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.

My left foot

I have a bunion on my left big toe. Properly known as a "hallux abducto valgus deformity" according to Wikipedia.

I am fairly certain that this is the result of genetics and not the result of wearing excessively pointy shoes, but whatever the cause, a " lateral deviation of the great toe" (and not apparently an enlarged or deformed toe joint - thanks again to Wikipedia) makes my foot a funny shape. I can't help but think that having "Morton's Toe", that is a big toe that is shorter than my second toe, in a world where all shoes assume that your big toe is your longest toe, has assisted in the development of my bunion.

But, whatever... I have a bunion on my left foot and the significance in the context of running, swimming and cycling is that it has an impact on the shoes I can comfortably wear. And to be fair it isn't much of a problem with swimming.

Because I need to comfortaly accommodate the bunion I need wide running shoes, and preferably ones that are made with quite soft fabric. This seems to be most difficult when it comes to off-road shoes which are often narrow and often have rigid protective welts directly over where my bunion goes. If the fabric won't stretch over my bunion, it is going to hurt. Sometimes some convenient stitching goes directly over my bunion; this won't stretch even if the fabric will, and it has the added benefit of often being abrasive.

So unless a shoe is really wide (and they may now exist, but as such shoes are a recent innovation, time will tell), it must be made of a soft stretchy fabric, with no welts and no stitching or seams in the area of  the bunion. And that is the sort of shoe I buy for trail running or fell running.

But all of this comes at a price; fell and trail shoes aren't made of strong fabric with welts and narrow fitting by chance. In particular the shoes I choose give little protection to the parts of the feet most likely to come into contact with sharp rocks (especially, you guessed, the bunion), they may also reduce precise control on very technical running sections, and most importantly they are not resilient.

Softer fabrics, stretched to an unusual shape, soaked with acid bog water and scraped against sharp rocks don't tend to last long. And if you look at the picture at the top of the post, the result is clear. All of the shoes have split at the point of the bunion, some after less than 100 miles use. The shoes in the picture are, from left to right, Inov8 f-lite 230, Inov8 x-talon 190 (both great shoes, but just too narrow), Saucony Peregrine, Inov8 terrafly 303 (disappointing as this is Inov8's new wider "anatomic" fit) and the New Balance 101.

I need to make it clear that I don't really blame the shoe manufacturers for failing to produce shoes suitable for one person with unusual feet, but I wish I could find comfortable, long lasting off-road shoes both for short technical blasts on the fell and longer days out on trails. Any suggestions?

Resurrection

I have decided that it is about time that I resurrected this blog, mostly so that I can document the great hybrid conversion project (see next post), but also to add a few running and cycling training notes.

The big goal for this year is the Lakeland 50 in July, which will be the furthest we have ever run. We entered a 50 mile ultra last year, but failed to even start let alone finish; hoping to at least reach the start line this year.

So far, as part of the build up we have the official Lakeland 50 recce at the end of March (and for some reason I have no idea how far this is), then the Allendale Challenge (26 miles) a week later in April, and then the  Swaledale Marathon (22 miles - ish) in June. Beyond that, the training is still a bit vague beyond get some long days on the hills under our collective belt; I'm working on the assumption that time on my feet is the key, and not the number of miles covered.

More importantly I now have the shoes I plan to wear on the big day. This is absurdly optimistic as most fell and trail shoes last me about three weeks before the uppers split, or my feet are shredded. This is entirely the result of  the bunion on my left big toe; if the shoes are soft enough to accomodate the bunion I split them, if not, then they are too uncomfortable to wear.

Shoes have become a bit easier with the latest Inov8 shoes now being made on a foot shaped last, rather than the narrow last they previously favoured... but I still split my Terraflys in about 100 miles in the same place as all the others (and to be fair, not just Inov8, but New Balance and Saucony...).

So the new shoes are Inov8 TrailRoc 255; the same shape as the Terraflys, but with a more aggressive sole, a 6mm drop, and a bit more protection than the other lighter TrailRocs. On paper they look like the right shoe for the job.

On their first outing today the TrailRocs were great; we did about 10 miles on track, footpath and road, in snow and ice and they were pretty much faultless.