This post was written for and first appeared on One Foot In Reality.

I bought my Nike Lunar Glide 7’s over at the Nike Outlet in North Conway, NH as a personal purchase and it was a pretty fantastic deal, which helped me a lot with the impulse buy part of it.

I had just started on this journey of left leg frustrations and thought that changing to higher drop shoe would help. It has, but just not as much as I would have liked.

Also this is my second pair of Lunar Glides – the first pair were the 5’s and worked well enough that I wanted to try the LG’s again and while these were sort of an impulse buy, when were up in NH, I had been doing my due diligence (that research thing) on what I was thinking about getting, because I was frustrated with the other shoes I had been wearing.

Without further ado here is my 50 Mile Review of the Nike Lunar Glide 7’s.

What are the LG’s primary stats?

Weight: 9.1 oz (size 9) Stack Height: 25mm (Heel), 15mm (Forefoot) Available Widths: D=Medium How It Fits (based on width D)

• Sizing: Standard running shoe length
• Heel: Medium to narrow
• Midfoot: Medium volume
• Forefoot: Medium
• Toebox Height: Medium
• Arch Structure: Medium-high
• Shoe Shape: Semi-Curved

Taken from Running Warehouse 

The stats fit right in the wheelhouse of what I was initially looking for in a pair of daily trainers this time: higher drop, good cushioning, middle range weight around 10 oz. (the LG’s are at the lower end of the scale), a wider toe box, with an upper that has some give to it. The one thing that I was concerned about before I bought them was how the outsole would wear.

Where do the LG7’s fit in my running rotation?

Since I got them in May they have been my primary trainers and often the only shoe I ran in during a week. The higher drop has helped with getting me back on the roads (I can feel the difference running in a 4mm drop and the 10mm, by how much my left leg announces to me – how stoopid I am).

Which means that I have done most every kind of run in them from tar, dirt roads to groomed trails in all kinds of spring/summer weather.

What do I like?

• quiet, there is none of that slapping I get with some other shoes and they don’t drag the heel when I land on them.
• great fit and feel – one of the most comfortable pair of running shoes I have ever run in.
• disappear on my feet – they don’t bother my Tailor’s Bunionette
• if I suddenly decide to change a workout (faster or slower) on the fly because of how I am feeling, I do not feel limited because of the shoes I am wearing

What don’t I like?

• Not as versatile – with the outsole design, they are pretty much road shoes or for use on dry groomed trails. Any kind of slime or wet grass, mud and the LG7’s do not perform as well. So I also would believe that in the winter they would become my treadmill shoes and only come out to play if the roads were clear and dry.
• They do collect some pebbles, but they are easily removed…it seems that most of my shoes do this nowadays.
• As you can see in the photo, there is a pretty significant rock shard puncture that happened while I was running down-back and while it didn’t hurt my foot, I have never had that happen before with a running shoe. I know that it was a freak occurrence, but…it reminded me that having a little more outsole, not just foam, might be a good idea for where I primarily run.

• The outsole wear in the toe area is pretty significant. It is the same issue that I had with the LG5’s and it is a question how soon they will wear through, not if they will wear through – at just over 200 miles. So the way that I toe-off is a consideration I have to think about when looking at daily trainers, because this is typically a wear spot for me on all my shoes and the LG7’s are definitely wearing faster there than other shoes have run in.

Will I Get Another Pair of Running Shoes in the Nike Lunar Glide series?

I don’t think so.

This is two pair of LG’s that had the same fast wear issue in the toe area. If I only get around 200 miles out of a pair of running shoes, once I get back to running my normal mileage, it means that I would have to replace them every 4-6 weeks and that would be something I am sure that the wife would talk to me about :-).

A happy wife is a happy life, so I while I might buy a lot of running shoes, getting a new pair at that rate might be a little over the line she has drawn in the sand. Especially, for shoes that I know are going to need replacing that quickly.

Unfortunately, I have tried on the LG 8’s and while I think they would be a super road shoe and very comfortable. However, for where I run, the outsole would not work (too smooth) and how I toe off, there would be a the same wear problem with them, maybe worse.

So I pretty much knew that I was not going to move up to the 8’s after trying them on and had planned on purchasing another pair or two of the 7’s, because I do like how I run in them. Well at least I was until I realized how quickly the front of the 7’s were wearing.

Which means that I will be moving to a different running shoe for my daily trainers. I made that decision last week, before I got to 200 miles on the LG7’s and have gotten it down to 3-4 trainers that really interested me.

The reality is

That as much as I did really like the Nike Lunar Glide 7’s — because I did and still do. Unfortunately, they have a fatal flaw that has less to do with the shoe themselves and more to do with where and how I run.

The Nike Lunar Glide 7’s are not my best choice as the primary daily trainer, especially when I run on multiple surfaces on the same run almost daily. If I lived in town and didn’t run on dirt roads quite as much I think they would be an amazing shoe and might have more durability than I get by running a lot on a rock infested dirt road.

Even though I run quite well in them, the durability issue I have in the toe area, overrides how much I like everything else about them. Which is too bad because they are a very good running shoe.

So I will be moving in a different direction for my next pair of daily trainers.

However, if I get a GREAT deal on a pair of 8.5 Lunar Glide 7’s I wouldn’t hesitate to buy them again. Unfortunately, my idea of a great deal is probably different those who are selling them, so I don’t see them hitting that price point any time soon, especially in a “Harold” colorway.

What are your experiences with the Lunar Glide series of running shoes?