Our Thoughts on the Saucony Endorphin Trainer After 130 Miles
The Saucony Endorphin Trainer is a max cushioned training shoe designed for comfort and fun over long miles. Priced at $180, it competes with shoes like the Puma MagMax ($180) and Asics Superblast 2 ($180). We've put it through the paces and give our thoughts here after 130 miles of running.
Welcome to the first edition of the 100+ MILE REVIEW Series. Here at Supwell we test a lot of shoes and provide in-depth first-run videos, but we also want to give periodic updates of shoes that we are loving and let you know how they hold up over 100+ miles. Our first shoe is the Saucony Endorphin Trainer.
Saucony Endorphin Trainer
Fit/Step-In Feel
The PowerRun+ insole and very comfortable upper provide a fantastic step-in feel and an outstandingly comfortable experience for extended time on feet. It fits true-to-size, most similar to the Saucony Hurricane 24. Although it is part of the Endorphin line, it does not have the same tapered toe box, specifically on the lateral side, that caused discomfort for some runners in the Endorphin Speed 4.
Ride
The Saucony Endorphin Trainer resides in a biome somewhere between the Dual Foam Ridge and Plated Prairie (shoutout to the Supwell Instagram), thanks to its layered midsole design and three-quarter-length carbon fiber plate.
Up top, a layer of Saucony’s new supercritical TPEE Incredirun foam delivers a soft step-in feel and an insanely bouncy ride at virtually every pace. Beneath that, a stabilizing base layer of PWRRUN EVA and a ground-contact EVA outsole work together to promote a smooth and fluid gait cycle. Despite the use of EVA, there’s nothing traditionally "EVA-ish" about how the shoe rides—the outsole actually enhances the experience rather than dulling it, like in the Hoka Mach 5.
The plate itself skips the hindquarter of the midsole, ostensibly to create a more forgiving "daily trainer" experience in the heel (though I don’t heel strike at any of my paces). Once you transition onto the forefoot, though, the Incredirun foam and carbon fiber plate come alive, delivering a bouncy and energetic toe-off.
In my experience, the best comparison would be the NB SC Trainer v2—both feature ground-contact EVA, a boaty rocker, and a carbon fiber plate. However, the Endorphin Trainer offers better long-run protection, greater speed capabilities, a stiffer plate, and a much bouncier, more spirited foam. It’s a perfect example of how much more effective dual-foam construction can be compared to a midsole with a single slab of a PEBA blend.
For me, the Endorphin Trainer feels best at paces between easy and marathon effort—what Mid-Life Runner calls “steasy”—roughly between 8:30 and 9:00 min/mile. That said, it doesn’t feel too cumbersome for strides down to 7:00 min/mile or too harsh at recovery paces up around 10:00 to 11:00 min/mile—unlike shoes like the Hoka Mach X2 or Brooks Hyperion Max 2.
Brooks Hyperion Max 2
Clearly, I could wax poetic about the Endorphin Trainer until the cows come home—side note: do we think cows inhabit Peba Province?
Durability
At 130 miles, the foam feels the same as it did the first day out of the box, with very little wear on the outsole.
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