Shoe Report - Brooks Cascadia 5

I'm not a big fan of trail shoes and have only had one pair before - a clunky pair of Montrails. I find that my road shoes work quite well on the trails too. However I was in Foot Zone the other day picking up some Hammer Gel and, needing some new shoes, was looking at the offerings on display. The Cascadia caught my eye because it's light and low, especially for a 'trail' shoe. I tried them on in the store and found they fit me very well. I like a shoe that's narrow/tight in the heel with lots of room in the toebox. The outsole had nice traction lugs and a 'rock plate' to help keep stone bruises at bay. My only initial concern was how soft the cushioning was.
I tried them out on a 12 mile run including a climb up Cedar Butte on a wet day. The shoes felt good and had fair traction on the loamy soil, but when the trail was muddy the shoes didn't do as well. They also had NO traction on wet roots and rocks. I nearly fell a couple times due to this.
I wore them again on a 24 mile trail run featuring 6,000' of elevation gain, mud, snow, and dry surfaces today. The snow was soft and slippery and I doubt any shoe would have done well. These certainly didn't. I also seemed to be twisting my foot and ankle a lot. I don't know if it is because the soft cushioning of the shoe allowed more 'roll' or if it was just the trail conditions.
The Brooks Cascadia 5 seems like a shoe that will find a place in my shoe library due to its good dry weather traction, its fit, and its light weight and suitability for both road and trail running.

20 miles

In my pre running life (before age 40) I would have flipped if someone told me they were going to run 20 miles all at once. Why would anyone run 20 miles when they could drive - or at worst ride a bike?

One reason is simply that we (humans) can! We seem to be adapted to long distance running by evolution. It may take a while to get in condition to be able to do it, but I feel that nearly anyone is capable of these long runs and running marathons.

My last 20+ mile run was last Sunday. I'm in a mileage base building phase to prepare for a 50k trail race in July. I skied hard Saturday and pretty well thrashed my quads, so the run was a little more difficult than it might have been! I ran it as a progression run meaning I started off slowly, increased my pace in the middle miles, and increased my pace again for the finish. This makes for a good workout! Cherie rode her bike alongside me during the run as she did last fall when I was preparing for the New York City marathon. It was a great day with sun and temperatures in the lower 60s. We went to the pool for a few laps afterward and finished up by sitting in the club sauna for a few minutes. It was pretty much a good day!

Today I'm going out for around 12 miles including a couple repeats up Cedar Butte, a small mountain just off the Iron Horse trail near the house.