Trail shoes
A list of the types of trail shoes I've used over the last four years:
Montrail Hardrock
Keen somethings (Ochoa?)
Teva X-1
Montrail Continental Divide
I ran the majority of my trail races, including all distances 50 miles and over, in Montrails. Though heavier shoes, the protective uppers and rugged outsoles found in trail shoes has worked well in the longer distance when I'm apt to bang my tired legs and feet on rocks and roots. I won't argue that.
That all said, last night I headed out to the Pine Lane trailhead for a run after work. All I had were my road running shoes and I have to say that it was not that bad. The trail was neither dry or overly muddy and I was surprised to find how okay trail running in road shoes was.
This revelation won't cause a complete conversion. I realize that on muddier, rockier, and slicker trails that the traction and protection of trail shoes is necessary to navigate on terra firma. I like to hammer downhill when trail running -- my Brooks road shoes don't offer the kind of support or protection that I've come to appreciate from trail shoes.
This summer I don't have any major trail races on the schedule. Perhaps now is the time to experiment with using both road and trail shoes. My next big trail ambition is the Massanutten Trails 100 in 2009. While I don't expect to wear road shoes at MMT, I don't have a clear idea on what I will wear.
I look forward to hitting the trails more often to find out.
Montrail Hardrock
Keen somethings (Ochoa?)
Teva X-1
Montrail Continental Divide
I ran the majority of my trail races, including all distances 50 miles and over, in Montrails. Though heavier shoes, the protective uppers and rugged outsoles found in trail shoes has worked well in the longer distance when I'm apt to bang my tired legs and feet on rocks and roots. I won't argue that.
That all said, last night I headed out to the Pine Lane trailhead for a run after work. All I had were my road running shoes and I have to say that it was not that bad. The trail was neither dry or overly muddy and I was surprised to find how okay trail running in road shoes was.
This revelation won't cause a complete conversion. I realize that on muddier, rockier, and slicker trails that the traction and protection of trail shoes is necessary to navigate on terra firma. I like to hammer downhill when trail running -- my Brooks road shoes don't offer the kind of support or protection that I've come to appreciate from trail shoes.
This summer I don't have any major trail races on the schedule. Perhaps now is the time to experiment with using both road and trail shoes. My next big trail ambition is the Massanutten Trails 100 in 2009. While I don't expect to wear road shoes at MMT, I don't have a clear idea on what I will wear.
I look forward to hitting the trails more often to find out.
3 Comments:
I'm excited that you guys are all running Marine Corps this Fall!
I agree with you that road shoes can work on the trails sometimes. But during a training run at Mo, I wore road shoes on a pretty muddy trail, and boy, i realized what a difference a little bit of tread does make.
I've been running in trail Mizuno Wave Ascends and they've been working very well for me.
Road shoes are all I wear. Trail shoes seem too heavy and inflexible to me. Of course, we don't have mud in So Cal...
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