On Cloudmonster 3 Hyper - First Run
Haven’t seen anyone posting about it yet so I thought I’d share my thoughts.
About Me: 37M, 5’8”, 165lbs. Training for a 1:30 HM. My PRs is a 42min 10k, and 1:10 10mi. I am currently rebuilding from a calf strain. Easy pace 9:00-9:30. I have a mid volume foot (typically have to use a runners knot on ASICS) with a midfoot strike. My current rotation is Zoom Fly 6 for speed work, threshold, long runs. Megablast for easy/interval, and long runs. Sky Tokyo for race. I primarily run 4 days a week, and strength train the other 3. 174 cadence today.
What this shoe is intended to do for me: 2hr LSS running, and something I can take on trips and do other workouts in.
Fit: It fits great. TTS is 10.5 for me. No runners knot or special lacing needed. The heel fit great, no slippage. The tongue is thin with enough padding so I don’t get lace bite.
Sole: My run today was one of those where dressmyrun was trying to convince me to stay inside. 20-30mph winds, rain the whole time. No issues with grip or slipping across asphalt and the occasional wood bridge.
Ride: This is a firm, responsive, protective ride. Although today’s pace was faster than I bought it for, it handled it well. The rocker on this is great, more on that down below in comparisons. It rolled through without and hitches or flat landings no matter how I ran.
Run: I took them out for a 8mi run. I wanted to see how it handled a faster 7:45mi pace. The CM3H just locked in and I didn’t have to think about it. It handled the pace great, the ride was responsive and controlled. The grip in the rain was solid. I had no heel slippage. Up and down hills had no issue. The midfoot lock down was perfect. I took them to a sub 6min pace towards the end and it picked up well. No issue with turn over.
Opinion: it was only my first run and I will take them on a long slow steady later this week and will report back. But it think this maybe exactly what I was looking for. I also travel a bit, and was trying to find a shoe to bring a long for multiple different workouts. The price is up there, but compared to all the other top shoes out there, $10-$20 extra doesn’t bother me if it can keep me from hurting and help stave off injury. If this does slow well, then it’s the best multipurpose shoe I’ve tried in the past 6 months.
Comparisons:
Why I got it: I have the Megablast, Hyperion Max 3, and Zoom Fly 6. The Megablast is great, but not for me at my easy pace. Too much bounce. The Hyperion Max 3 is fun, but heavy and my legs felt thrashed after 10 miles. The zoom fly is my favorite but is dull when slow. I’ve read a ton on the Vomero+ and Superblast 3, and was eyeing those as potential candidates. Recently the On Cloudmonster 3 Hyper has been reviewing well, but I hadn’t seen any feedback here. Luckily my local running store had all three in stock and I went to test run in them. The Vomero Plus felt great but I could definitely tell feel the big heel/drop in them. The Superblast 3 felt great, much better than the Superblast 2, which felt like a slappy brick, even after putting 50 miles on them. The On Cloudmonster 3 Hyper felt also great. I then did back to back test runs on them in store.
The main differences between the Superblast 3 (SB3) and Cloudmonster 3 Hyper (CM3H) I felt was the SB3 was much softer in the forefoot, the SB3 was much wider, and the rockers felt different. The forefoot softness was great in the SB3. The width however was the main issue for me. Through my landing and transition I felt the SB3 aggressively rotate my foot inward. The CM3H felt like it helped correct but was much smoother, mainly to it feeling less wide. The rocker was slightly different but I could cruise in either.
Megablast - a great shoe. Megablast is lighter, but with a worse lockdown for me. I have to be careful when I lace up otherwise I do get lace bit from it. The feel is different, Megablast has immediate return upon impact, the CM3H is supportive but doesn’t propel me the same. Megablast is will stay as a tempo/threshold/progressive long run shoe for me.
Zoom Fly 6: this is my favorite trainer. I have multiple pairs. The ZF6 is less stable in the heel, but at pace it just works. It’s dull when slow for me, hence the search for an easy day shoe. This is my primary speed/progressive long run shoe.
I’ll update after my 11mi slow run this week, but I’ll try to answer anything in the meantime.