Trail runners in Dublin

Stark

Does anyone know a place where you can get a pair of trail running shoes in Dublin? I've asked in Sportsworld in Terenure, which is the only good running store that I know of and they only had one pair to choose from. Lifestyle and Champion and the like are obviously useless.

Evil Phil

You could try Arnotts for a pair of Asics. Failing that Great Outdoors do a stock of trail runners.

copacetic

best for trailshoes are great outdoors for salomon, 53 degrees north for north face and nike, amphibian king for inov8 and asics. as well as arnotts for asics/adidas and new balance. personally I do a fair bit and use asics for hard trails and salomon for slippy/muddy/steep trails although they do versions for normal trails.

matt25

I'm actually also going to buy a pair in the next few weeks and I've been looking around.

Outdoor shops seem to be the best option. If you do fell running, Inov8 shoes are meant to be the best. The look awful but have great grip. The problem is that they don't seem to have them anywhere in Dublin. Jackson Sports in Belfast sell them online with no postage charge for Ireland. Though it is difficult to buy shoes online when you can't try them on, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

copacetic

matt25 wrote:

I'm actually also going to buy a pair in the next few weeks and I've been looking around.

Outdoor shops seem to be the best option. If you do fell running, Inov8 shoes are meant to be the best, but they don't seem to have them anywhere in Dublin. Jackson Sports in Belfast sell them online with no postage charge for Ireland. Though it is difficult to buy shoes online when you can't try them on, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

as I said amphibian king in bray have them. opinion is very much divided on how good they are though, check out the forums over at fellrunner.org.uk. We don't have 'fells' in Ireland though. We have mountains!

Enduro

There are a lot of very different shoes described there. All have their optimal uses for given conditions.

For the last few weeks I've been doing all my hillrunning in normal (road) trainers. Indeed, I've raced two races in the last few weeks in them. If the ground is bone dry they're good enough, and they have the best cushioning.

If the ground is a swamp then shoes like the inov8s come into there own, Super grippy (if you get the right ones), and with a small to reasoble amount of cushioning (enough for running on bog anyway!)

You're best off going to a shop where the staff have some idea what they're talking about, which rules out the likes of champion, lifestyle and all the other sports fashion shops. Anphibian king really seem to know what they're talking about, although I don't have personal experience. I know there are a few lads in Arnotts who know their stuff too. Same with the great outdoors.

My main recommendation would be to go to few hillraces (look at www.imra.ie), look at what people are wearing and chat to the nice friendly people there

Stark

I was planning to go to one tomorrow night with a friend Although I also do sprint orienteering events from time to time and my regular orienteering shoes aren't suitable for paths/roads with their metal studs, but ordinary runners are also way too slippy if you have to go off the paths at all. I had a lovely pair of Adidas trail runners before which were absolutely perfect and lasted me years, but alas those are no more.

copacetic

ticknock tomorrow will be ok in pretty much any shoes as it has been very dry lately. A lot of people at the imra runs wear salomons as they have been available for so long here via great outdoors, plenty of people wear ordinary shoes for all the imra summer league ones. Most of them are quite rocky and a lot of trail. ordinary trail shoes are best for most of the races, except maybe bray which can be steep and slippy on the way down. get to registration early tomorrow as it's always crazy busy on the first day of the leinster league

Enduro

Hey lads, did ye make it to the race, and if so how did ye get on? Was a night that road trainers would have been fine. I ran in my ASICS trail shoes, and they were also fine. Never felt as though I needed trail shoe grips

copacetic

didn't make this one as I had a match to watch! should make the rest of them. how did you get on? dreading the first couple..

Stark

Yeah I went along tonight, was good fun. Even if I had paced myself for running a little over 6km and it turned out to be 8.3kms I was so relieved to be told it was longer than I thought, as up to being told I was like "Surely I can't be that unfit?". I wore my normal runners and they were fine.

Next week could potentially be fine or nasty depending on whether the 9.1km they cite is accurate, or if they're using their special units again and it turns out to be 12km

copacetic

Stark wrote:

Yeah I went along tonight, was good fun. Even if I had paced myself for running a little over 6km and it turned out to be 8.3kms I was so relieved to be told it was longer than I thought, as up to being told I was like "Surely I can't be that unfit?". I wore my normal runners and they were fine.

Next week could potentially be fine or nasty depending on whether the 9.1km they cite is accurate, or if they're using their special units again and it turns out to be 12km

yep, in general the distances can be a bit off. sometimes the route changes on the day depending on the markers opinion on conditions/best route and the courses do tend to change a bit year to year. the distances on the site before hand can be just old estimates. usually there is a route map at registration or the start with a better guess at the distance. there was a major incident last year where some markings were moved and most people ran an extra few miles! quiet a debate about that one on the imra forum!!

next week looks ok as there is a proper route map on the site and it is a new race this year I think. go by the map rather than the txt. looks like 7k.

stepaside one doesn't look so hot as they have the old map up, but with the mtn view pub knocked down since last year the start has been moved a few miles from above stepaside to ticknock so would guess the course will change a fair bit.

Enduro

The distances for next week on the Map are GPS outputs so should be close to 100% accurate. Hopefully someone will do somethiing similar for stepaside before the race.

Pacing in hillraces tends to be more about knowing how hard to push on the ups and how much to let go or conserve on the downs, rather than more classic pacing. My pacing last night would have been based on our starting position and knowing that we were going to Fairy Castle on a not too roundabout route and a very runable gradient. Exact distances wouldn't have been a factor in my head, just that it was a short-ish hillrun (for me). Climb and distance is only one part of the info needed to do good pacing. The rest comes with knowing the route and all the subtle variables like gradiant, terraine and even weather.

I quite happy with my race last night. Didn't let the fact the my main rival had gained a lot of speed since we last raced upset my pacing (let him run away). Turned out I had to get it right cause I had an almighty battle to hold position (2) all the way until the last steep technical decent (Boneshaker), and only opened up a gap with a full pelt run home.

matt25

Cheers for the advise on shoes guys. Good to hear there is a good choice in Dublin.
imra events sound great too, not sure how well I'd do, but definitely something I must try in the next couple of weeks.

copacetic

Enduro wrote:

The distances for next week on the Map are GPS outputs so should be close to 100% accurate. Hopefully someone will do somethiing similar for stepaside before the race.

Pacing in hillraces tends to be more about knowing how hard to push on the ups and how much to let go or conserve on the downs, rather than more classic pacing. My pacing last night would have been based on our starting position and knowing that we were going to Fairy Castle on a not too roundabout route and a very runable gradient. Exact distances wouldn't have been a factor in my head, just that it was a short-ish hillrun (for me). Climb and distance is only one part of the info needed to do good pacing. The rest comes with knowing the route and all the subtle variables like gradiant, terraine and even weather.

I quite happy with my race last night. Didn't let the fact the my main rival had gained a lot of speed since we last raced upset my pacing (let him run away). Turned out I had to get it right cause I had an almighty battle to hold position (2) all the way until the last steep technical decent (Boneshaker), and only opened up a gap with a full pelt run home.

yeah, very runable gradient for you front runners! Why do you think the rest of us are still finishing when you are already in the pub! we aren't standing around chatting, we are walking up the hills...:D

Enduro

I didn't start that way though. took a bit of practice!

Stark

Great, bought a pair of North Face that seemed okay in the shop, but upon using them, I've found they're way too loose round the heel and I'll end up giving myself an ankle injury if I run a race in them Probably too late to hand them back now as they've got mud on them. Hmm, maybe I can take advantage of the "gore tex money back guarantee".

copacetic

Stark wrote:

Great, bought a pair of North Face that seemed okay in the shop, but upon using them, I've found they're way too loose round the heel and I'll end up giving myself an ankle injury if I run a race in them Probably too late to hand them back now as they've got mud on them. Hmm, maybe I can take advantage of the "gore tex money back guarantee".

you could try returning them I guess, a lot of the shops can be pretty helpful. although once muddy they will prob need a better reason than not fitting right. Maybe you can try leaving them relatively loose in the lower foot but tie them very tight on the last couple of lace holes to anchor your heel into the shoe. it's pretty much what I do. although if they are much too loose there is only so much you can do..

cavedave

My north face shoes fell apart the first time I gave them serious use. Half way through a dry Canyon in Majorca the grips became unconnected from the shoe. I will post up a picture but if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and your shoes fail you you end up as a very unhappy bunny. :mad:

Mac2010

hi guys, I'd like to buy a pair of decent trail shoes.
my main plan would be walking (little bit running) in forest and kerry mountains. while the weather has been great recently now i need to buy lightweight (summer) shoes instead of heavy hiking boots. im looking at a couple of trail shoes(maybe Gore-Tex?) from northface, salomon and inov-8 etc...

should i go ahead and buy a pair with GTX from one of above brands or just buy cheaper one from any shop?

thanks in advance

Whitehawk

get the salomon XT wings (non gortex)

Why non gortex you ask, well there is no point haveing them water proof as the shoe size is just like a runner so if you step in water it will get in over the top of the shoe and if its gortex lined it will not be able to get out aka not good for your feet, the XT wings have both gortex and non gortex style non gortex is around 100e other is 30e more.
The soles on these will not let you dont exelent grip but not great ankle suport but if your looking at a trail and running this is want you need.
(my pair is about 7-8 months old ran up MTs, walked with them really have used then nearly everyday since i got them and still as good as new im shocked really but just shows you how good they are)

sparrowcar

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Snow & Rock in Dundrum. Great selection of mens and womens.

The Mrs is looking at a pair of salomons out there.

nomdeboardie

Whitehawk wrote: »

get the salomon XT wings (non gortex)

Why non gortex you ask, well there is no point haveing them water proof as the shoe size is just like a runner so if you step in water it will get in over the top of the shoe and if its gortex lined it will not be able to get out

True. OTOH, if you don't encounter streams or pools through which you have to wade on most runs, and you do have to deal with a lot of mud and/or wet grass, the Goretex is nice to have.

Slogger Jogger

Wore a pair of inov8 X-talon 212s on Mweelrea on Sunday and a pair of roclite 312 gts (goretex) on Croagh Patrick on Saturday. I'd recommend both.

nomdeboardie

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

312 gts (goretex)

Roclite 312 GTX here too