The midsole is a bit of a confusing experience for me. Not having run in a lot of carbon plated shoes, I was expecting a certain pop with a higher level foam combo with the plate. I don't really get that experience underfoot with this shoe and my mechanics.
And I think that is where to take this part of the review. I have a longer stride, slower cadence type of running cycle. When I run more like my natural way of running, the shoe is a bit clunky to me and I don't get much out of it. However, when I shorted my stride and pick up the cadence, this shoe becomes very smooth and very very efficient. On one of my longer runs I was purposely trying to change up where I was landing and my cadence to find a pocket where I fit with the shoe and it is is mid to forefoot strike with a higher cadence. My natural stride is mid to heel strike with slower cadence.
A shoe I think is a great comparison is the Puma Deviate Nitro 4. I have done some runs in that shoe and simply haven't gotten much out of them. It has confused me a bit because that is a very popular trainer that gets a lot of kudos, but it just never does much for me. (Version 3 same issue). I think this shoe has helped me figure that out, because the specs on the shoes are very similar to that shoe. If you are a fan of the Puma Deviate Nitro series at $170 bucks, you might want to give this shoe a chance at under $120 bucks.
So for me, this is probably not a shoe I will turn to much as it doesn't fit my mechanics the best, but that is not the shoes fault. I hope Qiaodan updates the base model with this type of upper and outsole and they are greatly improved and the prices are almost the same, plus I got along with that midsole more.
But......back to the efficiency note. When I would find the pocket of a quicker cadence and settle into that, I would not notice my pace until I looked down a couple of times and found I was going much quicker than I felt. So, again, if you are a faster cadence type of runner this shoe may be a great match for you because I hit some very nice paces without feeling like I was "working for it" and my legs felt great.
One additional note: I did originally get a bit of heel pain on my first run in the shoe, so I pulled back a bit on my long runs. With that said, I did not have a repeat of that issue and my heel was fine after the 11 mile run. So, this may or may not have had anything to do with the shoe or maybe the plate just needed to loosen a bit, but I wanted to make sure to note that. FYI, I also have issues with plated/unflexible shoes at times.
