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Inov8 Roclite 315 running shoes

by Nick Smith 10th April 2009

Inov8 Roclite 315 Last week I bought a new pair of trail running shoes, as my current pair are quite heavy and don't give much grip when it is muddy or wet. It's been raining constantly for the last 24 hours, so it was the perfect opportunity to try out the new shoes in the mud!

I deliberately did a very short (20 mins) run along the Limb valley trail out of Sheffield, because I want to slowly build up the distance I run in these shoes, just in case they give me problems and I end up hobbling for miles to get home.

First impressions are that the Roclite's are wonderfully light, and without all that heavy cushioning, you can really feel the terrain under your feet. Perfect on mud, small rocks and tree routes, but it felt very odd on a short stretch of pavement. It will be interesting to see how they feel on hard-packed dry trails, and if they give my knees/ITB's any problems.

I guess that, like rock climbing shoes, I'll need to learn to trust how far I can push the grip of these shoes on steep mud or wet rocks, but so far I'm impressed Definitely much more grip than my previous shoes. My next run in them will be somewhere much rockier like along the top of Stanage Edge, and that will be a good test of how they cope with me leaping from boulder to boulder.

Thanks to the excellent staff at the Outside store in Hathersage who sorted me out with the shoes, and gave me lots of good advice about trail running & footwear.

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