Doctors of Running rave about TYR Valkyrie Elite 2

Doctors of Running's Matt and David spent a podcast episode on the shoes of 2026, and the biggest praise went to a racer most people have not tried. They call the TYR Valkyrie Elite 2, an aggressive 5K and 10K shoe at 40mm stack height (how much foam is under the foot) with a 6mm drop that they say does not feel like it, "the most insane improvement of any super shoe ever".

On the trainer side, Matt says the ASICS Sonic Blast 2, a dual density super trainer at 46mm and about 8.5 ounces in a men's size 9, is a better evolution of what people wanted from the Superblast 2, with a smoother transition and a better fitting upper. His biggest surprise of the year is the Saucony Omni ST, a stability shoe with super foam that he has 200 miles on.

FILA at $130 gets the value nod

In a separate video, Doctors of Running put the FILA Speedtempo Plus against the Puma Deviate Pure Nitro and say they would "buy this shoe all day" on the $20 gap alone. The FILA is a simple slab of Sky Foam with a rocker and a light Duo Mesh upper, priced at $130 when the reviewer expected a shoe like this to land in the 155 to 160 range.

The Run Testers stay busy too. They picked the Hoka Clifton Pro over the Clifton 11 earlier, calling the $165 Pro worth the extra ten dollars over the $155 Clifton 11 for its springier supercritical ProFlyte Plus foam. Their three testers call the Saucony Hurricane 26, 274g with a 41mm heel and 35mm forefoot at £170, one of the more springy stability shoes they have tested but "not a shoe for faster runs". They also say the Puma Velocity Nitro 5 at $140 is still a good shoe but is now overshadowed by better value daily trainers.

On r/RunningShoeGeeks, the Saucony Endorphin Elite 2 is the deal people are chasing at around $128 at Running Warehouse. One poster with a history of posterior tibial tendinopathy calls it one of the most unstable super shoes on the planet, then reports 18 miles in it with no stability problems and no desire to run in anything else.

The thread running through all of it is super foam moving out of racers and into daily and stability shoes. David predicts that shift will push injuries toward hips and low backs and away from feet and ankles.