Goodbye Old Friends

For me trail shoes become old friends. I usually run more miles and spend more time in a pair of trail shoes. They hang around longer then a pair of road shoes and I share some pretty good adventures with them.

Now I  am saying good by to my Inov8 RocLite 295s. Our friendship started  in January of 2012. I ran 50 and  25K trails races with these shoes plus all the training runs for the races. I have really liked these shoes. They have endured 627 miles and almost 2 years of trail running. They are still runnable, but they are starting to look unreliable. They are developing holes at the flex point at the toe box. One of the shoes string bindings has broken. Although they did not out last my 50 dollar pair of Nike Alvords, they seem to be a better trail shoe for me.

The Alvords were tanks and they still are in pretty good shape, but they were not as good on the trail terrain as the RocLite 295s. This is why I bought another pair of RocLite 295s. Maybe I will hike in the old ones or kind of give them a Norse/Teutonic send off in the backyard. So if you smell burnt rubber you might want to give them a moment of silence.

Inov-8 Roclite 295 - Mocosins on steriods

Shoe Review Inov-8 Roclite 295

I needed to find a replacement for my Nike Alvord 7s.which have been adequate up until now. Alvords are not the greatest on limestone rock. So I searched for a replacement and the Inov8 Roclite 295 has exceeded my requirements.  My specific requirements were to have shoes that would handle limestone rock. They also needed to be able to run distance and handle mud. 

Trust has to be earned, so I had to put the Roclite 295s through a few tests.  I test every thing I use before races, especially ultra trail races.  As Ronald Reagan stated "trust, but verify".

I tested the shoes on the following:
(a) 6 miles of sand stone and yellow clay mud at Bankhead National Forest, Lawrence County, AL
(b) 10 miles of limestone rock and mud on the Rain Bow Mountain  Trail loop, Madison, AL.
(c) 20 miles of crushed gravel trail at Point Mallard, Decatur, AL

Minimalist and neutral I found these shoes to be pretty comfortable to run in. There is no traditional stone shield, but they have a 5 finger meta-shank which seems to help protect your foot from the trail. To me they feel like moccasins on steroids. They are very flexible and feel great flexing over a trail. I found the sticky rubber made running on limestone rock pretty sure footed. The trails were muddy and wet and the rock conditions were from dry to wet/damp. I did slide a little but I was very pleased with the traction.

As for as a break-in period, they are so flexible I really needed to just get my feet adjusted to them. I walked around in them and noticed that my heel was a little sore. They are a lot lower from toe to heel, so I think the lower angle made my soles sore. After I wore them a few days the soreness subsided. Running in them has felt pretty good.

I found them pretty sure footed on limestone and sandstone rock and they seem to shred the mud pretty good.  I slid on the limestone a few times. I did fall once, but it was not the shoes as much as me because I was inattentive for a moment.  Familiarity usually breeds clumsiness in my case. It was on my sixth time through the loop and lost focus.  I have been able to run in them without my normal PowerStep inserts and my feet have felt great without the orthotics. For a minimalist shoe my feet felt great. I was a little sorer after the 20 miler, but I usually finish those runs a little achy.


Great shoe for me that will be my new "go to" for technical trails and mud.
TRUST EARNED !!!