Why I Switched From Salomon To Altra Trail Runners

hey y'all Dixie here today I want to talk to you about why I switched from Salomon trail runners to ultra trail runners during my Pacific Crest Trail third hike so actually when I started my first through hike on the Appalachian Trail I started with just boots like your typical leather hiking boot and realized that wasn't gonna work for me so I found the world of trail runners and the first one I tried was a Sullivan and they ended up working for me the whole eighteen and so I kind of had the mentality of if it's not broke don't fix it so likely I would have stuck with Sullivan's if I hadn't had any issues but during my first couple of days on the PCT I realized that although I started with the same size trail runner that I finished the 18 on I guess my feet had flattened out even more and I needed a bigger size so the smaller Solomons were causing my toes to hit the front of the shoe which bruised my toenails and ended up causing me to have blisters up under my toenails and my toenails later fell off so when I got to Mount Laguna which was the first outfitter first place to really get a pair of trail runners I had intended on just stepping up a size in Sullivan's but it turned out that they didn't have the size that I needed in Sullivan so I was pretty nervous because I mean your feet are kind of a big deal when it comes to a thru-hike I mean you need them to be in good shape and so I was just worried that going with a completely different brand would cause my foot issues that you know I hadn't had before one of the biggest features that made me sold on trying the ultra brand was the wider toe box so I knew that my toes that were cramped up and a small shoe would have the ability to kind of spread out and to heal because they were a really really sore from you know hitting the front of that toe box and the Solomons and I mean if you think about it you know it's obviously gonna be better for your feet and you're gonna be like stronger in the foot when your toes are more spread out naturally where they're supposed to be and you know you get more of like a grounded walk versus walk in like with little you know ball feet so the first model of the ultras that I tried out was the Lone Peak 2.5 and these actually have a wider toe box and some of the models I wore and then they also told me about the zero drop in the shoe and I didn't know what that man I just needed some shoes that would work that you know would give my toast in space and and they recommended those so I was like okay zero drop whatever it sounds great what I later found out is that zero drop means that the space between your heel and the ground and then the ball of your foot and the ground are the same distance unlike a lot of tennis shoes or running shoes or trail runners that have a drop from the heel to the ball of the foot and a lot of them are like 12 millimeters as I did more research I found out that one of the founders of ultra was working at his dad's shoe shop and he would see a lot of people coming in getting shoes for running and they were having all sorts of different foot problems whether it was like plantar fasciitis or whatever and he decided that it was probably you know the drop in the shoe the way that the the shoe was designed and the way it caused like an unnatural gait so he was actually cutting out that little wedge and like using a toaster oven putting the shoe back together and I it was really cool the story behind it but anyway he found that when he did that a lot of these runners suddenly didn't have the same problems anymore and apparently that's slang the idea for the zero drop in you know the whole idea behind ultras was creative now they do say a lot of times it takes people a little while to get used to the zero drop in their shoes and that the best idea is to rotate them out with your normal running shoe or whatever you're used to that way you get used to the zero drop because like a spring instead of your foot you know going up like that it's really going down more and then you know able to pop back up with a little more power so it makes sense while your calves might feel a little sore while you're adjusting to that change and if you look up on their website they go into more details of you know why this whole design is better and more natural for your feet and all that not really gonna go into that today because honestly that's not the reason that I've swapped it's just a benefit that I received from swapping I don't recall noticing any calf soreness when I started using ultras there may be a couple of reasons for that one my feet and my legs and everything we're already sore because you know starting a third high and also I put in my inserts that I used dr. Scholl's for plantar fasciitis so I did have a little more arch support in there than comes with the factory insult in the ultras now I was at an outfitter one time after using the ultras with my dr. Scholl's inserts for a while and I heard an outfitter tell a guy that if he went to ultras he would have to use a certain insole if he didn't use the factory ones because you know you can just use any insole that because of the zero drop that would cause you issues and so I looked up on ultras website on the FAQ and it mentions you know can I use orthotics or other inserts Ultra says yes you actually can use inserts or orthotics in our shoes but I guess the idea is that eventually your foot should adjust to the zero drop and you might not even need those orthotics or inserts of course it depends on your own foot because I mean everybody's feet are different but the idea is that eventually you might can just get rid of that altogether for me personally plantar fasciitis it's not fun I had a bout of that on the 18 I think a lot of it was not swapping my shoes often enough so I switch out my chores every 500 miles all of the pairs of ultras that I used would have lasted me over 500 miles as far as like wear and tear and the tread but I just found for myself that I feel like you know after every 500 miles or so just the support has gone the cushioning or whatever the science is behind it so after 500 miles on my Lone Peak 2.5 s I went to an outfitter to get new shoes they didn't have any 2.5 s because that was the older version so I ended up with the ultra Lone Peak 3.0 actually think I had like two or three pair of those during the rest of my hike the main difference that I noticed personally between the 2.5 s and the 3.0 s there there are several things but the biggest difference that I immediately noticed was the toe box was a little bit narrower but again wider than any of pairs of Solomon's I ever had and I also ended up with a pair of ultra torn 2.5 s and whose aren't necessarily trail running shoes I think they're more just like a straight running shoe and it was pretty obvious from the tread that that was the case they worked out fine and I ended up wearing them also I think about 500 miles and and I don't recall you know slipping a lot more or anything like that but obviously you know on some loose gravel and maybe wet surfaces they might not have been as aggressive of a tread and the other pair might have served me better now the 2.5 s and even the Torrens really looked like like clown shoes I mean the wider toe box is definitely not fashionable but I thought on the trail it's more about function over fashion if I had to pick one though I would probably go with the Lone Peak 3.0 it really is no particular reason that I went with the men's shoes I would have tried on some of the women's ultras but all of the Outfitters that I went to they didn't have one big enough for my foot in stock for the CDT I plan on sticking with ultras I already actually have a pair of the 3.5 I feel comfortable enough and have enough faith in the ultra brand to you know try the different styles and that's the newest one out so I assume that they've probably you know made Corrections from things that people complained about previously but regardless I'm going to give them a shot I'll let you all know what I think so that's my experience with ultras I would love to hear what you all have to say about them you know if they've helped different foot problems you have or if they didn't work for you and why you think so and then also if anybody has like test the limits of ultras as far as like durability and tread and how long it took to wear them out because like I said I always swap mine at 500 miles so I don't really know but if you have any questions about my experience with them please feel free to share that in the comments below and I will answer those for you and thank y'all so much for watching if you find this channel helpful at all the easiest way to support my work and what I do here is to visit Dixie AZ com you go to do shopping on Amazon all it does is give you a link that redirects you to Amazon at no additional cost to you you'll be supporting this channel thank you so much and we will see y'all next time

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 186,426

Rating: 4.9142857 out of 5

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, PCT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, Appalachian, Trail, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic, altra lone peak, salomon, altra, trail runner, shoes, best trail runner, zero drop, wide toe box

Id: 8AVlrJGWqgw

Length: 8min 37sec (517 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2018