Nike Zoomfly 6 - Trainer or Racer?
A few years ago a carbon plate was a sure fire way to tell if a shoe was meant for racing or not. As shoe technology has progressed that line of demarcation has become quite fuzzy, and this shoe is one of the reasons why.
The Breakdown
Men: 9.3 oz
Women: 7.7 oz
Drop: 8 mm
MSRP: $170
The Outsole
With this outsole we get about 50% coverage, with key placement in the heel and fairly full coverage in the forefoot. On the whole this provides ample grip for road running and from what I’ve been able to test, it grips well in a variety of weather conditions. There is also a significant cutout in the middle that shows off the plate and saves weight for the runner.
This outsole pattern allows Nike to include a bit thicker rubber, but with the spacing of the squares, we don’t take a weight penalty so you get more durability from the outsole for the life of the shoe.
The Midsole
The midsole is built with two layers of Nike ZoomX sandwiching a carbon plate in the middle. The midsole has a sizable cutout in the midfoot that saves weight for the runner without sacrificing stability on the run. The ZoomX midsole has held up well in testing and has remained quite resilient both in holding shape and feel.
The Upper
The Zoomfly 6 upper has a lot more structure and cushion than we see from Nike’s racing lines. The shape has a bit more room in the forefoot and the heel collar locks the foot in nicely on the stride.
The Experience
In the time that I’ve been testing this shoe, I’ve had some of my best training sessions and ripped a solid 10k. On the whole I save this for my session running, when I’m pushing the pace and really want to feel some extra pop underfoot. I generally don’t grab this shoe when heading out for an easy or recovery run, but when I’m doing my workouts, I still use this shoe for the warmup. It does run nicely at an easy pace, though I do have to hold myself back a bit, because I find myself wanting to push the pace faster than my warmup pacing is supposed to be.
When running easy this shoe has a little less stability than I like to have underfoot which is why I prefer using it as a tempo shoe where I’m bypassing more of the rear of the foot and getting a little further forward toward the toes, but not enough that I’m gonna take two shoes for my workout days. Once I’m past the warmup is when the magic starts to happen. Once I’ve moved into a pace that it is uncomfortable to carry on a conversation, the plate and midsole foam really start to go to work and you can feel the bounce and turnover this shoe is made to provide. It feels easier to lock into a pace zone at this level, so that I’m not having to hold back. I won’t say that the work feels effortless, because I am usually feeling the workout and the fatigue building in the legs as I get further into the run, but I do feel that this shoe gives me a little extra to push into those zones harder and longer than if I were wearing a regular trainer.
One area that this shoesn’t feel great in when pushing the pace is a downhill. Part of this might be the fact that we just don’t have a lot of hills to work with in the Houston metro, so any downhill feels weird, but the fact that the shoe feels a little less stable in the heel going easy also translates to less stability moving down a gradient. With a bit more familiarity, I don’t think it’s gonna be an issue, and if you live somewhere with plenty of up and down, you may not even notice this issue.
So where should this shoe fall into your rotation? Is it a racer or a trainer? I say why not both? Within the Nike line, this isn’t the lightest plated shoe for racing, but as I’ve said before, I don’t think weight should be the defining factor of a racing shoe anymore. There is so much technology that goes into shoes and we all have different strides and running styles, and what makes a solid race day shoe for one person may not be as beneficial for the next. Whether this is used for training or racing, I think it’s an excellent shoe and one that will remain in my shoe rotation both for training and racing.
