The Young Feller

Last month I was delighted to be asked by Salomon to be part of the "trial team" for the new Speedcross 4 shoe.  Having reviewed shoes for other brands before, I was really looking forward to getting an off road shoe to trial, something that was new to me.  This was something that was open to anybody to apply for, I saw it through an advert online & applied.  I had actually totally forgot I'd done this until I received the email confirming I had been chosen, along with a handful of other runners. I have had the previous model of the Salomon Speedcross, the Speedcross 3, as well as other Salomon shoes in the past.  The Speedcross is, from my own observations, the most popular model of  Salomon shoe, at fell races anyway!  These were one of the first shoes I noticed as they seemed so widely used by the running community, both for trail & fell, so surely a shoe that is well trusted throughout the sport. One of the aspects of the new mode...

Following on from my last review, on the Gel-Indicate's, I've also been asked to do some testing of the Asics Gel-Luminus.  They are the 2nd tier of shoe in the structured cushioning section of the Asics road shoe spectrum, only slightly behind the Gel-Kayano.  Again the Gel-Luminus (as with the Gel-Glorify and Gel-Indicate), are InterSport UK exclusives (links at the bottom of the blog!!!) There are other shoes below the Luminus too but if you are looking for a top quality shoe for long distance running, the Luminus is definitely up there and as with competition in a race, you'd settle for a place in the top 2, wouldn't you?! With other brands taking the front in terms of advertising, I feel that Asics are wrongly overlooked by a lot of runners these days, particularly on the road circuit.  People tend to look at the price rather than the quality, which in some cases is fair enough!  But, if you genuinely have the funds to be able to afford a much bette...

After doing some previous product reviews in the past for The Running Bug, Asics and Intersport UK, they very kindly asked me to test out some more kit, starting with the new Gel Indicate shoes. As most of you runners will agree, you can't beat a fresh pair of running shoes so I was excited to receive the email regarding the new kit.  My road miles have been pretty minimal over the past few months as the fell season hits it's boom over the summer with more races than even I can manage to keep up with, and I'm up to 50 for the season at the minute after running at Whittle Pike on Wednesday night.  But, saying that, what better reason to get myself on the road more than new shoes?!  I don't think there is a better reason! Anyhow, I received my Gel Indicate's in the post a couple of weeks ago and I have got myself used to them now, doing a decent amount of miles, although not as many as I'd have liked due to a hamstring twinge I had over the past 5 or 6 da...

ashmei have cracked it. The best & most comfortable running socks, or any type of sock in fact, that I have worn to date.  I've ran nearly 40 miles in them since ashmei kindly donated a pair to us ambassadors on Saturday morning and they honestly still feel & look like, brand new! As soon as you feel them you can just tell they will be quality, but, as we all know, some things feel good in hand but don't quite do the job you want them to.  I can't say that for this bit of kit though, they do exactly what they promise on the labelling. As I mentioned, I've ran nearly 40 miles in them already including every type of terrain you can imagine apart from snow!  I've tested them on the roads - flat, up hill and down hill as well as at a casual speed and a race pace.  I've ran up to Darwen tower in them on the trails and I made sure I crossed muddy fields and fells in them.  You can never test something too much can you?  Well, only up unt...

Mixing Up My Run - The Asics Way After a solid week of trying out the Gel-glorify shoes, I have this week moved on to the 33DFA's, in order to continue mixing up my run!  Monday night is now the hill sprint training night with a few of the clubs members and last night we completed week 3 of our 10 hill sprint reps.  One more week of 10's then we are progressing to the next step, a quite daunting, 15 reps! Before going in to more detail around the DFA's, I will update you guys and girls on my running/racing over the weekend.  On Saturday I went over to Whitworth, just outside of Rochdale to race in Sidney & Andy's birthday 5k trail race.  The series of races, around 1 a month are set up by Andy O'Sullivan MBE, who is a really top guy!  He is one of those personalities who just captures the moment as finishers come in and he really does love running and all the organisation surrounding his races couldn't be better! He had organised this race for S...

So, I have managed to give the Gel-Glorify's a decent run out, 23.5 miles to be exact!  Covering a few miles under marathon distance, running 3 runs in them since receiving them from the guys at The Running Bug on Tuesday morning!  I've kept a close eye on how they run, how I feel when running in them and if the feel good factor wasn't just the brand new shoe feel (you regular runners will know what I mean...you get new shoes and you want to run miles & miles in them, then maybe after 8-10 miles you want to sit down again, ha!) Above are my 3 runs that I have ran so far in the Gel-Glorify shoes (Top to bottom; Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday).  Most of this won't really mean anything to anybody else apart from myself but to feel comfortable running those distances in brand new shoes is a great feature and Asics should be applauded for that!  As soon as I put them on, they just felt like I had worn them in for a few weeks, that's how comfortable th...

Asics Kit Preview; Pre-Run Hopefully you guys and girls followed my last post after I decided to revive my blog due to the Asics campaign I have recently become a part of.  I received my package today in the post and have a host of gear to try out over the coming weeks and months, all very exciting from a runners point of view! I have been sent 2 pairs of road shoes; one aimed at longer runs and the other a more lightweight, minimal shoe, created for speed work I imagine.  I have also received a very, very comfortable pair of socks along with some shorts, a running top and a track jacket.  Some really top notch kit to test and I can't wait to get it going. The kit collection - very blue! As I received them this morning, I am yet to actually try any of the kit out in actual running terms but I have tried it all on and every single piece is unbelievably comfortable.  Even the 33 DFA's, which are on the left of the picture, are really comfortable, s...