Doing nearly 1000 km on a pair of shoes is as good an excuse as any to get a new pair. So last week when I saw I’d done 993 km in my Altra Superior 4.0s, I jumped on Amazon to order a pair of Altra Superior 4.5s.
Not that the 4.0s look or feel like they need replacing. They’ve not showing much signs of wear, and I’m not going to retire them yet. I’ll rotate them for trail runs with the new Superiors and my King MTs. I might use them for faster trail runs as they are lighter and do feel nimbler than the 4.5s.
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| Old meets new! New Altra Superior 4.5s (left) and 4.0s with 993 km (right) |
The same with more padding
The 4.5s weigh 280 grams versus the 245 grams for the 4.0s (US size 11). That’s quite a big difference.
I’m guessing most of that extra weight has gone into the extra padding you feel around your foot. (Is that what they call the “upper”?)
For me that has meant a better fit with the 4.5s. I got a blister on the heel of my slightly smaller foot when I started wearing the 4.0s. I felt a warm spot in the same place on my first longish run in the 4.5s, but it never went any further.
The 4.5s feel quite stiff, too. Stiffer than my 4.0s right now at least, but that might be because the 4.5s are newer. Regardless of whether the 4.5s are actually stiffer or not out of the box, hopefully they will soften with time.
In any case, in this update there’s not too much change to a shoe I’ve enjoyed running in. Thank you, Altra! I’m still a fan.
(I currently own six pairs of Altras I run in — the three trail shoes I mentioned above plus two pairs of Escalantes 1.5s and a pair of Altra One 2.5s. I’ve worn nothing else since I bought my first pair of Altras (the Superior 1.5) in 2014.)
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