this weekend my new pair of new balance 908 trail shoes arrived from holabird sports. hurray, and not a moment too soon! now i need to break them in asap because i want to wear them for the vermont 100 mile endurance run on 19 july! you may recall that after many hard miles of service on the trails, my prior pair inconveniently self-destructed during the nipmuck trail marathon last month!
well, true to my typical procrastinating ways, it took me well over a month before i finally ordered the new pair. i also ordered another pair of new balance 858 - the trainers with which i run the bulk of my daily mileage. in a neat twist, holabird surprised me by tossing in a pair of new balance performance socks!
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and, in another surprising development, during the last couple of weeks i've tried out a pair of sofsole performance insoles with my older new balance 858s. surprising because i've never used inserts with my running shoes. but, thanks to kevin's post (5k's and cabernets), i found out sofsole was looking for runners to test out a few of their products. i emailed them about my interest, and rachel from sofsole headquarters was kind enough to send me 2 pairs of performance insoles and 2 pairs of performance socks to try out!
well for a newbie insole user, it was certainly a significant change of pace! it's not an exaggeration to say the sofsole athlete brand insoles put some new life back into the 858's! after the few miles it took for me to get used to them, i really felt the benefit of the added cushioning. normally, i rotate through 3 pairs of trainers for my daily runs. the performance insole definitely brought that particular pair of 858's a new lease on life (so to speak).
i'm looking forward to testing out the more advanced insole, which requires the application of heat followed my molding softened insole to the dimensions of your feet. but i probably won't get around to that particular experiment until the fall.
not much one can say about socks. i tried them out and, as performance socks, they did the job. i have a few dozen pairs of running socks, few if any of them stand out to merit particular attention. but the fact the sofsole socks (as well as the pair of new balance sent by holabird) have entered my daily sock rotation speaks for itself. if they weren't comfortable, they wouldn't be wore (at least by me).
update: here is my review of the 908s.
7 comments:
I read a Canadian running magazine this weekend that had a big feature on trail shoes... if you can find it (unfortunately I don't remember the name of the magazine, but I think it's the only Canadian running magazine because the editorials had lots of "yay a Canadian running magazine!" comments), you might enjoy it.
I'm going to a trail running camp next weekend so if I enjoy it, I may be joining you in the quest for great trail sneakers soon :)
Frank
Glad the inserts and the socks worked out. I gotta try some new balance shoes because my current brooks dont last very long. i only get about 300 miles out of them.
I've been using inserts - Superfeet green - for more than a year now and I am convinced that the added support and stability helped me overcome some chronic calf problems. I think many shoe manufacturers skimp on inserts.
Let us know how this goes.
well, you know I love shoes! In fact, EasyBay is offering free shipping so it is tempting to order some New Balance orange racer/trainers...your new balance shoes (in photo) look a touch newer than the ones at Nipmuck. Bert -I have been told that 'Superfeet' are good -maybe softsol is comparable.
It is always worth trying out socks-those sound blister-free
---so when will you try Injinjis????:)
Frank:
I wear orthotics and it has made a big difference. In fact, when I start getting pains and aches, it's time to change them
orthodics definitely a first for me!
so far so good, they've given new life to those 858's i'm trying them out in!
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