“I’ve been lacing shoes a special way like this for 23 years,” Brian Beckstead, Altra co-founder and de facto shoe-tying guru, told me. Beckstead, I learned, had not only made a career of perfecting how running shoes work — and fit — he’d gotten his start lacing up runners’ shoes working at the Runner’s Corner shoe store. So, this reassured me I hadn’t pulled a few strings to speak with him for no good reason. Speaking with one another over Zoom, we were both looking at something I’d come across while perusing Reddit’s /r/coolguides — a trove of DIY guides and do-life-better infographics. It ..read more

Light snow drifted down, dusting streets and sidewalks that were unseasonably clear and dry. These were not the ideal testing conditions for Reebok’s debut shoe in the brand new FloatZig line — the FloatZig 1 has no weatherproof membrane and no special rubber to take on the elements. But with the launch just a week away, I opted to log some miles and see what happened. After all, an extraordinarily mild Minnesota winter left the door open to test these three-season running shoes in the fourth season. I had 6 miles before me and hoped I wouldn’t meet any ice or puddles. But a dozen strides lat ..read more

Released today, the Brooks Catamount Agil is — by the brand’s own account — its “fastest trail shoe, ever.” After our prerelease testing, we concur. The shoe packs in the tech and performs like a rocket. Brooks intends it for the growing number of trail runners who identify more closely with severe elevation gain over fewer miles compared to long, ambling “ultra slogs.”  Ten years ago, I started drafting a book I dubbed “Trail Running Is Not Ultrarunning.” I wanted it to prop up the kind of trail running I did: short, fast, and technical. This is the kind of racing the Europeans have bee ..read more

There is a saying, often repeated to shivering kids, that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. With the impressive technical updates that modern running gear is receiving, this adage is becoming truer every year. Perhaps one could be forgiven for skipping cold runs back in the days when heavy leather shoes were considered state-of-the-art. But nowadays, sturdy, lightweight, waterproof sneakers don’t leave a lot of room for excuses. Despite the deepest lugs and the most robust GORE-TEX linings in some trail runners, icy conditions can still necessitate strapping on microspikes. This can ..read more

The cost of running shoes is ballooning ever upward, particularly due to cottage companies not realizing an economy of scale (i.e., Speedland) or mainstream companies increasingly utilizing expensive foam and plate technology. Being a gear tester — specifically, a runner and shoe tester — has given me a healthy dose of skepticism. So it’s notable that not only has Altra added a more expensive material in its new Timp 5 (a Vibram outsole compared to its in-house rubber) and reduced the shoes’ weight, but also brought the price down $5. It’s not a lot of savings, but noteworthy in an era of $50 ..read more

My first impression of the HOKA Cielo X1 went like this: Open box, wowed by the reflective, colorful upper, momentarily dumbfounded while putting the shoe on my foot, and then awestruck by the feeling of standing in the funky, heavily rockered race shoe. You see, I’m an avid runner. But road running generally isn’t my focus. I run on roads literally every day, but my runs also take me through parks, up and down embankments, and along streams that are anything but smooth and flat. So, I tend more toward do-all trail running shoes or road running shoes with a bit more bite. So, a true marathon ..read more

For years, the Brooks Ghost was my running shoe of choice. A good friend, who first indoctrinated me into the cult of distance running, suggested a local shop that swayed me from my Asics preference (the long-hanging result of a failed middle school cross-country career — apparently, I was the only runner to get slower during the season). That original pair of Ghost 9s has long been thrashed. After 600+ miles, they busted in an uintended use case: playing pickup basketball. Subsequent moves to Flagstaff made the jump to trail running and being seduced by the siren call of HOKA’s max cushionin ..read more

I’ll start with a confession. I’m biased to dislike the Sense Ride 5. Years ago, a slightly confrontational and overly pretentious running store employee in the Roaring Fork Valley told me the Sense Ride was the shoe — none other would do. I had blown out a pair of trusty Brooks the week before and was just looking for a 1-to-1 replacement of my beloved Ghosts. At the time, I wasn’t even doing much trail running, instead I was training for some local sprint-distance triathlons. Nonetheless, I succumbed to shoe salesman/peer pressure and bought the Sense Rides. I hated the shoe. It fit strange ..read more

Last July, my partner, our dogs, and I stopped to visit my sister in Estes Park, Colo., along our way back home to Arizona. My sister is a college cross-country and track athlete, and she spent the summer working and running at elevation. Rather than get destroyed trying to keep up with her on a run, we decided a long hike would better suit our stop. We settled on a route in Roosevelt National Forest. We spent a chunk of the day on trail, logging around a dozen miles in intermittent drizzle and bright sunshine so characteristic of summertime in the Colorado Rockies. For a trail shoe so suited ..read more

Thanks to the Via Olympus 2, I spent the latter half of this year running more miles in a zero-drop shoe than I ever have before. After taking some time away from running, I was more open to zero-drop shoes, as it would be less of an adjustment than jumping in from a full season of running in 4mm-drop shoes. If your winter runs are short and focused more on maintaining a baseline, these are an enticement to try out zero-drop shoes. For background, the Via Olympus is Altra’s roadie take on the Olympus, its max cushion trail shoe, now in its fifth edition. They share the same footshape, 33mm st ..read more