Mizuno Wave Ronin review

(Originally published July 30, 2011)

[This continues the reviews of my shoes of 2011 to date.  Yesterday was the Brooks Green Silence]

The Ronin is a shoe I bought for three reasons.  One, it seemed sorta like the Brooks Green Silence.  Two, it had a much wider toe box than the Brooks Green Silence and three, it was on closeout at Running Warehouse.  Out on the run, it did feel sort of like the Green Silence as far as weight, cushioning and heel height go, but more like a regular shoe in other ways – regular lacing, fit, etc. – and was definitely wider.  For long runs it was great because I did not have to worry about my foot swelling at all.  There was plenty of space for the toes in there.

I bought these in the winter, breaking my vow to never buy Mizuno’s in the winter.  Why?  That little pocket under the heel of Mizuno running shoes becomes a super-collector of slushy snow when conditions are right and this forms into a nice ice rock which then needs to be removed every few blocks.  Having multiple pairs of shoes allowed me to simply choose a different pair when the conditions warranted.  The extra width of the shoe did allow me to wear heavier wool socks a few times when it got very cold.

With both the Ronin and Green Silence I could tell from the wear pattern that the heel height was enough that I was still hitting the heel lightly when I ran despite concentrated efforts to shift to a midfoot/forefoot landing.  For long runs I still like this elevation as I’m not quite ready to shift to a zero-drop or even a 3-4mm drop for 15+ mile runs.

I don’t really have any major complaints with the Ronin.  It was a good fitting, lightweight (9.3 oz size 12), comfortable shoe.  I liked the yellow color quite a bit, though other people may not.  The new Ronin 3 is black and I'm not really a black running shoe fan.  The Mizunos have almost 400 miles on them and they’re still going strong.