Neo Vista 3 vs SC Rebel 1

Mizuno trimmed the Neo Vista this year instead of making it bigger. Our spec sheet has the 3 a little lower than the Neo Vista 2 at heel and forefoot, at much the same 266g, and the RRP comes down to £150. The change reviewers noticed first is the fit: the heel now holds your foot properly, and the length complaints about the last version have gone. Underfoot it's still a big, soft max-cushion super trainer with no carbon plate, and most testers liked it more than the 2. Where they part ways is pace. Some found real spring for uptempo finishes, while one lab measured only modest energy return and called it bulky once you push. Doctors of Running graded the performance highly but marked the fit down hard, mostly for thick heel padding that bothered a tester's Achilles. We'd buy it as a long-run and recovery running shoe and leave the intervals to something lighter.

The SC Rebel is New Balance's carbon-plated super trainer: a running shoe built to handle your long runs and faster sessions during the week, then line up with you on race day. It pairs Infinion foam with a carbon plate on a 40mm heel and 36mm forefoot with a 4mm drop, and at a listed 218g it is light for a shoe with this much underfoot. Put the numbers next to the SC Elite 4, New Balance's marathon racer, and they read almost identically: same stack, same drop, and the Rebel is listed lighter. At £180 against £280, that is the story. In our view it suits runners who want one plated shoe for tempo work, marathon-pace long runs and the race itself, rather than an expensive racer saved for a handful of days a year. It is not an easy-day shoe or a stability shoe, and the low drop asks a lot of your calves.