De qué hablo cuando hablo de correr...

[Bierzo Baggie]

Shoes. I’m starting to think more about them. For the last 10 years I’ve bought a new pair each year, alternating road shoes with off-road shoes. That Brian bloke at the shop normally chose them for me, so it didn’t involve much effort on my part. Before that I always used to buy Nike Air Pegasus. Trail shoes still hadn’t been invented.

Now with so many shoes to chose from I’m finding it all a bit bewildering. I’d been very happy with my Mizuno Wave Harriers and I’d flogged them to death but haven’t been able to find a replacement pair and didn’t want to buy over the internet. When I found a pair of Mizuno Wave Ascends for a knockdown price I bought them immediately. I actually thought they were a new model of the MWHs but now I realize that its a completely different shoe.

My first impression is that the shiny blue MWA is an out and out trail shoe and that the Harrier is more suited to English style fell terrain.

This Sunday morning I took my new trainers down the steep descent off Monte Pajariel. Here you drop 1000 feet rapidly and it used to take me about 8 minutes in road shoes. My old Harriers were amazing though. I suddenly discovered that I could get to the bottom in 6! The first time I thought my watch had stopped on the way but no, appropriate shoes can really make a big difference. So I was interested to see how the new Ascends handled in comparison.

The Harriers were light. I could feel the terrain beneath my toes. I suppose they were what you might call a “minimalist” shoe. The Ascends are light too ... but not quite as light and that’s probably why I fell over a couple of times the first time I used them. Without realizing it my feet were dragging closer to the ground and I was tripping over roots etc... My first Pajariel descent with the Ascends was better than expected though. They felt safe. My feet felt well protected and the MWAs seemed more “grippy” than the Harriers. The heels felt noticably harder but this means that on the the treacherously steep sections I can dig my heels in to slow me down. With the Harriers I was grabbing at trees!

The shoes felt good on the road too.

Stats: Pajariel descent. Road shoes 8 minutes. Harriers 6 minutes. Wave Ascends ....7 minutes!

Conclusion: The Ascends seem fine for trail and even sections of road. They may well slow me down on the technical sections. That might not actually be a bad thing.

Next test: To see how they respond on a more mountainous sort of terrain with rocks and snow and all that...