I wore adidas Adizero Prime X 2.0 Running Shoes for parkrun, here’s what happened

First up. these shoes are race illegal so apologies for cheating. Sort of. They’re not illegal for parkrun nor triathlon nor, in reality, any race that you or I are likely to run and even if we did, I’m sure the officials wouldn’t care 🙂

Spoiler Alert: I didn’t get a PB/PR

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adidas Adizero Prime X 2.0

These are good-looking shoes.

I ordered mine from adidas last week and the sizes available were highly limited so I got a whole size larger than I normally would. I’m using orthotics at the moment so I figured that might make up the difference. It didn’t. In hindsight, the orthotics probably make a half-size difference so Prime Zero X 2 turned out to be half a size too big in real terms. My bad.

However, I prefer a wider, freer toe box and usually adjust my lacing accordingly. The problem with these shoes is that there is only limited scope to do that. There is little scope for alternate lacing patterns especially if you still want to attach a Stryd pod (which I do). It all turned out to be OK though as the larger size shoe effectively gave me the toebox room I wanted.

Shoe Lace Pattern Optimisation – Ideal lacing pattern for running shoes

The other issue is getting into the shoes. The tongue, as such, doesn’t exist as a separate piece of fabric and is integrally attached to either side of these shoes. The ‘tongue’ still has quite a bit of give in it but even with the laces fully loosened off it was a bit of a squeeze getting my foot in and something in the heel support of the shoe scrunched a bit as I forced my way in. That’s not a problem as of today but I would imagine will compromise the structural integrity of the shoe relatively quickly and hence reduce its potential lifespan.

I like cushioned shoes and seem to keep injury-free when I wear them. These adidas shoes must be the most cushioned shoes I’ve ever worn and WAY more cushioned than something like a Hoka Rincon. But with the expected speed boost to come from Prime X 2.0, Rincon might be left wanting. they are probably even a bit more cushioned than the Nike AirFly/VaporFly. When walking around they feel pretty similar to the other so-called super shoes, they’ve got 10mm or so more cushioning but if no one had told me that I’d be none the wiser.

However, I bought these shoes to run in. Not walk in.

I like the feel of the shoe when running. Perhaps they are a tad unstable? Perhaps they feel a bit sluggish on the dry, compact gravel of Bushy Park parkrun on a sunny day? What I did notice and like was that the forefoot cushioning was excellent. At least for me and how I run, this is probably the first time that my forefoot has felt properly cushioned rather than ‘just a bit cushioned’. As a sometimes forefoot-striker this helps and helps me feel like I’m not whacking the ground and jarring my body a few times each second. Also, I could really notice the forefoot sole rocker – aka, I seemed to be forced to pivot more ahead of my arch and forced to toe-off more…which is probably a good thing.

The size-too-bigness of my shoes was noticeable around the heel. I had to overtighten the laces to secure my foot & ankle in place, and even then I’d say it wasn’t as locked as I would have liked it. That’s not the end of the world but it will stop me from putting elasticated laces in these shoes with this sizing.

Bushy Park parkrun – my first run in these Prime X 2.0

30 Seconds faster than I expected over 5k

I’ve done this parkrun many times as it’s one of my locals. Despite the closeness, I’ve neglected parkruns for many months now for a variety of reasons, not least a bout of Covid a few weeks ago. Anyway, that was my excuse for potentially doing badly leading into the race. As it turned out, I got in the upper 70s per cent for the Age Grading so I was very pleasantly pleased with that. A pretty decent performance but not at a good enough level to be competitive in duathlon/triathlon. I’m in a good place to improve for next year though.

During the race, I hadn’t calibrated Stryd for these shoes so I was hoping it was OK with whatever calibration it currently has. Stryd turned out to be spot-on with instant pace but I didn’t trust it at the time thus I was running faster than my planned pace and at a notably higher planned power level. I was about 30 seconds faster than I expected to be, which was 30 seconds faster than the Garmin race preditor said I would be.

A day after the race, I was disappointed with Garmin’s race predictor still saying I was 30 seconds slower than the reality I achieved the day before. Very strange. All I can think of for that is that the recorded race distance on the Garmin was 4.99km and maybe it didn’t trigger the 5k algorithm. If so, that’s a bit rubbish. (OK it’s a lot useless)

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Did the Prime X 2.0 Running Shoes make me faster?

A: Probably

But I can’t credit them with the full 30 seconds.

I was all supplemented up and a little bit tapered up to maximise whatever fitness was in me and the conditions were good, so the adidas shoes are just one of several factors that helped on the day.

They certainly didn’t make me slower. I’ll definitely be using them again.

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