.

Adidas Adizero Prime X Review

Adidas Adizero Prime X Review
By Chief Editor / Founder Matt Klein and Senior Contributor David Salas

With the introduction of so many maximal stack height racing shoes, World Athletics issued a height limit to racing shoes for the road at 40 mm. Despite the limit for road racing, Adidas released the Adidas Adizero Prime X, coming in with a 50mm heel stack height as a concept shoe. One athlete has already been disqualified for using it after winning the Vienna marathon (Derara Hurisa in 2:09:22). With such an insane stack height, carbon infused rods, carbon blades, one would think this would be the ultimate performance enhancing shoe. However, it ends up being a unique training/long run shoe, although perhaps "experience" is a better description than "shoe."

Newton Catalyst Review (2021)

Newton Catalyst Review
By Guest Contributor/DOR Social Media Manager Bach Pham and Contributor Ryan Flugaur

2021 has been an important year for Newton. The Boulder, Colorado-based company came into the year swinging with a total refresh, shifting their focus towards a sustainable future for the brand. Their models are now made entirely of recycled or biodegradable material called "EcoPure" which promises to help their shoes decompose in landfills 75% faster than the average shoe. Along with their new sustainable materials focus, they also launched new models including the Gravity+, their new workout and current distance racing shoe for the brand, and the Catalyst, a new lightweight workout/gym shoe that comes with the most breathable upper you'll find anywhere and a "XPS+" plated forefoot combined with their Action/Reaction technology.