New Shoes!

That's right. I've got new shoes. I bought road shoes from a certain running shop a while ago and had a £25 voucher to use before the end of the year....well it's taken me until now to get back there and buy some. That's mainly because I have quite a few pairs of other shoes and didn't need more. But, the deed is done and I have a fine pair of Kanadia TR4's. They wouldn't be my first choice of trail shoe as they are a lot more built up on the sole than my normal INOV8 Roclites. But, the said shop no longer stocks INOV8's and I couldn't waste the voucher.

brand new Kanadia TR4's

The grip doesn't seem as sticky as INOV8s, but the only way to know for sure is to get out there and try them.

grip not performing well on the frozen grass - but then neither would any of my other shoes!

The ice certainly made for a very steady 7km hour long run, but it was good to get out and see the sunlight just reaching the top of James Thorn and the southern edge of Bleaklow. There was one point where I had to cross a track, normally just a tarmac strip with a couple of steps and no thought about it - today was a different matter. The whole track was one long strip of verglas ice. My tactic for crossing this 2.5m wide section - down on my knees and slide across!! It might not have been elegant but I didn't fall over, and it made me smile.

I really just wanted to carry on and get up there in the snow but with clients expected the top of the hills will have to wait this time. I'm also not sure the Kanadia's would be up for the conditions up there, I'd feel much more confident in mudclaws and some katoolas in my bumbag.