Sometime this summer I did try to compare the New Bance 880v4 and New Balance 890v4. I guess my initial review was not that great and I did not do justice to 890v4. I had run max 10K before that. Now that I am done with my #STWM Half Marathon, I was back at testing different shoes. I would not risk to switch to any other shoe other than New Balance 880v4.
I had 2 main options I got the On Cloud Running and New Balance 890v4. I gave up on Cloud runner after my first run it did not like me and the feeling was mutual. For a month now I have been running with New Balance 890v4 and I have done few long runs on it.
Weight
So the specs for New Balance 890v4 say it weighs 240gm which is about 30gm lighter than the 880v4. Now with i being on healthy side one would say that 30gm is nothing. But trust me I can feel that difference while running and New Balance 890v4 feels lot lighter when running.
Top
The mesh and top portion for both feels same and I think even though the new balance site might list something more or less i think they are more about the same.
Sole and Cushion.
From my experience with 880v4 I can tell that once you go past 10K you start to feel every cushioning go away, you can feel every pebble and crack on the road. To be honest I have not run more than 10K on my 890v4 and I probably won't because the sole has less cushioning than 880v4. Both the soles are really flexible and strong and the I get similar wear pattern on both.
8mm drop Vs 12mm drop
So this was something that I did not thing would make difference to my running, but I was totally wrong. One thing that I learned from my summer runs with 890v4 was that it made me a more forefoot running. This less drop makes a big difference and I really carried that even when I switched to 880v4. For any heel runner this is something worth trying and I can tell you that it hurts as hell when you switch to fore foot or mid foot running. I had aches and pain all over but as time went by things got better. There is no way you can run anything more than 10K with heel strike especially if you plan to keep doing it again and again. So trying any shoe with 8mm drop or New balance 890v4 might be worth trying this.
Feel
Now we always talk about cushioning with respect to impact, but one area where New Balance 890v4 is really better is the cushioning inside and at the back of ankle. I felt that 880v4 has really hard it gets hard as you run on the ankle part and I got shoe bites on the top part of ankle. Where as with 890v4 it feels more soft and it keeps that feeling much longer.
Summary
To be honest both 880v4 and 890v4 are really good shoes and they offer something slightly different and both appeal me. Especially if you are bit a heavy runner and prefer cushioning it makes sense to run with 880v4. At the same time for short distances upto 10K or 10 miles it may make sense to use 890v4. The 8mm drop does force you to be a fore foot or a mid foot runner and that is somthing that I wanted to switch too. With the less cushioning from 890v4 there is no way you are going to like the heel strikes and you will be forced to go mid foot. I still will keep 880v4 around for long distances and probably run alternate between 880v4 and 890v4. You can use 890v4 as a race day shoe just do practice with it , so you know when it starts to break during long run.
So back to my running blog and I ran 8K with 890v4 today, the weather was chilly but after few mins it was all good. We went through a new path and we west east to broad view on Queen. Than through river st and the park way back to the Bercy park. The trees are really beautiful now it was scenic run. Here is how the run went.
I had 2 main options I got the On Cloud Running and New Balance 890v4. I gave up on Cloud runner after my first run it did not like me and the feeling was mutual. For a month now I have been running with New Balance 890v4 and I have done few long runs on it.
Weight
So the specs for New Balance 890v4 say it weighs 240gm which is about 30gm lighter than the 880v4. Now with i being on healthy side one would say that 30gm is nothing. But trust me I can feel that difference while running and New Balance 890v4 feels lot lighter when running.
Top
The mesh and top portion for both feels same and I think even though the new balance site might list something more or less i think they are more about the same.
Sole and Cushion.
From my experience with 880v4 I can tell that once you go past 10K you start to feel every cushioning go away, you can feel every pebble and crack on the road. To be honest I have not run more than 10K on my 890v4 and I probably won't because the sole has less cushioning than 880v4. Both the soles are really flexible and strong and the I get similar wear pattern on both.
8mm drop Vs 12mm drop
So this was something that I did not thing would make difference to my running, but I was totally wrong. One thing that I learned from my summer runs with 890v4 was that it made me a more forefoot running. This less drop makes a big difference and I really carried that even when I switched to 880v4. For any heel runner this is something worth trying and I can tell you that it hurts as hell when you switch to fore foot or mid foot running. I had aches and pain all over but as time went by things got better. There is no way you can run anything more than 10K with heel strike especially if you plan to keep doing it again and again. So trying any shoe with 8mm drop or New balance 890v4 might be worth trying this.
Feel
Now we always talk about cushioning with respect to impact, but one area where New Balance 890v4 is really better is the cushioning inside and at the back of ankle. I felt that 880v4 has really hard it gets hard as you run on the ankle part and I got shoe bites on the top part of ankle. Where as with 890v4 it feels more soft and it keeps that feeling much longer.
Summary
To be honest both 880v4 and 890v4 are really good shoes and they offer something slightly different and both appeal me. Especially if you are bit a heavy runner and prefer cushioning it makes sense to run with 880v4. At the same time for short distances upto 10K or 10 miles it may make sense to use 890v4. The 8mm drop does force you to be a fore foot or a mid foot runner and that is somthing that I wanted to switch too. With the less cushioning from 890v4 there is no way you are going to like the heel strikes and you will be forced to go mid foot. I still will keep 880v4 around for long distances and probably run alternate between 880v4 and 890v4. You can use 890v4 as a race day shoe just do practice with it , so you know when it starts to break during long run.
So back to my running blog and I ran 8K with 890v4 today, the weather was chilly but after few mins it was all good. We went through a new path and we west east to broad view on Queen. Than through river st and the park way back to the Bercy park. The trees are really beautiful now it was scenic run. Here is how the run went.
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