Trail Shoes? (Read 686 times)

Hey folks, I'm considering switching over to trail shoes and am looking for opinions and experiences of people who have the same half and half situation going on as I do. During the majority of my runs, I tend to do half asphalt and half packed dirt road with some rocks, mud, and deep tractor groves. (I live in the country and run out of paved road so I don't have a big choice in running routes). Once a week I run with a group on all aspalt, usually 7 miles or under. When I run with my husband, it is all woodland trail of varying sort, however I run with him infrequently and only a short distance of 3 or 4 miles. From time to time I expect to be on the treadmill but now that the weather has turned, that time will continually decrease. Any opinions for a neutral with wide feet (toes)? I'm looking at Asics new Trail Sensor WR. I heard they are okay at shock absorbtion on the road. I have an all aspalt half mararthon planned in about 6 weeks. If I retire my road shoes now, they should be okay for that. Or should I stick with road shoes? My biggest complaint with the road shoes I've had so far is after 8 or so miles on the dirt, my hip flexors tend to be very sore. I don't seem to have this problem if I stick to all aspalt / treadmill. Thanks for your thoughts!

I have 3 pair of shoes - 1 road, 1 trail, and 1 hybrid. Before I got my road shoes, however, I used the hybrids to run a half marathon last summer. What a mistake! the trail shoes simply didn't have enough cushioning for any significant distance. I now wear the hybrids only when I'll be on the road for a short distance, anything up to 3 miles. On the other hand, I've heard that road shoes can adapt to trails far better than the other way around. BTW - I won't be replacing my hybrids when they get too many miles. I'll stick to 1 road and 1 trail.

Your hip flexors will probably be tired no matter which shoes you run in on the trail due to the fact that the ground gives more and your muscles aren't used to it. Trail shoes are good for people who have stiff ankles that need the extra support from a solid frame so that they don't roll their ankles. They feature bigger tread as well. If you aren't worried about rolling your ankles, and/or you have flexible ankles that bounce back quickly, go with a road shoe. Frankly, I find the heaviness and stiffness of a true "trail" shoe to be too much and am fine in a road shoe on trail, particularly because I'm a swimmer and my ankles are super flexible.