Merrell Trail Gloves Test

Tested out the Merrell Trail Gloves on their first ever run. This has to be the best designed shoe on the planet!

There is definitely less sensitivity to the ground than with the Vibram Five Fingers but this feels just about perfect for trail running - at least to me at the moment it does. It may be the protective plate for the metatarsals that makes the difference, but at no point did I feel vulnerable on the trail.

The blossoms that I was photographing only weeks ago have already transformed into fruit.

It was an Oh My God! moment today when it suddenly dawned on me the significance of "not pushing off with the foot" at the end of the stride. 5 days ago when I did this same run I had 4 days of DOMS so today I tried hard to work on continuing to improve my form. I noticed that in both ChiRunning and Pose technique they say not to push off with the foot - that all the propulsion should come from gravity toppling you forwards. It came really clear to me today - clearer than ever before. Your lower leg muscles are small and tire out fast if used to force yourself. Using gravity instead means that you switch to using the biggest of the core muscles - the psoas - instead, just lifting the leg up and forwards and dropping it back down again. It just suddenly became so clear how I was pushing with the leg muscles instead and how tiring that is. The psoas has much more potential and the only job then is to lift the leg - a big muscle for a little job! The 42 minute run felt like I wasn't running at all it was so easy. I've been running all my life but never felt it so easy before. Don't think there will be any DOMS this time as I felt fine after the run. Either that's due to the body adapting or the improvement in technique. Next run will be a little longer again.

The shoes are fantastic - big toe box so the toes splay out and no contact on the front of the shoes when descending. The rest of the shoe fits like a glove - with no socks necessary. I believed that the shoe was too big to start with but then understood that it's because the design is just so radical. Merrell size small so if you are normally a 41 then you need a 42. I actually have other Merrell shoes that are too small at size 42 yet all my other shoes are either 40 or 41 depending on the brands. My VFFs are 41 and if anything are slightly too large but that's not a problem at all for running. You still have to be attentive to where the foot lands and always strike with the forefoot and then coming down on the rest of the foot progressively. I think that this shoe gives the best of both worlds - barefoot and protected. I still like my VFFs for more feedback though and like the separation of the toes. I think that it's good to have both. All my other shoes are obsolete now!