Buying shoes - road or trail?

[rainbownelle]

Hello,

Yesterday I completed W2D1 of Couch to 5K and I decided I would buy some proper shoes. I went to a local running shop for a gait analysis (I'm a pronator), and am currently torn between two pairs of shoes. One is a road shoe, and one is a trail shoe.

My running so far has been on a combination of proper paved tracks/roads and roughish grass - I've been running in Holyrood Park/The Meadows in Edinburgh, which have both terrains.

My question is - if I'm going to be doing some running on "roads" and some running on roughish grassy bits (within the same run), am I better off getting a road shoe or a trail shoe?

These are my final two:

Nike Air Zoom Structure 18

store.nike.com/gb/en_gb/pd/...

Brooks Adrenaline ASR 11

brooksrunning.com/en_gb/wom...

I find the Nike more comfortable (lighter and less clunky, which I prefer), but I don't want to buy them if they're going to be useless whenever I'm on grass. Similarly, I don't want to buy a trail shoe if that'll be useless on the paved sections (which, to be honest, I'll probably spend more time on).

I'd love to hear what you think, and am happy to give more details if needed...

[ActonHighStreet]

That Brooks shoe will do very nicely for both. I don't know the Nike one, I'm afraid.

[misswobble Graduate]

Go for the nike if you prefer it. Road shoes are a but slippy on wet grass though bear in mind.

i have nikes and brooks shoes and both are very good

[dille Graduate]

I don't know either, but the Nikes look a little bit slippery for grass, therefore I would go for the Brooks unless you need a cushioned shoe.

Here they sell shoes for both street and trail as city trail shoes which are a mix of both. Maybe your shop has some of those?

[rainbownelle Graduate]

Thanks guys This was the beginning of a shoe quest that involved trying the Nikes again, buying Asics GT-2000 3s, trying them at home, learning my feet strongly dislike having arch support, exchanging them for Saucony Mirage 4s, learning my feet don't even like that much arch support, and finally ending up with Vibram KSO Evos!

Still running in my old trainers for now, as will need to transition v slowly to running in the Vibrams, but am really pleased with them. I spend most of my time at home/work in socks, so structured running shoes just felt wrong to me.