Sunday, December 28, 2008

Trail Shoe Review

I've been running in snow every day for the past two weeks, so I must enjoy it. However, it is nice to be on solid ground again. The snow isn't all gone, but there's enough missing that I could run to the track and do 5 x a mile. At this point, I should mention that all my snow runs have been in the adidas Supernova Trail, which handled really well. I did fall once yesterday kickboxing in the snow (wearing some Nike Prestos), but I haven't fallen the past two weeks running, nor did I have any uncontrolled slippage, which is pretty amazing for all the ice, slush and deep snow I ran over and through.

The bad thing about the Supernovas is the huge gaps in the sole treads, especially in the back of the heel, which would consistently pick up rocks up to the size of a Ping Pong ball. Rocks that jam themselves in shoes typically work themselves out, but not in the Supernovals. If one shoe suddenly felt and sounded like cleats scraping on pavement, I would sometimes stop in the middle of a run to pry the rock out with my fingers - the smaller rocks didn't bother me as much, and I usually would need a tool to pry them out after the run was over. However, in the snow, there was no problem with this. If I picked up any rocks, they would be gone by the time the run was over, and I imagine any rocky additions would have simply enhanced my traction. With running tights and gators, there wasn't anything I couldn't run up and over.

I don't like the regular (non-trail) Supernovas, as they're too blocky or 'motion control', but the Trail is a good fit. Usually Nike fits my feet well, and I've had really good luck with the Nike Zoom Kyotee and the Air Assails. However, they're either not making these anymore, or retailers just aren't picking them up. After checking out Nike's current line up on their website, I only see maybe two or three trail shoes, including a Pegasus trail. The reason for this, of course, is that they're just not expanding their trail shoe line. There's just too much competition from too many other (new and old) shoe companies in the trail market - better to let them fight it out.

Nike does have top-of-the-line products in track racing flats (with and without spikes,) cross country (with spikes or waffles), and everything from mid-weight trainers to marathon-distance racing shoes. They're pouring a lot of money and technology into the (Ipod induced) high tech and casual markets, so why would they also try to compete in the trail shoe market? For a list of a lot of those shoe companies producing great trail running shoes, visit http://www.trailspace.com/gear/boots/light/.

There are reviews at trailspace.com on everything from light boots to climbing shoes, with lots of great trail running shoes in between, from companies such as Merril, Keen, Lowa, Montrail, Garmont, END, The North Face, Vasque, Vibram, Solomon, and 46 others.

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