Michael: The Challenger

Cold fingers of mist

Reach into the canyon floors

Before the silence.

 Wednesday, October 9, 2019



There’s an old expression that goes; “Go with what brought ya.” What brought me were the Inov8s Terraultra 260s. But I’m not going with them at next Saturday’s Rocky Peak 30k.



Why?



Not because they’re in any way deficient. In fact they’re my favorite trail shoe I’ve ever had and I plan on buying at least one more pair before the year’s out. So why change? Because, at this stage of the game I don’t feel comfortable trying to do anything longer than a 50k in one shoe and I need to find a second shoe for the Sycamore 100k in February. At that race I’ll use the 260s for the first 50k.



But what about the second half of that race? Initially I was going to use the Hoka Torrents, which are also a great shoe that I have worn and had a lot of success with this year. But at the Bull Dog 50k I was wearing those when I DNFed. And although I don’t blame the shoe as my heels were already injured. It’s hard for me now to disassociate those shoes from the pain in my heels that day and the stress of not finishing.



It also give me a decent rational for buying more shoes. So now I’m going to try out the Hoka Challenger ATR 5 wide version. In the store they felt good and after an initial 13 mile training run I was very pleased. They’re more cushioned than the Torrents and just about as light.



They’re not as snug or as lithe as the Inov8s, and they also fee a bit more sloppy than the both the Inov8s and the Torrents, but I’m counting on the extra cushioning and the profile of the course to offset those deficiencies.



They do offer quite a contrast in profile relative to the Inov8s and that’s a big plus. After 50k I think it’ll be wise to go from a zero drop to a 5 mil with a bit of a rocker profile to change the stresses on my body. I’ve done it in past races with success, so I’m going to keep on doing that. Guess, in some way, I am still going with what brought me.