Now that I’m boosting my off-road game from rail trails to more rugged terrain, should I try trail shoes? I love my Asics Gel-Venture 6’s and have worn them for years, for everything—gym, biking, treadmill, road and off-road runs. They fit me perfectly from day one and accommodate my plantar fasciitis inserts (3/4 carbon fiber) right over the insoles like they’re not even there. But am I missing out on a better shoe? I raced my first 10K “more rugged” trail run in them in the rain and mud, and they weren’t bad. My ankles, lower calves, and feet were sore for a few days, but I suspect that’s just because I need to condition them more. Any advice?
—RW+ Member Kris G, via the Runner’s World+ Community Page
Jeff Dengate: I’m a firm believer that shoes are best thought of as a tool to complete a task. Just as you wouldn’t grab a hammer to put a screw in a wall, you shouldn’t use a road shoe for extremely rugged trails. Your experience will greatly improve if you reach for the right tool. Fortunately, there are dozens of outstanding trail shoes that can offer you the right amount of comfort and protection for your trail scenario.
Learn more about trail running
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It’s important to remember that we all have our own definition of what a trail is. For some runners, that’s a rail trail or buffed dirt track—little more than a gravel road, really, on which even your everyday road running shoes would work fine. For others, it’s a mountainous path that requires you to use your hands nearly as much as your feet and calls for footwear with far better grip and durability. Your trails will often be dictated by where you live and what you’re able to access.
As for your situation, the Gel-Venture 6 is what we’d call a hybrid trail shoe. It’s basically a road shoe that has a little extra rubber and support. It’ll work fine on some lightly technical terrain, but if you’re going to run trails that are more rugged, you’ll want something with more trail-specific tread and a rock plate to protect the soles of your feet. Here are some recommendations of the latest trail running shoes.
When you make the switch from smooth ground to rugged trail, you’re likely to experience some soreness, as you’ve discovered. On level terrain, your foot lands in the same position with each stride. But on a trail, you’re twisting and balancing with every step (and maybe even rolling your ankle, if you’re unlucky), which will lead to some pain. If you haven’t done any real damage, it’ll subside in a few days. As you do more trail running, you’ll build strength in those muscles so that you won’t get any soreness. Here’s a link to one of our recent articles that describes some of the differences between road and trail running in terms of your body’s responses.
What are some common injuries with super shoes?
—RW+ Member Hannah M.
Dengate: This is a somewhat complicated question, as is a related one: Can carbon-fiber-plated shoes make you weaker? Those questions were asked when the shoes were first introduced, with some folks thinking that such shoes should be reserved only for race day because they’re so stiff and soft. Surely it couldn’t be good to do 100 percent of your running in them … could it? The truth is, it’s still very early in the carbon-fiber era and we haven’t seen any solid research that links plated shoes with specific injuries. But despite the choice of shoe, injuries often arise from overuse; we runners tend to do too much too soon, and eventually our bodies push back.
Complicating things further, the construction of these shoes varies. Some have full-length plates that make the shoe exceptionally stiff. Others use partial plates, carbon-fiber rods, or even plates that allow the shoe to flex in certain directions. All of these details affect how a runner interacts with the footwear. Then there is the amount of foam underfoot. The biggest effect we’ve seen from these highly cushioned shoes is that runners have been able to complete hard workouts without the soreness that typically results from such efforts. That said, the first iterations of these super shoes also tended to be more unstable, so some runners twisted ankles and had sore lower-leg muscles. Much of that is being resolved as newer versions are released.
One thing is certain: Carbon-fiber plates and lightweight, bouncy foams are here to stay. In time, we’ll surely see more data on how these shoes affect injury rates.
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
