Tempo

Brooks Hyperion Max 4

Brooks' super trainer — 45 mm of DNA GOLD over FLASH v2 with a nylon SpeedVault plate for the hard days.

The Hyperion Max 4 is Brooks' super trainer: a 45 mm stack that puts the new DNA GOLD race foam over DNA FLASH v2, a nylon SpeedVault plate through the middle, and a RapidRoll rocker to keep the tall pile moving. It is the training companion the Hyperion Elite 6 assumes you own.

It suits you if your quality days deserve race-adjacent bounce without spending the race shoe: tempo runs, cruise intervals, and long runs at pace where the plate earns its keep for two hours.

It is not the racer — the nylon plate is deliberately one notch softer than the Elite's carbon — and at $200 it is an expensive shoe to waste on easy jogs. Keep something plain for the days that do not have a pace target.