On Shoes - Cloud Flyer

Our Charlotte Running Company Race Team recently moved to using the On running shoes. Yesterday, I picked up my first pair – the On Cloud Flyer. This morning, I took them for my first run.

With any new shoe I go through three phases: uneasiness, feeling it out, and acceptance.

The first phase is uneasiness, I don't know the shoe so I don't know how my body and especially my feet will react to it. Is going to be a shoe goes in to my rotation or is one that sets on the self to gather dust and end up at Good Will. And, yes, through the years, quite a few of my shoes went down this path.

The second phase is “feeling it out”. In those early steps, what my is landing like? What does it feel like to land on the heel? Or landing on the fore foot? How is the toe box? How does the arch feel? Is it too low or worse too high? What are the strings like? Will they stay tied? All of these things signals sent back to my brain during this phase.

The last phase is “acceptance”. This usually happens about 6 or 7 miles in to run. By now, I will either like the shoe or hate it. Legs and more importantly my feet will made this decision for me.

One the warnings that some of my fellow team members told me about is the soles seem to love collecting rocks. This was a question that I even asked the Reps about last night. He assured me that the sole was built to expel rocks. As luck would have it, I was about 5 miles in to my run this morning, and sure enough, I got a rock stuck in the sole. I needed a breather in any way so leaned on a sign and pulled out the rock to continue on my run.

Aside from this small side bar, I was fairly impressed with these shoes. The Cloud Flyer has a light yet responsive feel to it for a stability shoe. I find a lot stability shoes seem to feel stiff and heavy. I will definitely keep it in my rotation.

Next up, I am looking forward to putting their Cloud Flash racing flats to the test. At 7 oz, they are on the heavy side for most of my previous racing flats. Weight as with looks, can be deceiving. The only way to decide for sure is during a race. So look for me on the roads sometime in the next few weeks. Check out those yellow flashes that I will be sporting. 

If you like to learn more about the On shoe brand - click here.

See you on the roads soon,

The Cool Down Runner