TLDR
“I definitely enjoyed running in these, and as a road shoe, I would take these over my Hoka Carbon 3’s any day.” - Nick
Photo by Misha Young
Pros:
Very light, neutral road shoe
Well positioned attached-tongue
Secure heel, even without heel-lock lace holes
Fast feeling/good rocker
Reinforces good gait
Cons:
Shoe Laces come apart
Lace pattern/holes
Not suited to triathlon/transition
Don’t provide much stability in tight corners
About Me and the Cielo X1
Okay, if you already know me you know some of my biases. As I write this, the current shoes I’m training and racing in other than these Cielo X1’s are:
Saucony Endorphin Speed 3 (Tempo)
Brooks Hyperion Max (Tempo/Threshold)
Hoka Clifton 8 (Aerobic/Z2)
Hoka Carbon X 3 (70.3 Race)
Saucony Endorphin Pro 3 (5k-10k Race)
Saucony Peregrine 3 (Trail)
That gives you a bit of context to my preferences. I generally run in mid-low drop shoes with a neutral or light stability profile. My primary goal is always triathlon, so this review will be from that perspective primarily, however these shoes got to go through a very specific testing protocol as they were 1 of 3 pairs I took to a 10-day training camp in Southern California, then raced the first half marathon I’ve done in over 3 years! I wear a size 12 of the Cielo X1’s, and most of the other shoes listed are the same size except the Hyperion Max (which I should have got a 12…). I’m weighing in around 175lb these days, and my most recent half marathon was just under 1:30, not Olympian pace by any means but fast enough to see some benefit from Carbon shoes. I’m also using Superfeet Carbon in all my speed training. Now, enough about me…
The Cielo’s are a bright very eye-catching colorway with an iridescent HOKA logo (my partner calls these my “Rainbow Fish” shoes, I like it). The stack height feels much taller than I’m used to coming in at 39mm, (Carbon X3 = 32mm; Hyperion Max = 29mm; Clifton 8 = 37mm; Endorphin Pro 3 = 39mm) it just feels taller than the other shoes of similar stack, perhaps it’s a trick of the mind? Either way, I feel imperious just standing with my elevated perspective. With a claimed weight of 9.3oz these shoes feel very light as well, I haven't actually weighed mine but they feel comparably light with the other super-shoes out there. The attached-tongue I actually love, these are easy to mess up in my opinion and a shoe with an attached-tongue better be easy to put on in a hurry (T2 is not very forgiving!) I found these to be relatively easy to slip on with the caveat of the pain-in-the-butt laces (but more on that later). The stack height and rocker make this shoe feel like it's propelling you forward, just like the designers intended. 7mm drop isn’t huge, but it’s still a little more than I prefer (4-6mm is my sweet spot), but the rocker is just so darn good I can’t complain about the extra 1mm of stack! The style of carbon plate is a new attempt for Hoka with a “winged plate” which claims to add stability, I have no idea if it succeeded but the shoe felt stable despite the lateral cutout, which by-the way, is to reduce weight which I can only assume it was successful in because, well, physics!
Photo by Misha Young
Running in the Shoes
Putting the shoes on and off feels good, keep in mind these are aggressive racing shoes so they fit snug and are not a relaxed fit. You put these on to go fast. As I mentioned before, the rocker is great in these shoes, you take a step forward and the shoes pull you into the next one so smoothly. I mentioned the lace up before, and will go into more detail now as it’s appropriate: the stock aces suck. I’m sorry Hoka, you tried but in the end failed with these new laces. If you double knot them then tuck them under the laces they’re fine. But if you double knot them and leave them they’re coming undone in a few minutes (moments, even…) They’re difficult to get to a good tension and once they are they just come loose. There’s also nowhere to apply a heel-lock in your lace pattern here so you’re limited to a standard/conventional lacing strategy.
Now, once you’ve got the warm up and laces taken care of, you can start your run! I used these in several different run environments:
Short, fast intervals on a “track” of ~500m length with frequent sharp turns
Short, fast intervals on a straightaway road
Medium, fast intervals on a long 3km square block
Long VO2 intervals on a long 3km square block
Long, Tempo intervals on a long straightaway road with short climbing
How did it stack up in each scenario? The shoes are not great in tight corners, this makes sense with the high stack height and the designs implemented to make them fast in a marathon (they’re not designed to be “run crit” shoes by any means), they felt pretty clunky and difficult to maintain speed through the sharp turns; they felt GREAT in fast sprint efforts on straightaways and every other training run I took them on! On a flat or slight incline/decline they feel fast and responsive (when you put some speed in the legs, the rocker helps carry you!). I don’t see these being my Triathlon shoes though, as much as I like them. They’re not quick enough to take on/off for transitions, and the laces make for an inconvenient amount of time to properly adjust. I’ll run some experiments with speed laces and see if they hold, but I don’t have high hopes. If the speed laces do work, I’ll definitely try them out for a less technical run course at the Standard of 70.3 distance. I can’t hold a high enough speed on Full Distance triathlons to warrant these speed demons.
Photo by Misha Young
Conclusion
All in, I’d say these are great middle to long distance road running shoes. I definitely enjoyed running in these, and as a road shoe, I would take these over my Hoka Carbon 3’s any day. As I mentioned, they’ll warrant more testing for the Triathlon arena, however in my half marathon these felt great! They work great with my natural midfoot striking gait and the acceleration is really felt while wearing these. As with most of these supershoes though, I must stress that these are not everyday shoes. These definitely are race day and key workout shoes, and they require a bit of a midfoot strike to really get the benefit from them. Likely if you’re running <5:00/km they won’t make much (if any) difference to you, so keep that in mind when considering these!
Otherwise, for the sponsor plug, make sure to check out Frontrunners if you’re local to Vancouver Island to pick up all your running gear needs! They also have a great online system to get the goods delivered to your door, and if you can’t find what you want, call or walk in to get a special order of that specific size or colorway!