The Saucony Triumph ISOs...comfortable, light and FAST!

Disclosure: FitFluential provided me the Saucony Triumph ISO to review...my opinions, which should come as no shock to you, are my own...


As we head into the winter "base training" time of year...building those miles that will lead to happines and PRs in 2015, we're always loking for shoes that will get us through the cold weather, long miles and dare I say it...treadmill runs required for the winter.

Well, lucky enough for me, I got this awesome pair of to the Saucony Triumph ISOs in the mail. Ok, can we just talk about how AWESOME this packaging is?! When you open the box...it actually says "whoa" from this little embedded music chip in the box. Hilarious!!!

The shoes themselves just look fast. I love the color combo and I LOVE the construction. Saucony built the shoes with an inner sleeve (read no tongue) out of this stretchy mesh. When sliding your foot into the shoe...it feels less like a shoe and more like a sock. The interior sleeve molds around your foot. Rather than a traditional "outer shell" with lace holes, Saucony went with a "support cage" over the 1 piece sock-like interior.  What does that mean for the wearer? It means it makes one darned comfortable shoe!

The shoe has a number of key features to give you better "run feel": the support frame of the shoe locks your heel in place (no sliding front to back in the shoe while your running which means no more blisters on the front of you toes while maintaining a snug fit!), the 8mm offset heel to toe helps out us mid foot to heel strikers (with cushioning built in to better absorb impact), and the shoe ONLY weighs 10.3 ounces! Add all the aforementioned up...and the result is a cushioned shoe that's light weight and forgiving...which leads to a comfortable foot strike...with allows quicker turnover...which equals a FASTER YOU!!!

Ya, that's my WHOAface right there. Not a bad 10k time at all.

Now if you've been following me, you'll know that I haven't been able to run the distances/times I want, or even run outside because of some heart issues...and I been hamstrung to...the...dreadmill! However, I found that the Triumph is the ONLY shoe I've ever worn that is as comfortable on the treadmill and it is on the road!!! Speaking of, there's a 10k I run every year and in spite of what I feel like has been the lack of mileage I normally have at this point and the heart stuff, I just couldn't bear to miss it. How'd I do? Well, I didn't run a PR (45:32 isn't slow, but its slower than my usual) but I did run faster than I thought I would given the breaks in my run training. I attribute a good portion of the to the shoes. The snug, comfortable fit coupled with the lighter weight meant I got my feet up and down quicker and maximized my effort. That meant all I had to do was focus on pushing myself to the finish. I'm looking forward to seeing how these shoes perform at longer distance (I really think the cushioning will pay off on those high miles weeks and at the 13.1 and 26.2 distances) and how much faster the make me as my fitness comes back.  Certainly a shoe I'd recommend to other runners...and more importantly...a shoe I'd go out and buy with my own hard earned money!