Procrastination is my middlename.
Ask anyone that knows me.
To some it is laziness, but I prefer to think of it as thinking things through thoroughly before moving towards any kind of action.
This time around though it finally nipped me in the behind.
After barely 500km of uncomfortable running my pair of hated Asics pulse3 shoes finally decided to upgrade, or is it downgrade, from uncomfortable to downright painful.
Time had come to buy a new pair of running shoes.
For quite a while I'd been fascinated by Newton's action/reaction tm technology and since I'd been hard at work increasing my cadence, which as a side affect had moved my foot strike towards the midfoot, I felt that investing in a pair of gravity's would be a safe choice.
They arrived a whole month before my next race so I thought I'd have enough time to run them in, but as luck would have it I picked up a horrible case of flu which had me out of action for two weeks.
So come race day the only shoes I had was a pair of painful Asics Pulses and a (almost) brandspanking new pair of bright blue,red and yellow Newton Gravity's.
Just the thought of running a half marathon in the Asics had me quickly pulling on the Newtons, not caring whether it might mean a ruptured achilles tendon, worst case scenario, or at the very least some really sore calve muscles.
I was taking a calculated risk, but luckily for me it paid off on the day.
One thing I'd like to mention early on is that any pair of Newton running shoes really needs to be run in properly.
Even if you are buying your second pair I'd strongly advise against putting in any big mileage on a single run before they have been properly run in.
The lug system under midfoot takes about 100km of proper running before they become "loose" and comfortable.
Before that they won't exactely give you blisters but you are going to know they are there and it's anything but fun.
That first race I was impressed by the lightweight feel, relative to my asics it was like running barefoot.
Support and cushioning still was really firm and had me swearing at times, but there never were any doubt that they were built for speed.
I'm very excited about testing a pair of Newton's true lightweights.
Coming from heel striking and probably being used to shoes with a heel to toe drop of 12 to 8mm I recommend that you first invest in a pair of shoes that have a bit less heel since these shoes are pretty much zero drop(3mm actually).
Uppers:
The upper is very light and thin and breathability is excellent.
Still there is little doubt that the materials used are of excellent quality.
Sole unit:
First thing you notice are the lugs.
They look extremely uncomfortable and most people would think that they would be unpractical, but once you start jogging in them they are barely noticeable.
Reading up on these shoes you come to think that midfoot strike is the prime objective of these shoes.
Maybe thats accurate, but in my opinion that's not what you need to concentrate on.
Having developed into a midfoot striker over a period of about a year I thought it would be easy to find my stride, but aparently I'd gone a little overboard at pace and tended to push off with my big toe aswell as second toe, something which had developed into quite a painful issue but was quickly sorted after I started running more with the Gravity's.
In short: midfoot cushioning is exemplory for a shoe of this weight.
Overall opinion:
If you are someone that actively think about good form and a total nut about doing it the "right way" like me and you've read countless articles and studies about midfoot striking and cadence and stride length then these shoes are the perfect partner to help you reach your goals.
If you are a more casual runner, technically speaking, that rather concentrates on fitness than technique then these might be a pair of shoes straight from hell...or they might not, depending on what your technique is.
Fact is you have to be aware of what they are trying to make you do and know what the correct way is to do it.
I am of opinion that cadence is the holy grail of running and that by simply working on that will pretty much fix all other technique "problems".
For me this outlook has lead to success with Newton.
So in my opinion if you can afford a pair then give them a go but don't expect miracles of you aren't willing to change if your technique doesn't suite them.
