Merrell Trail Glove Review – Barefoot Shoes

So i have put about 50-60 miles on my Merrell Trail Gloves now and thought i would post a review on the ownership experience so far.

http://www.merrell.com/US/en-US/Product.mvc.aspx/22875M/60904/Mens/Barefoot-Run-Trail-Glove

Sophie and Simon's new barefoot Merrell Trail Gloves

I have read a few reviews and criticisms of the Trail Glove which i feel to be unfair as the review seems to have forgotten that the shoe is a “Trail” (The clue is in the name) shoe and not designed for running on the hard top. For my part i have had nothing but a positive 3 months with my shoes. My 9 year old daughter also has a pair and loves them,

The Trail Glove is a 6.2 oz zero drop minimalist trail shoe. It has a Vibram sole and a 1mm impact plate in the mid sole to take some of the shock absorption away from the foot when hitting stones etc.

The inside is seamless and so designed for you to not wear socks with the shoe. The shoe required no breaking in and has never rubbed or caused any blisters of any kind. It also has a Aegis® antimicrobial solution footbed that claims to resist odor. Which i think works pretty well as they still smell pretty good and nothing like my soccer boots that i wear socks in. So a big thumbs up there. It also helps that the shoes are machine washable.

So far my shoes have shown very little wear and i would expect many hundreds of miles in the shoes. The soles being quality Virbram’s you would expect this and the uppers are the usual high quality you expect from Merrell.

The fit is great for my feet. My feet are narrow  at the arch and then wide at the mid foot and toes. The trail gloves have been criticized for being too narrow at the arch. I feel this to be somewhat an unfair criticism  as you need a trail shoe to be tight and glove like as you don’t want the the shoe to move independently underfoot when running on slopes or difficult surfaces etc. Something you don’t need from a standard running shoe. The toe box is very wide giving plenty of room for your toes to splay out and feel the ground as you are running. The rubber bumper around the toes providing you with that extra protection when hitting the rough stuff.

All in all i give the shoes a solid 8 out of 10. These are great minimalist trail shoes. High quality, offering you strong foot protection and still allowing plenty of feeling. The only downsides are potentially if the narrow fit around your arch is going to be a problem and they are slightly more expensive than the Virbram equivalents at $110

Related articles

• What’s Been on My Feet Lately? – Preview of Three Minimalist Road Shoes From New Balance, Merrell, and Adidas (runblogger.com)
• Running Form and Efficiency with your Stride (barefeat.wordpress.com)
• My Review of Merrell Pace Glove Cross-Training Shoes – Women’s (fromfatkidtofab.wordpress.com)

Running Form and Efficiency with your Stride

It came to me this morning during my run, Somewhat of an epiphany. After my rather heavy and laborious run of two days ago ( blogged about here in my “back to sneakers ohhh dear” post) in sneakers and then cruising through the exact same run barely out of breath and feeling no tiredness in the legs, running in my Merrell Trail Gloves. It came to me. It’s all about EFFICIENCY!

I have been really focusing on my barefoot running form and that’s going pretty well. It occurred to me when i am wearing my Merrell’s, several things happen. My stride shortens as i concentrate on landing on the mid-foot and in doing so find my stride landing below my body. Now I am no expert and as you can see from the video below i may still be slightly over stepping. I welcome your opinion on this. I have read that ideally I should be trying to land “behind” me.

This shortening of my stride must in turn be allowing me to better use the natural elasticity in my ligaments, in an overall more efficient running form. Noticeably so. I don’t know but i need to pick up a pedometer so i can check my stride timing. I must be closer to the optimal 180bpm running barefoot. Two days ago for the same run my legs felt tired and heavy, it was not an enjoyable run. Today felt fantastic as i cruised home effortlessly and could have gone on much further had my Achilles and calves been stronger.

I shot a short video of my form running in traditional running shoes as a comparison below.

My run today is here http://runkeeper.com/user/simonjcole/activity/60972499

Related articles

• Back to sneakers today, ohh dear (barefeat.wordpress.com)
• Why you should run barefoot (gazaliahmad.com)
• Barefoot running: an overview of the science | Guardian Sport Network (guardian.co.uk)
• Running Barefoot: The First Steps (onlineshoes.com)

The science behind my decision to run barefoot

Those that know me, know that my “faith” in life is science . It is because of my faith in science that i decided to change my ill ways and try to run “correctly” barefooted.

Vivo Barefoot has put together a great mini e-book on the science of barefoot running with Harvard professor Dan Lieberman and “Born to Run” author and ultra runner Chris McDougall.

Jogging and Running foot feedback points

 

You can download the whole 20 page document here for free:

You will just need to sign up to download it.

From my stand point it makes a lot of sense. Most of what is described in the book rings true for me. I can already feel my posture change and my form take a lighter and bouncier form. As i mentioned in my Treadmill post my running form was considerably lighter than the man on the treadmill next to me.

My big challenge is to perfect the form and get the ligaments and muscles in my feet and lower leg strengthened and in shape to run the distances I have been used to running in my old sneakers. Without smashing my feet to pieces in the process!!

 

http://trainingclinic.vivobarefoot.com/

 

Related articles

• Barefoot running: an overview of the science | Guardian Sport Network (guardian.co.uk)
• Barefoot running: An overview (sportsscientists.com)
• BLOG POST: Barefoot Running (totalrunningperformance.com)

Putting a few miles in, with a barefoot run

So as usual my lack of patience got the better of me, i was itching to get a decent length of run in and wary of using the old running shoes that will encourage bring the heel strike back.

So i went for it in the Merrell trail gloves. Slightly shorter than usual but still a healthy 4.5 miles outside on varied terrain. Details can be found here at runkeeper.

Overall it felt pretty good. I feel i managed to control my running form throughout the run maintaining the mid foot strike. It is much easier to keep track of the form running on concrete than over grassy surfaces that are not flat.

I am actually pretty delighted with my progress. This is really only my 3rd real run in the shoes trying to adept to the barefoot mid foot strike and it seems to be going well. My calves are taking a beating from the change in foot posture but really other than that nothing serious to report.

The Merrell Trail Gloves feel fantastic with no blisters or rubbing problems to report. Which i am very impressed with as I don’t wear socks with them. I will write a full review post of the shoes shortly.

Happy running!