Puma Mobium Elite in KL

Guess what? The Puma Mobium Elite is now available in Malaysia! I stumbled across it after collecting the race kit for the Brooks Half Marathon 10K run on Saturday. I know, I know, today is Tuesday and my news travel slow.

I'll tell you what though. I've tried it in store so I'll give you a quick update on what I think about it. I am not able to give a thorough input on this shoe as I only have it on for a while and was concentrating on an important question going through my head; to buy or not to buy.

Built and Look:
The Puma Mobium Elite looks phenomenal (personal opinion of course). I mean come on, how many shoes have that killer arch and black outsole pods that looks to be anatomically replicating our foot sole? Coupled with the bright color, I was sold to a 70% level already.

I'm unable to comment on the upper much as I didn't get to try it on long enough to check on breathability and heat. If I remember correctly, some part of it are cushioned whereas, other area are kind of thin. The Tongue is a thin piece of synthetic that's mainly there to prevent any chafing from the shoe laces. Feels good though.

Fit:
Fit wise, the shoe is kind of difficult to get into unless you've loosen the shoe lace by quite a bit. This is good, because it mean that your feet is gonna be secured pretty well. Once in, I was pretty surprised at the width of the forefoot area. In the picture above, the shoe looks kind of tight in that area and that was one of my reservation on whether to buy the shoe before putting it on. The mid foot area is solidly locked in place by the lace.

The Ankle area however is a different story. It felt very loose and insecure. I keep having the feeling that the shoe may fly off even though the mid is pretty secured. It could be due to the lack of a heel counter or too much padding in the upper, I wasn't too sure. I wanted to go 1 size down to reconfirm but unfortunately, they do not have that size. :(

Flexibility:
The shoe in itself is pretty flexible lengthwise. This is especially true where the shoe arch upward but reduce by quite a bit as it moves forward toward the forefoot area. It is still flexible enough for you to bend it easily with 1 hand. Sideway, this shoe ain't gonna win any twister competition like the GoBionic. It is however, flexible enough to allow your feet to twist in any direction upon landing to a degree greater than that of a traditional stability shoe.

Feel:
Without a run to confirm anything, this is going to be pretty vague. Initial observation is that the shoe is very cushioned. This may be due to the insole which, by the way, is removable. I'm not sure what the material is, but it's kind of "foamy". The last of the shoe seems to fit my feet pretty well, what with the ample forefoot space, and a secure mid area. The shoe seems to be built fit around your fit snugly, although the cast must have ham for ankle.

A few jumping test confirms that the feel of the foot upon landing is so-so, cushioned, firm, and not as flexible as the Skechers. Meaning, if you land on a gravel, you may not feel it as much, and the shoe may pretty well cause your feet to roll. I don't like the insole as it feels foamy/airy and not firm. The stack height is also quite high. What this mean is that I don't get feel the road as much as I'd like.

Now to the claim of the expanding sole. From what I can see of the sole area, the only part that expands is the arch area but not the rest of the pod. This is because the sole and pod area does not appear to have any mechanism to allow it to expand upon landing. As for the arch area, upon landing the arch will flatten out and contract upward again upon kick off, compliment of the X-Band located there. I can feel this working even while walking, but unfortunately I won't be able to tell you how it feels like while running. It feels kind of weak though. For me, I think I would prefer it to be tighter/stronger so that the arch don't collapse so easily.

Grip wise, this shoe is pretty grippy for something with not much grooves cut into it. This could be due to the outsole material or something which I may not have noticed.

To wrap up below are the pros and cons of the shoe in this
Pros:
1. Roomy toebox.
2. Secure Midfoot area.
3. Some springiness from the X-band (although I would prefer it to be on the tighter side for added firmness).

Cons:
1. Ankle area does not feel secure. I'm very aware of it but heck, I'm only walking and jumping so can't really comment on it unless I run in it and it feels the same..
2. Stack height too high.
3. Foamy insole. I would prefer something firmer like that of the GoRun2.
4. Don't have a smaller size. You know what they say about guys with small feet. They wear smaller shoes. :P
5. A tad heavy but not too extreme. Just heavier than what I'm used to I would say.

Conclusion:
Given the above, would I still go for this shoe? There is a high chance I may go for it if the smaller size fits better on my feet. I just need to confirm on the fitting around the ankle is all.

This shoe seems to be built for speed. Why do I say that? I don't know. It just feel that way what with the snug fit, the heel-drop ratio (which I don't know of), and how it feels like wearing it for a short time.

Truth be told, I've never been blown away by Puma's offering of running shoes. This however have changed my view on this matter. Puma seems to be moving slowly into the minimalist stream while still keeping half a feet in the mainstream shoe. They got some things right in this shoe, there's also lots of area for improvement on it. One thing for sure, I'll keep my eyes open for more Puma shoes next time.

For those interested in the shoe, you can get the Mobium Elite at the Puma store at The Curve Shopping Mall. Sorry but I forgot to check the price. If anyone of you happens to be there, do check it out and let me know.

p.s. They do not have any ladies size or offering of the Mobium Elite at the moment it seems. Wonder what the ladies will make of it. Hopefully the ladies version will come out soon since I know a friend who's interested in this shoe.

Edited: 4th March, 2013
p.p.s. Thanks to Wei Aun for checking out the price. Retail price is at RM 389, which puts it in the price range of Skechers GoRun2 and the GoBionic. I think I'm gonna have to go hunt for someone who has tried the shoes to give a proper review on this shoe.

Edited: 16th May, 2013
Additional information from Offshewent. Thank you so much for providing this information :)

Hi hi from Singapore. I chanced upon your blog when i was googling puma mobium to see who else was using it. I have a pair of the womens version, so far, after using it for 3 weeks, i feel that its built more for people who have neutral to normal arches. Flat footed people like me have to take a longer time to get used to it due its more slim fit design. Also, the shoe encourages the use of mid foot strike so those starting out to use the shoe might want to increase mileage slowly. I liked the fact that it really is quite light and conforms, not so good for trails though as gravel might get stuck in the grooves underneath where the band is. happy running! :)

Merrell Barefoot Road Glove Review

Shoes. I wonder how many passionate runners out in this world that will have only 1 pair of shoes. I know one and even that person is starting to get bitten by the running bug lol.

The main pair of shoes I usually run in is my Skechers GoRun. I've put in over 200 km over the pass 3 months in that shoes and I am still loving it. I'm however curious as to how much of an impact 200 km has made to the feel of the shoes, so Skechers, if you're reading this how bout it? Send me a new pair and let us see how much difference 200 km does to the GoRun? I'm sure there's lots to learn from this exercise.

Anyway, this post is mainly a review about the Merrell Barefoot Road Glove. I'm not too sure as to the popularity of Merrell in Malaysia but Vibram Five Fingers seems to be the rave around here.

A little info on the Merrell Barefoot line: Sometime in 2010, Merrell and Vibram teamed up to release a new line of minimalist/barefoot style shoes. Their first release was not until February 2011, the Merrell Barefoot Trail Glove which turns out to be a great hit. They subsequently released the Road version of their shoes and you guessed it, it's called Road Glove.

I was looking for a barefoot-style shoes to incorporate into my run as a way to build up my muscle and work on my form and like all Kiasu Malaysians, first thought that came to my mind was of course the VFF (Vibram Five Fingers). I gave them a try at Running Lab but unfortunately, my feet is too small and I have to go for the Women's size which I find a bit narrow. So after searching high and low for an alternative, I found out that Merrell was being sold by Running Lab and Royal Sporting House. Needless to say, I went shopping :D

The Shopping
I had a bit of difficulty in this department I went to my favorite running store, Running Lab, in Tropicana City Mall, but unfortunately they do only had the Flux Glove in Blue. The Flux Glove is a CT (Cross Training) shoes which has the upper of the Trail Glove and the out sole of the Road Glove. I wasn't too keen on the Blue and Orange color mix so off I went.

I next went to Stadiume in KLCC. Found the Road Glove, but unfortunately don't have my size. So I hopped over to Stadium at Pavillion and lo and behold they had my size. They however only have one color and it's Lime Green.

Anyone Green with Envy? Guess not :P

I was a little put off at first due to the following:

1. Green has never been my favorite color. I happen to be wearing jeans on that day but somehow or another, the color seems to fit nicely with jeans. And the best part is, it seems to grow on you. - Strike One!
2. For a barefoot style shoes, it's actually heavier than my Skechers GoRun, by a few ounce. The shoes also fit very snug and tight across the midsection. (Pardon me but I was a noob then) I was a little uncomfortable in it at first but I liked the roominess of the toe area a lot. I reasoned that since you have a roomy toe box, you have to secure your foot somewhere. - Strike 2!
3. I've done some research and was aware that there is a very pronounced bump at the arch area of one's foot. This got me very worried as I have been having my Plantar Fasciitis problem during that time. The bump actually pushes in toward my arch and I could feel it while standing in it. I tried running in place a bit to see how it felt. I could still feel the bump a bit. I was pretty hesitant bout buying the shoes even though Pete Larson has reassured in his Road Glove review that it's not an arch support per se. I studied the bottom of the shoes and confirmed that it's actually the curve of the out sole inward that causes the bump.  - Strike 3!

What sealed the deal was that there was a 30% discount on the shoes, bringing the price of the shoes down to the RM 250 range, nearly half the price of VFF!!! Being a Gung-ho at that time, I bought it and off I went being the happy owner of a pair of Barefoot Style Shoes.

The Construction

The Merrell Barefoot Road Glove is a 0 mm drop shoes with a stack height of 11 mm at both the heel and forefoot area. I'm actually quite surprised about this as the Skechers GoRun has a listed stack height of 14 mm at heel and 10 mm at forefoot and a whopping 19 mm at mid foot area!!! At first glance, you would think that there isn't much difference between these 2 shoes, but you would be wrong.

You see, the Skechers do not have an out sole/mid sole as most shoes have as they're using Resalyte. From what I understand, they've actually combined both out sole and mid sole into one component, you actually have quite a lot of cushioning from the Skechers. The Merrell however only have 4 mm of EVA cushioning for their mid sole, the rest of the stack heights, 7 mm of it, goes to the out sole as well as the insole. This mean, you'll definitely feel that pebble on the road, albeit not as painfully as truly running barefoot.

Very thin sole actually.

The construction of the out sole for Merrell also gives the illusion that this shoes come with a lot more cushioning. However, the fact is that the out sole curves over and onto the upper to facilitate the bonding of the out sole to the upper of the shoes. The heel counter/overlay is nicely placed to provide maximum grip on the back of your foot.

The Upper of the Road Glove is of excellent quality and well ventilated. I've never felt the inside of the shoes getting hot even when wearing them on hot days walking around for the whole day (while working in Sandakan). The toe box has plenty of room for your toes to splay out and my toe has never felt constricted once. The one complain I have is that the tongue has a tendency to slip out of place. I'm not sure whether it's my lacing or a problem with the shoe construction (maybe I'm too used to the Skechers sewn tongue) but the lace lock makes sure it doesn't stray too far. 

I MUST mention the liner of the Road Glove is unique. It's kinda furry to the feel (as can be seen in the first pic). It feels marvelous when you go sock less but when wearing socks, it tends to grip your socks, to the extend sometimes you can curl your toe up inside your socks without the socks moving in the shoes. It however doesn't interfere with the running and is something that you'll get used to. The integrated insole has no visible seam is of the same furry material. I've tried wearing the Road Glove sock less once and did not notice any hot spot at all so the Road Glove is definitely good news for those who loves to run sock less.

Check out the light green arch area

The out sole of the Road Glove is provided by Vibram. As you can see, it's a pretty unique design. The medial and later part of the sole is actually curved upward and inward toward your feet (see pic below to get a clearer picture of it). This is the cause of the bump that I felt while I was trying it out. Coupled with the lacing, it provides a solid grip of your feet from the mid area toward the back, ensuring that your feet don't go stumbling about in the shoes.

Inward curve of the arch area

In regards to the sole's traction, I'm a little disappointed in it at current time. On certain surfaces, it gets slippery when it's wet. Example, fungal grown rocks/ concrete area, synthetic running path. I'm not too sure if the traction will improve as I break in the shoes (it's only been like 30 km) but here's hoping it will. This situation has however proven to be a good thing as well. It doesn't allow me to over stride  and it forces me to push off properly so as not to waste any energy. See, there's always a positive side to things if you look for it.

Performance wise
As a casual wear shoes, the Road Glove is extremely comfortable IF, and this is a big if, you're comfortable with 0 drop or minimalist shoes. Reason being, even when walking, it activates different sets of muscles than traditional shoes. If you're used to walking barefoot for 2-3 hrs a day, then I'm sure you'll be fine. If you're not, don't be surprised if you do have some slight muscle ache the next day. Your feet WILL get tired in this shoes.

The Road Glove is a very good training shoes for running form. In runs, the first thing you will notice is the lack of cushioning in the Road Glove. If you don't land properly, you're gonna feel it in your ankle, your knees, your hip, and your back. You'll learn to get off your heels and land on your forefoot to mid foot  keeping your knees bent to absorb the shock of landing as well as to land close to your center line.

The next thing you'll realize is that you'll forget you're wearing a pair of shoes. Your body and your feet will automatically adjust to the surface you're running on. If the surface is slick, your stride shortens, you land lower with your toes more splayed. If it's harder and firmer, you get into a cycle fast. If it's grassy with roots, you get onto your toes and hop along, and when you step onto a pebble, you'll quickly notice and your foot will automatically lessen the pressure placed on that foot to continue on to the next step.

Remember the tight mid foot and the bump under the arch? In my run, it completely disappeared. I had no Plantar Fasciitis episode with the Road Glove at all. In fact, I hope that Royal Sporting House will continue to bring in Merrell shoes so I will always be able to get a pair to run in.

In fact, Royal Sporting House is currently having a 40% discount on the Merrell Barefoot line. This discount has brought the pricing of the Road Glove down to approximately RM 212. So, for those of  you who would like to improve  your running form, but does not care to run barefoot or find the VFF too expensive or unsuitable, go give the Road Glove a try.

A word of caution though. If you've never ran in a barefoot style shoes, please take your time making the transition to the Road Glove. You need to give your body some time to adapt and build up the musculature required for these shoes. I've had a lot of muscle soreness from just using this shoes for walk when I first got them. Running in them when you're not ready can lead to some pretty severe muscle pain if you're not careful. Below are some links to resources on how to transition to a barefoot style shoes so feel free to look through them.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.it/education_why_barefoot.aspx
http://www.merrell.com/US/en/BarefootConnection
Principles of Natural Running with Dr. Mark Cucuzzella - YouTube
Are you ready to go Minimal?



Happy running folks. I hope the review would be of some use to some people.

May your run be swifts and graceful.

Summary
Pros:

1. Lightweight barefoot style shoes. Excellent for form and gait training.
2. Disappear from your feet once you start running.
3. Excellent upper and lining.
4. Don't receive weird look like VFF.

Cons:

1. Out sole does not have a good grip. Not too sure if it's coz it's not broken in yet or what. I'll update if there's a change to it.
2. Shoe Lace is a little on the short side. I can't tie it the way I showed in my Tying the Knots post.

Running Academy and I

Had a great time this  morning. Instead of going for my normal Easy run this morning in my Merrell Road Glove, I decided to join the Running Academy at Lake Garden, jointly organized by Skechers Malaysia and KuMoves. The workshop is conducted on every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month and registration can be done at here. They start the workshop at 7.30am and I was there by 7.15am. I was surprised to find that the parking was nearly full! Apparently there's 2 entrance and I've headed to one of the more popular one. I'll try the other one next time round.

While there, I bumped into Lorna Roderick nee Wong and Markus Kus who's part of KL Runners. It was a nice and pleasant surprise, especially after I found out they're helping out with the Workshop. There were quite a bunch of us there, approximately 15, with a healthy mix of Noobs like me, and more experienced people.

Apparently I got into their 4th session where they have a performance check/challenge going on. We started off with a 2K warm up where we had a group of runners chasing another, kind of like Police and Thief. Once caught, the one chased became the chaser. We follow that up with other games to get the heart rate up. What really got to me was the stairs repeat. 10 years of lack of exercise really catch up to you then. My quads tightened up and I had difficulties coming down the stairs. Needless to say, I'm pretty much bummed after that :P

I would say that, the workshop is very very nice, with lots of information and different type of exercises which you can pick  up and incorporate into your ordinary routine. It may however be a tad tough to newcomers. We had a bunch of early leavers and a girl that stayed for all the exercise emptied her breakfast after a very valiant effort to hold it in.

To people who sees this as a challenge to overcome, and as a new baseline  to work on and get better at, this is a good workshop to come for. Personally, I found out the weaker points of myself where I need to improve on in 1 session and will be working on it to get better.  For others however, they may get the wrong impression whereby this workshop is not too friendly/useful for new runners. Don't get me wrong, the organizers are nice and friendly and I can see that they are trying to make things fun and interesting to the runners. It's just that some newer runners than me may find it a bit tough to keep up.

Hopefully the organizer can address this issue especially since it's in their agenda to get people to run again. Looking forward to more sessions and more people joining in the workshop.

Being lazy on the blog

Ok, I'm not actually being lazy but catching up with work and family after the long trip to Sandakan.

Just a bit of update, I've finished my 5K run and have registered for Brooks Half Marathon 10K run on 3rd March. I was tempted to go for Half-Marathon in the beginning but thank God for some cool headed advice from my dad. Looking at the training plans out there, I doubt I could actually make it at all and end up burning myself  up.

So instead of setting such a high goal for myself, I've decided to just go for 10K and most importantly, enjoy the journey toward the Marathon milestone and not rush myself into it. Things will only get better as long as you learn to enjoy the journey there.

In terms of gears, there's been a few changes as below:

I've gotten a Merrell Road Glove to use as a form trainer. I HAVE to say, a 0 drop non-cushioned shoe is ABSOLUTELY and TOTALLY different from the Skechers GoRun. 4mm made a lot of difference. My calf ache every time after a run in them. Hopefully I'll get better as I continue to train in them.

Merrell Barefoot Road Glove

I think I am now pretty sure what type of shoes that I like. Both the Merrell and the Skechers disappear from my thought as I run in them. It doesn't get in the way of feeling what's under the feet, it's light and it provides my toes flexing spaces. Seriously, it's liberating to be running in these shoes.

I've also gotten myself a technical shirt from Salomon. I usually run in any plain old cotton T-shirts but I've found them getting more and more uncomfortable as the mileage increases and the T-shirts get heavier, wetter and clingier. Seriously, they feel like they've just came out of the washing machine. -_-''' I've done 2 run in the technical shirt and I'm happy to say I love the feel. My first run was aborted due to sudden rainfall. SO I had to run back in the rain with everyone driving looking at me like I'm a dunce, but it was fun to run in the rain XD. I reached home soaked through the top. The shirt does cling to me but not in an icky sort of way, instead it stretches and conform to me when it needs to and hang lose when it can. It also got freaking cold when it clings to you as the water start being wicked away.

Check out the wickedly cool design.

The 2nd time was helping a friend to train, running a relatively "easy" 5K. I wasn't too sweaty and the shirt isn't too wet this time round, but even then, when the shirt comes in contact with you, it feels cool. I guess this is because the shirt kind of promotes evaporation. This was proven quite true when I washed the shirt. It dries super fast compared to my other shirts. Of course the color scheme of the shirt's a killer ;)

I've also gone out to grab myself a running jacket for the rainy season so that I can continue my run. I've had to move my run outside as the pool area walkway is roofed and it's surrounded by 4 tall buildings, thus the GPS signal is terrible. I'm currently using iSmoothRun to capture my data and even though it has an accelerometer mode, it's not overly accurate yet as it relies on previous data to do some calculation algorithm. It is however a wonderful app as I can have all sort of integration with it.

Be that as it may, I'm planning to go shopping for more shirts, shorts and a water bottle to facilitate my long runs on weekends so it's "Ho Ho Ho" for the shop owners and "ouch ouch ouch" for my wallet.

Running Shoes and Shopping

Shopppinnnggggg!!! A word that would stir any ladies heart. Combine the word with Running Shoes and most runners will be going Oooooo as well.That is of course, if there is no budget limitation lol.

I've just stumbled onto a post by Jay Dicharry, author of Anatomy for Runners: Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention. He's also the Director of SPEED Performance Clinic and the Motion Analysis Lab Coordinator at the University of Virginia. But I digress. The post can be found here and mainly discusses on Tips for Running Shoes Selection.

Having bought my own shoes just recently, I can say that there's some truth in this. A shoe that does not feel comfortable may not feel the same way when you're running. Take the Skechers GoRun for example. It feels weird when standing on it. The only reason it got sold on me was because it's super light and when I was jumping on it, it felt different, with more firmness than I thought it would feel.

So when you buy your running shoes next time, do remember what's been discussed by Jay Dicharry in his post.

Running and Shoes dilemma

Let's talk shoes today. I have a major big issue with shoes nowadays. All my shoes have gotten uncomfortable.

What happen you may ask. God knows. Ever since picking up running, I've noticed that my feet seems to have change by quite a bit. My feet arch seems to have gotten higher, my feet shorter, and the toes area wider. Not just that. I've also developed Plantar Fasciitis and can't seem to tolerate overly cushioned shoes as well as any shoes with heels. All this in a matter of 1 month.

I've always bought shoes for comfort. I now have a dilemma whereby my ubber soft cushioned Camel shoes is now too softly cushioned, my super light and comfy Clarks have become too tight across the toes, and my Hush Puppies (Just bough -_-''') and it's heel is no longer comfortable.

Due to all these, I've now taken to not wearing shoes as much as possible. Every Monday morning, when I put on my work shoes, it feels as if my toes are being cramped and pushed together. There's also the higher heel to toe offset that gives me heel pain as well as a possibility of aggravating my Plantar Fasciitis if worn for too long. It's so uncomfortable nowadays that I have to take off my shoes as soon as I reached office.

I'm not sure how many of you guys and gals out there face the same problem as me. But I'll need to look for alternative Working shoes. I can always opt for barefoot or sandals or Minimalist shoes or even "Barefoot Shoes" for casual wear, but Work/Dress shoes are a big headache. I've done some research and have found 2 possible candidate for replacement.

Merrell Tough Glove

Vivobarefoot Ra

Both the above shoes are unfortunately not available in Malaysia. So now I'm undecided as to whether I import them in or just bear with the discomfort.

Sigh.