Disclaimer: The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Mizuno.

I first fell in love with Mizuno running shoes about a year ago. I headed to my local running store with every intention of simply replacing my worn down Brooks Ghost 4 with the 5’s. Instead of just grabbing the shoes and leaving, I decided to do a gait analysis and let the sales associates make some suggestions. I had felt like a Brooks loyalist, but was open to trying new shoes if it meant a more comfortable ride. I was happy that the Ghost were among the shoes suggested to me, but so was the Mizuno Wave Rider 15. I put them on and was immediately sold… I didn’t even have to jog around the store like they encourage. Here I am a year later on my third pair, and I’ve even added a pair of racing flats (Wave Ronin) to the mix. So when the opportunity to get a sneak peek at the Mizuno Wave Sayonara became available through Fitfluential, I immediately signed up and crossed my fingers. I received the shoes about 2 weeks ago, and have been running in them more and more ever since.

Admittedly when I started running I didn’t know anything about running shoes, and I’m far from an expert. I ran my very first race in a pair of year old Nike Shox; thinking about that now makes me cringe. As I’ve gotten more and more into running, though, I’ve learned to appreciate the importance of a good shoe, and come to understand what different types of shoes can do for different types of running. I also like the idea of being able to switch it up throughout the week – putting the same shoes on day after day isn’t much fun anyway. While I’m far from a serious shoe hoarder (I’ve seen pictures of some of your closets!) I have no problem keeping quite a few pairs of good shoes in rotation.

Now onto the important stuff: the shoes. I wanted to take my time with them and try a few different runs over the course of the two weeks I had them in order to get a good feel. The Wave Sayonara feels very much like my Wave Riders, so it was easy to put them on and just start running, even though they’re almost a full two ounces lighter. The Wave Riders are 9 ounces, while the Sayonara are only 7.1 ounces of awesome. I am picky when it comes to the upper of my sneaker because my feet are sensitive and too much “junk” up top can leave my metatarsals and phalanges sore. These definitely embrace the less-is-more mantra and are minimal when it comes to fabric and material on top (which I love). They also have textured laces and notches on the shoes themselves which help keep them in place. The soles have awesome traction (I took them out in the rain and didn’t feel like I was slipping at all), and the colors are nice and bright just like all of the Mizuno shoes. I tried to come up with a Pro and Con list, but could honestly only come up with one negative; the laces are on the shorter side which can be tricky for a double knotter (like me).

These sneakers have been worn on easy runs, long-ish runs (10 miles), and tempo runs… And also video-ing runs, as you can see from above. They’ve been great, and everyone that I’ve talked to who also has a pair seems to love them just as much as I do. In fact, fellow Mizuno obsessed runner Ashley and I decided to put together a little speed workout to celebrate the Sayonara launch. We figured strides would be a quick, fun, and easy workout for anyone and everyone to do. The whole point of a stride is to add some quick turnover work, that can really be done at any point within a workout, and even after any kind of workout. What do I mean by that? I mean that at the end of a 10 mile run, in theory, you should still have enough energy to throw in a few strides. This particular workout is stride-specific, meaning you’re really just focusing on those sprint bursts with an easy mile on each side. I’ve found that in the event you aren’t on a track, simply starting off easy and picking it up to a full sprint for about 30-40 seconds total will get you about 100 meters, give or take. Feel free to take a few seconds rest in between each stride, but you shouldn’t need more than 15 seconds or so.

So the bottom line is that yes, these shoes were sent to me to review, but I would absolutely spend my own money on them. I’m a Mizuno fan that had high hopes for these shoes, and these definitely didn’t disappoint. They’re available as of July 5th, so go and check them out!

Do you wear different sneakers for different kinds of runs?