The perfect trail shoe? Inov8 TrailRoc 255 - long term review

A few months ago I published a blog about my apparently endless quest for the perfect trail or fell shoe. This boiled down to a shoe that was either wide enough to comfortably accommodate the bunion on my left foot, or soft enough to conform to the shape of my bunion, while at the same time strong enough not to split.

In February I bought a pair of Inov8 TrailRoc 255 shoes from Pete Bland in Kendal. As I commented in a blog post at the time they appeared to be promising, but after training in them regularly since then, and running the Allendale Challenge (26 miles) in April, the Swaledale Marathon (23 miles) in June and the Lakeland 50 in July I thought it was a good time to review their performance.

I bought the TrailRoc because it is an Inov8 with a "natural" fit, so based on my experience of other Inov8 shoes I expected it to accommodate my bunion. I chose the 255 with a 6mm drop (2 arrows in the world of Inov8) rather than any of the lighter models (zero drop 235 and 150, 3mm drop 245; the numbers refer to the weight of a single UK size 8 shoe) because I was looking for a more rugged shoe that would protect my feet and give me a little support in a 50 mile event.

This shoe also has a strip of stronger material (presumably this can be  described as a rand) running right round the front of the shoe above the sole, a couple of centimetres (or an inch) deep, starting in front of the heel. This makes the shoe stronger, although less flexible, less prone to damage from sharp rocks, and, most importantly, protects the foot from sharp projecting rocks.

In terms of my experience of the shoe, I found the upper to be very comfortable, and suffered very few blisters. Of the blisters I did have, most were between my toes, caused by my toes rubbing together. I don't think that this was shoe specific, and I seem to have resolved the problem by wearing Injinji toe socks.

The toe box is wide enough to accommodate my bunion without re-lacing, and the rand didn't cause any problems even though it clearly prevented the  material from deforming around my bunion. The rand is excellent at protecting the foot from sharp stones, and seems to have helped prevent the splitting I have experienced with other Inov8 shoes.

The grip isn't quite as aggressive as I might like, especially on wet rock, but it handles most other surfaces adequately. The rock plate protects the sole of the foot well, and on the very rough trails of the Lakeland 50 my soles (that is the soles of my feet) survived quite well.

The combination of the welt and the slightly more padded upper does retain water more than other Inov8 shoes I have used, but not to the point where it becomes an issue.

To summarise, I like them; maybe the grip isn't perfect, but at least I haven't destroyed them yet. They are comfortable when worn for long periods over very rough ground and they seem to be robust enough to survive for a good few hundred miles more. They aren't superlight racing shoes, and they aren't very aggressive fell shoes, but for long rough trails and general off-road training they are great.

Perfect? Probably not, but really quite good.

If you don't believe me, there is an excellent review here.

The weather - part 2

After the fog and wind on Friday, the weather forecasters were now promising snow and ice for Saturday. So we did the sensible thing and stayed in the house eating home made croissants.

The snow didn't come, so we ignored Sunday's forecast (more snow and ice) and planned a long(ish) run, mostly off the road.

 

When I got up on Sunday morning there was no snow. Then it started snowing, and an hour later there was about an inch . And then it stopped. So we ate breakfast (more croissants!), digested for a bit, then got ready to run.

 

We left the house, a covering of fresh snow on the ground, but the sun shining from a blue sky. By the time we got to the edge of the moor it was much greyer, and a strong, bitterly cold wind was blowing. The path was covered in two or three inches of frozen snow, topped with occasional deeper drifts of light dry snow, sculpted into delicate waves by the wind. Then it started to snow again, and the wind was blowing it horizontally. Who would have guessed that the snow would only start falling heavily once we were on the most exposed bit of ground on the entire route? Well, I for one would have put money on this happening...

 

We carried on past the chimneys, the drifted snow was deeper over the next part of the track, and finding areas of shallow or frozen snow to run on was difficult. Occasionally, our feet went through the snow and the ice below into deep muddy pools of icy water; sharp on your ankles as you go through the ice and surprising (to say the least) when your shoe fills up with cold water. Still, it gave us something else to think about.

 

We got to the road on the other side of the moor and headed down to the next track. Once we had removed the ice from the baler twine securing the gate, the track down, although covered in a few inches of frozen snow, made for good running. And so long as we kept moving we were warm enough.

 

Back on the road at the bottom of the track, a banana eaten, and then a run down the steep road and then up to Ninebanks. Still on the road, we were looking for a footpath we didn't really know, to take us back to the Carrshield to Allendale road. It was signposted through a farm yard, then the signs disappeared. We set out in what seemed like the right direction, but it quickly became clear we were off the path. We carried on regardless, climbing steeply through deep frozen snow and tussocky sedge. After scrambling over one gate we reached a second (padlocked) gate onto the road. Oh well, we got where we wanted to be (about 500m below the finger post for the path we had been looking for), and it is all access land, so no harm done.

 

The road was covered in ice, and the wind was blowing hard, cold in itself but carrying fine blown ice. Wrapping buffs around the bits of our faces that were the only remaining exposed skin we headed back up the road. Again the snow at the side of the road had been sculpted into waves and peaks; quite lovely but the wind that was creating these effects was a bit unpleasant.

 

Astonishingly we then saw a bicycle coming down the road. With skinny tyres and drop bars... and staying upright on the ice, despite the wind. I was quite impressed.

 

We got back to the track across the moor past the chimneys, and now the wind was blowing hard, creating a blizzard of blown snow (it wasn't snowing) about 6 feet high, making navigation difficult, and making forward progress difficult. We pushed on, past the chimneys, where the snow on the track was less deep, and then finally back to the road.

 

Going down the hill the conditions quickly became benign once more, making it hard to believe how severe they had been just a short time before.

 

Only a total of 14 miles, but definitely a small adventure.

 

Oh, and the Inov8 TrailRoc 255s mentioned here got their second outing, and were great in the snow.