 All right, I'm all laced up, ready to go for the first impressions of the Altra. Paradigm 4.5, and I have to ask at the beginning question of the day, are you a stability runner, stability running shoe runner, or neutral? This is really, and so just one word down below, stability or neutral? If you want to explain why, that's fair too, but this is important for me to hear and read your comments because I'm guessing a lot of you will be neutral. I also want to know if there's 40% who enjoy stability running shoes, I want to give you an opportunity to share your thoughts on stability running shoes as well moving forward on this YouTube channel. There we go. All right, first impression run in the books, eight miles, about 730 a mile as far as the pace goes, and I never start with fit, but I have to bring it up so I don't forget. My feet are swimming in my true to size, okay? So I should have gone a half size down, Altra, if you didn't know, is very well known for having a very wide toe box because they want your toes to splay and spread out basically what they believe is as natural as possible, which I would say is probably true. I tell you what though, I am swimming in this toe box and not sure I like it at this point as far as that feel. Now the ride was nice and we'll get to more of this in the studio, but just wanted to make that clear. I should have gone a half size down for fit, oh man, and the lock down in the heel is a little loose too. All right. See you in the studio. All right, everyone. Here we go. First impressions of the Altra Paradigm 4.5, a maximalist road running shoe from Altra, definitely maximalist and I just have to say at the front real quick, I was incorrect. I did go a half size down and it's still too big, therefore I should have gone a full size down. I've never had to do that before, a full size. I don't know what's going on and maybe you could shed some light if you're a Paradigm fan. What's going on here? So fit, fit, fit. Make sure you go to a running shoe store, call Altra, try and get to the bottom of this. I can't believe how big it's running at a half size down for me. Okay. Jumping into a few specs real quick. We're looking at a 30 millimeter stack height all the way from heel to toe. That's quite a bit. That's why it falls into the maximalist category and here's what's crazy. So they have a great, I'm just going to say a great insole inside this shoe. They're calling it a five millimeter sculpted footbed, okay? And I must say that I like a really well made insole. Now it adds a little weight to the shoe. We're going to talk about that in a second, but overall this insole, I don't usually talk about insoles, but this one really jumped out at me. So good work, Altra on the insole here in this Altra Paradigm 4.5. And of course I should mention it's a zero drop. So 30 millimeters in the heel, 30 millimeters in the forefoot for the weight. Men's size nine, 11.2 ounces or 318 grams. Whoa. Whoa. That's a lot everybody for weight. Here it is in my size on your screen, so you can kind of compare it to some other shoes that I've weighed for you. So listen, I didn't necessarily feel the weight on my feet today, but that's quite a bit for a daily road running shoe. Now trail shoes often will fall into that weight class, but for a road shoe that is pretty heavy, but you know my thesis, right? I'm not afraid to train in a heavier shoe. In fact, I sometimes I invite it into the stable of running shoes because when you put on a racing shoe that's really lightweight, your feet and your legs are just going to be so happy because they're like, oh my gosh, I don't have to carry around, you know, 9.3 ounces in my size. So anyway, just keep that in mind as far as weight goes. It is a heavy daily trainer, absolutely. For the Paradigm 4.5's upper, it's feeling, it's a knit upper and it's feeling a little thick and a little warm and today was 97 in Denver. So it was definitely warm and I could feel it today now. I wasn't sweating a ton. I was going about 7.30 pace as I mentioned earlier, but I could foresee this knit upper retaining a little bit of moisture from your sweat or maybe it's drizzling out or whatever the case may be. So that might be something to watch out for if you live in a really, I don't know, if you live on roads that get a lot of water or if you just sweat a lot, you might want to keep that in mind. I could see this knit upper holding water in, which of course would add more weight to the shoe. And for the lockdown for the upper, I wish I could give you more intel, but I can't because my foot is swimming so much inside the shoe, even though I went a half size down. It felt fine, but I think if I would have nailed the sizing a little bit better, I could give you more analysis as far as the lockdown. The knit is definitely, I would say, well, it's not too flexible. Okay. All right. It's not as nimble or as malleable as I thought, but anyway, keep that in mind that I'm just not quite honed in yet on the lockdown feel through the midfoot in the paradigm. And for that 30 millimeter stack height in the midsole, they use this guide rail and then these stability pods right above the outsole to create that stability in the shoe. And I must say pulling it out of the box, I was pretty concerned because it felt pretty stiff and I couldn't do the twist, you know, I'm more of a neutral running shoe guy, as you know. And so I was just, I was pretty concerned, but once I took the shoe out on the road today, and I don't know if it was because it was so hot today, the midsole and the guide rail worked really well. It didn't feel too rigid. Sometimes like, okay, the Brooks Ravenna nines, I tried last year to help with my plantar fasciitis. Bad idea. I took them back. And so those felt, the Ravenna nines felt really rigid to me and I don't usually like that feeling. So I was concerned, but guess what? This guide rail and stability pods, no issue at all with rigidity. For comfort, the overall comfort was there and the ride was nice. It was nice. Like through the gate cycle. It was, it was nice today. I guess I'm not sure about the collar of the shoe. So what wraps around your ankle, it has quite a bit of cushion, but it feels like the cushion is not, is not sewed in tight enough. So it's not quite hugging around my ankle well enough. So anyway, I'm a little concerned about this collar and the, like no major issues, but I'm just going to monitor that a little closer as far as comfort through the collar. And you know how much I love a good, that heel and how it's locked down in the heel counter. So this heel counter is pretty, you can see it there. Like it's just pretty flexible. So got to figure out this collar area a little bit more. I will do that once we get to the 50 mile mark. And for a positive and a negative, here we go. The positive, I think it has to be the fact that it is a stability shoe, but it doesn't really feel like a stability shoe, not too rigid. And since I'm more of a neutral running shoe guy, in fact, almost exclusively, that makes me very, very happy. So maybe you're a runner that has a little bit of pronation and you just need some help through your foot strike to stay a little straighter. Maybe your doctor is telling you you need to work on your ankles, lining up better with your feet. So this might be an option for you if you like the neutral feel. But once again, get into a running shoe store because the negative has to be the fact that it's running so big on me. And maybe I just completely missed the mark, but I did go a half size down. I think I can resolve it with some thicker socks. So I plan on trying some dry max socks that I own to help fill the inner cavity of this paradigm 4.5. But that is my drawback. My negative is that it's just big and I don't want to swim too much while running, you know what I mean? And how will I use the paradigm moving forward? I'm guessing the six to 10 mile easy day shoe or basically a shoe to get some miles in, not a tempo day, definitely not a tempo day. Too heavy for that. Not a long run, but not necessarily an easy day, unlike the Torrens. I love the Ultra Torrens for an easy day. I think because of the weight, you know, on easy days, I just like to be as simple as you don't want to be carrying around too much weight on your legs on an easy day. So I'm guessing six to 10 miles for me on the roads, just getting some miles in at the pace I went at today, like 730 pace. That was I spot on, I think for me for this shoe. And for that price, $150. Oh, my, oh, my Ultra. Okay, I will say this. I think the build quality is there. I think you'll be able to get some good miles out of this. Just look, I'm thinking at least 400, hopefully 500 miles. At $150, I would sure hope so. That's a little pricey Ultra. I'm not sure the market is ready for that price point given the shoe that you're getting, but anyway, that's my thought on the price initially. Again, I'll get you more thoughts soon. And my conclusion on the performance, I must say, I enjoyed the ride. I really did. I will keep running in them. I'll take them to 50 miles and I'll just keep you posted on how they perform. Moving forward, but Ultra, if you're watching somehow, if somebody works at Ultra and you find this video, maybe you could help me out a little bit. Email, call, comment down below what's going on with the sizing of the Paradigm 4.5. I would appreciate it. And I think that does it for today. But I just realized no keyword today, no keyword, cancel that. All right, so question of the day, I already asked it, neutral or stability, stability or neutral, where do you land? And I'm just going to leave it at that. Don't do the keyword because that'll throw off all of the results down below. Oh my goodness, I can't believe I did that. All right, seek beauty, work hard, love each other. See you tomorrow. It's going to be a good day tomorrow, good day tomorrow. Come on back now.