Product Review - Under Armour Spine Shoes

I received a pair of Under Armour Spine Shoes from Kovas as a result of a product give away on his blog. I didn't win, outright but when the winner didn't claim the prize, I was the beneficiary of the roll down. I was pretty excited since I love trying new gear and writing about it, specially gear I probably wouldn't buy on my own.

I've been doing a lot of trail running the last few months and have been using my trusty New Balance 1080 road shoes. I always wondered if a trail shoe would be better but never got around to really looking into it, until now.

I received the shoes a few days ago and at first glance they look like a normal shoe. Flip them over and they don't look so normal. The tread pattern is very aggressive with deep grooves for traction. The other major difference between these shoes and typical road shoes is the tread material. The tread has a relatively hard plastic feel vs. the rubbery feel of traditional shoes even though the Under Armour website says they are made of rubber.

Yes, I was too lazy to crop out the trash can in the background :-)

Nice deep treads

Last time these will be clean :-)

Once I put the shoes on I noticed a nice fit up top with a nice roomy toe box. The soles felt a little stiff walking around but not too bad. The shoes squeaked like basketball shoes when walking across the tile floor in my kitchen, nothing a little dirt won't fix :-).

I headed out to some of my favorite single track at the university and gave them a try on a nice, warm 60 degree day in January. With some heavy rain just a couple days earlier, I knew I would get in a good test on some slippery spots. I wasn't more than 10 or 15 steps into the woods when I immediately noticed the fantastic traction these shoes offer. I've honestly never experienced the sure footed feeling I had and was excited to put these shoes through their paces. When I reached the first slick spot, I didn't even have to change my gait where with regular running shoes, I would shorten my stride significantly to make sure I did t slip and fall. What a great feeling! Slick hill? No problem. Muddy stretch at a slant? Not an issue. Now I realize what I was missing trail running in a road shoe.

About 40 minutes into my run, I ran on a paved multi-use path to get to the next set of single track. The shoe felt stiff and made a clomping sound. Kind of like running with wood soles. I definitely won't be retiring my road shoes any time soon. After a brief stint on the paved path, I was back on the single track and enjoying the superior traction of these shoes. I'm not sure if its the shoes or the fact that I was running late for an appointment, but I PR'd my 6 mile loop by over three minutes without trying too hard. Being able to take full strides through tricky spots had to be a big chunk of that 3 minutes.

Overall I'm impressed with these shoes and would recommend giving them a try if you are in the market for a trail shoe. For running on pavement, I would stick with what is already working for you.

(Disclaimer: I was given these shoes for free from Under Armour. I did not pay for the shoes, receive payment for this review, agree to give a positive review, or agree to review them at all. Aside from information gleaned from the company website, the opinions are my own.)

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Big Woods - Winter Edition (no snow)

This weekend I decided to drive to one of the woods I run in on campus.  I usually run there from home then run back, but thought running the entire time in the woods would be that much better (instead of 3.5 miles on the road).  I was not disappointed and may make a habit out of this approach.

I don't know why these woods have the nick name "big woods", to me they are the "old woods" since this is where I use to mountain off-road bike 15 years ago before they were closed by the university.  These woods have lots of fond biking memories, now I'm filing away fond running memories.

Saturday I made it to the woods for a run.  I planned on running an hour and a half, but I just didn't want it to end.  I never saw one other person out there.  Just me and my tunes.  It was so peaceful and I never once got nervous about mountain lions :-).  Not sure why I start thinking I'm being watched when running alone through woods, but it didn't happen this time (maybe no one was watching me, but they really are at other times :-)).

Anyway here are some pics.

Pretty barren in February

nice single track

went over the handle bars coming down this

10+ years ago I was biking by myself and coming down this I ended up looking at the sky without knowing exactly what happened.  No phone, by myself, I was stunned.  I really don't know how long I laid there.  Could have been a second, could have been 10 minutes.  Felt my collar bones and helmet, no trouble so I kept going.  That was the last time I rode down that though :-).

interesting obstacles

can't remember what I saw here

You have to pay attention in some places, specially on a bike

another drop off, it seems tighter in person

sorry, no stupid crooked grin pictures of me today :-)

more obstacles 

The woods change so much from season to season, I'm hoping to take a few pics each season and blog them. I've had this thought before, but then again, I wasn't a blogger before.  We'll see.......

Obstacles

I was riding out on some perfect single track Saturday and came across this.

Big tree own in the middle of a bunch of brush

As I approached, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Then I thought about it and came up with five alternatives for dealing with obstacles.  You can hit them head on and go right through, go under them, go over them, go around them, or give up and run away.  I walked up to the tree and it was obvious I wasn't going through it, under it or even around it.  I sized it up for a minute, lifted my bike over it, climbed over and continued on a nearly perfect ride.

Here are a few more pics from the ride.  The woods were totally different than last week.  With the canopy down, the undergrowth really greened up in their last hooray before winter.

Love the contrast in this pic

Regarding my obstacle to becoming a morning person, I didn't do so well this week.  After going four for four getting up early the first week, I only went one for four this week.  I made it up Tuesday without issue.  Wednesday was dark, cold and rainy, and I was a quitter.  Thursday I had the volume turned off on my phone alarm and slept right through it.  Friday I was disgusted with myself for missing Wednesday and Thursday and didn't even try to get up (lame I know).

I think I need a goal to help with early morning motivation, so I'm looking for an early season 70.3 to sign up for.  Right now I'm thinking Rev3 Knoxville or Panama City Beach.  Knoxville scares me with four cat 5 climbs and swimming against the current in the river.

Falling In Love

Yep, I have a secret to share.  I'm falling in love with mountain biking, again.  I used to ride off road a lot about 12 years ago, then got away from it for years.  This past month, I haven't touched my road bike and I've gotten out on the single track every weekend.  It really is refreshing.  Instead of cranking out the miles like a diesel engine, you get to maneuver over, under and around obstacles like a Jeep.  Totally different feeling and really enjoyable.  Here are some pics from this past weekend. 

Oh, week 1 of becoming a morning person was a success!

Day 1 - didn't sleep well. Woke up about every hour. Still managed to get up at 5:30 and got a rough 3 miler in.  It was dark and starry outside and 40 degrees.  Felt groggy and tired mid- afternoon. Felt drained like I did during peak NOLA training, but I did it!
Day 2 - Slept much better. Got up at 5:30 and ran 3 miles and felt good.  Dark and starry and 50 degrees.  Felt good all day.
Day 3 - Arrived in Cleveland the night before and had a late business dinner.  Lousy night sleep, but got up at 6:30 and ran 3 and a half miles on a crappy route.
Day 4 - Managed to get a 35 minute run in before the meetings started back up.  Felt good.
Day 5 and 6 were the weekend.


On to week 2.......