Pages

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pumped Up Kicks (Altra Lone Peak)

I promise to finish my race reports for Medoc and Tough Mudder, but in the mean time, I present to you my new kicks:

Altra Running Lone Peak
I've done 2 runs in them, totalling a little over 10 miles.  One on the ATT doing mile repeats and another at Eno River on Fanny to Cox Mountain back to Fanny (the real reason I bought them).  I've been having some really bad problems with rocks and pain in the ball of my left foot after a coupe of miles.  I was hoping something with a decent amount of midsole and rock plate would do the trick.

So far I really like them.  They are definitely a good bit heavier than my Altra Instincts, but also much sturdier.  The rock plate sits directly under the foot bed, on top of the midsole, so the shoe has a very firm feel to it and ground feel is minimal.  I still had quite a bit of pain toward the end of my Eno River loops, but with the ground covered in dead leaves, it was impossible to avoid the bad rocks.  So I would think if I had worn my Instincts I would be a total cripple right now.

One feature I'm still undecided about is the trail rudder on the back of the shoe.  It's a bit of shovel shaped rubber sticking off the back with extra cleats.  I could see how it might help if your foot starts to slide out from under you, but  I've found it's very good at scooping up dead leaves and dropping them into my socks as I run.  This gets to be annoying after awhile, but I figure taller socks or gators would resolve this.  I doubt it will be a problem once all the leaves decay.

The shoe also has some nice rubberized material around the toes and lower sides to add some rigidity and durability to the shoe.  Overall I'm very pleased with them and I'll post an update after I've put some more miles on.  I plan to keep wearing my Instincts on the ATT and use the Lone Peaks for Eno, Umstead and other rocky single track.
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. derscottNovember 4, 2011 at 3:03 PM

    Cool! Where did you get them? Also, do they feel wider or the same as the Instincts? I'm looking for a trail shoe for the Uwharrie 20 miler since I *know* wearing my mocs would be a *bad* idea and the Instincts don't have enough grip.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew BNovember 4, 2011 at 9:12 PM

    I got them at Bull City (had them call me the moment the shoes came in). They look and feel slightly narrower, but this could be because I've got a couple hundred miles on my Instincts at this point and they probably stretched a bit. I took out the insoles and they are virtually the same width. I plan to wear these to train and hopefully get a pair of the MT110 when it releases right before Uwharrie

    ReplyDelete
  3. ΣπύροςNovember 5, 2011 at 12:44 AM

    So you think i should buy the Lone Peak the same size as the Instinct or go for half a size smaller?

    ReplyDelete
  4. derscottNovember 5, 2011 at 7:02 AM

    I'm waiting for the MT110's as well, since they are coming out in widths at initial release (or at least that's what Jason at Bull City told me). I'll be curious to see how the Lone Peaks work in the long run for you. I'll swing by Bull City and check them out in the meantime.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Andrew BNovember 5, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    Σπύρος:
    Yes, I bought the same size. The fit seems almost identical, although the Lone Peak has a more rigid feel.

    Der Scott:
    yeah, I think the MT110 will be an awesome race shoe with the 4mm drop, rockstop and wider widths. I'll post an update when I have about 50 miles on the Lone Peaks.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)