Years ago, tired with either not being able to go running or sliding around like mad when the temperature plummeted, I purchased a pair of the fantastic Microspikes from Kahtoola. I still have them and they are still used. They have been totally dependable and show not a sign of wear. They grip really well and if I had any issue with them, it would be that they can be quite uncomfortable when the ground is hard like ice or tarmac. 

A comparison to show the differences between the microspikes (below) and the EXOspikes (above)

Kahtoola have an answer to this. The EXOspikes have a similar upper section as the microspikes, but the lower section is very different. Instead of the chain construction of the microspikes, there is a ‘TPU Traction Matrix’ which holds the relatively low profile Tungsten Carbide tips (12 on each foot).

It is the low profile nature of these traction devices that really is a big improvement over the microspikes. When not being worn, they are noticeably smaller in size making them easier to carry. They are also a lot lighter which is a huge bonus. Being low profile means they are more comfortable when running on hard surfaces. 

A close up of the tungsten carbide tips

Kahtoola state that they are tough enough to handle dirt, mud and rocks, so I was certainly keen to put them through their paces. If the microspikes are anything to go by, durability will not be an issue!

In use, they are simple to pull on. All you need to make sure is that you get them the right way around, but other than that, just push your toe in and stretch the back over your heel. Check they are tight and even all round, and you are ready to run!

In their favourite environment

I’ve used these in quite a lot of different conditions, from ice, to slushy ice to thin hard snow, to deep snow. On many runs, they have done stretches of trail or road with no ice or snow. As with the microspikes, you quickly become very confident that you aren’t going to slip. This is really empowering and opens your eyes to just what you can now achieve in what before was difficult conditions.

For me, the best part of the EXOspikes, is that they really are ok to run in on hard surfaces. I used to have to take the microspikes off after a while of running on hard surfaces, as they dug into the bottom of my feet, but the EXOspikes stay on. Even when I have finished with them out on a run, they are quite packable and light (110g each) and just about squeeze into my Salomon Pulse Belt. They also come with a little bag which is good as they are generally wet and muddy when you take them off so it’s good for keeping the mud off the rest of your kit.

Folded in half, ready to be stowed

As with most gear, they do have their limitations, and with the EXOspikes, it is deep soft snow. The microspkes would handle this surprisingly well, whereas the Exospikes, although adding a little extra traction, it's not massively confidence building as with all other conditions. 

Opened up, ready to fit on to your shoe

Overall, the EXOspikes are fantastic. I even did a fast interval session on icy roads the other day and managed similar paces to normal. I think, for people who want to be running at all times of the year, then the EXOspikes are invaluable, even though they will barely be used for many runners, when you do need them, you will be smiling!

At £49 they are certainly not cheap, but I think they are basically a lifetime investment seeing as they are so durable. Remember, they can be used when not running too! I think they are worth the price due to their effectiveness, durability and how small and light they are. They even get a mention on ‘My Favourite Running Gear’. That’s how much I rate them!

To purchase the EXOspikes from Kahtoola, please consider using the following link for a good price - Buy Kahtoola EXOspikes here . This is an Amazon affiliate link. The URC will make a small commision from each sale at no cost to the buyer.

My first and only Adidas were the Adizero XT 4’s which I had a reviewed almost a decade ago. I have fond memories of this shoe. It was light, had excellent grip, very comfortable and very durable. Since then, I have used many, many shoes but for whatever reason I have not pulled on another Adidas shoe.

I then saw the Terrex Speed Ultra and knew I needed to try them out. It reminded me of the old Adizero XT 4’s even though there were a few differences, with the major one being the tread. It is still manufactured by Continental, but it is not a deep aggressive pattern, but more a light tread designed for long distances on hard pack trails where deep tread is not needed. There is a shoe in the Speed lineup with really aggressive tread called the Terrex Speed SG. 

The Speed Ultras have a midsole made from Boost foam, which I have read much about, yet hadn’t tried, so was interested to see how it felt. I had just published my review of the inov8 Trailfly Ultra G 300 max which was a shoe built for a similar purpose, ultras on decent trails, providing decent comfort, yet they seemed light years apart from each other. The trailfly seemed big and clumsy compared to the compact and lighter Speed Ultra. How would they feel on the trails? Would they have enough protection, and would the Boost be as bouncy as I had read?

With 8mm of heel-to-toe drop, the Speed Ultra has enough rise to give most peoples achilles a fairly easy time when running longer, but also stays fairly low to still feel grounded. 

The upper is made from a single piece of fine mesh which has overlays on the inside (underlays?) which you can see through the mesh as stripes. There is an overlay toe bumper that is fairly minimalist but should add a little protection from stubs. There is also an additional overlay that is over the top of the big toe nail. I am guessing that this is to counter blow outs from the toe nail occurring? If so, this is a nice touch, just for durability.

The heel is held firmly in place by a soft, lightly padded heel cup that has no solid insert, which I really like. 

The tongue is gusseted with thin unobtrusive elastic which is sure to help keep the foot firmly in place, and keep the tongue from sliding to the side. The tongue is thin and punctured with many holes to aid air circulation. For me, having feet that sweat a lot, the tongue is the major week area when it comes to aerating the foot, so holes are always good for me. 

The laces that come with the Speed Ultra are thin flat ones, which are a good length for me, and seem to stay tied well. I like them.

The midsole is a blend of Boost and Lightstrike materials. It feels nice and spongey and feels as though it will be springy too. Only some time pounding the trails in them will reveal if this is true.

Lug depth is a tiny 2.5mm making it a shoe which will certainly not be happy with much mud at all! This shoe is made to go fast over decent, not muddy trail or road. As previously mentioned, the outsole material is provided by Continental the car and bike tyre manufacturer. I remember being seriously impressed with the soles on my old Adidas years ago, so have high hopes for these, though I am assuming that the compound is different from back then!?

I’ll be honest, I was really quite excited about this shoe. It felt light (240g according to Adidas, though my samples were 279g) and I liked the minimalist size. When I pulled it on, I immediately knew it fitted well as the elasticated gussets on the tongue hugged my midfoot.

Out on the trail, the midsole instantly felt great, managing to feel very soft and also adding a spring to my stride. I felt like my feet were well protected, but also like I was close to the ground. They feel great! The combination of the small size of the shoe, light weight and bouncy sole made me want to both run fast on the flat and descend the most technical trail. They were playful and I wanted to try them out on anything I could find here in Chamonix.

When on dry trails, the tread is excellent. It sticks reassuringly to ret rocks and copes pretty well with loose gravelly descents. The main weakness is wet mud. Now, I know that it wasn’t designed as a fell shoe to grip in bogs a shoe sucking mud, but I like to raise the point for those that want an all-rounder. The 2.5mm deep studs are wholly inadequate for anything muddy. I have run a few times in some muddy areas and they just don’t really bite at all. Basically, if you want a shoe that may encounter wet mud, then this is not the shoe for you! For anything else though, the tread is great! The grip on wet slabs was really impressive, I can’t be sure, but I was considering it to be the best I have tried!

The shoe seems to breathe ok, though my feet still sweated a lot (they always do!), and the toe bumper seemed to hold up to a few minor stubs. Laces were great, not losing tension or coming undone. The overall feel of this shoe is fast and playful, yet they are also comfortable and provide some protection underfoot making them more ultra oriented.

I have put over 260km into them so far, and they are showing no signs of weakness or wear in the upper. The tread is showing a little wear, which is an amount I would be happy with, but it seems more significant as the tread is so minimal. I shall update in the future when they have many more km’s in them. 

If you are looking for some decent underfoot comfort yet with some great spring, then the Terrex Speed Ultras are for you. If you want a shoe for racing ultra distance, that is light and playful, then the Terrex Speed Ultras are for you. If you encounter some squishy, slippery mud sections on your runs, then the Terrex Speed Ultra is possibly the wrong shoe for you.

Fast, light, comfortable, excellent grip on rock. The Terrex Speed Ultra from Adidas is a serious shoe for some seriously fast and fun runs. 

Priced at £160, though currently on sale at £129 at Wiggle, they are priced at the top end, but in the sale they are much more accessible. £129 seems like a good price for this shoe I would say. Of course the true test will be the durability after a few hundred more km's.

To purchase a pair of Adidas Terrex Speed Ultra, click on either of the buttons below. You will get a good price and a small commision goes to the URC (at no cost to you). Thanks 

inov-8 really are very good at drumming up lots of interest in their new shoe releases, and the new TRAILFLY ULTRA G 300 MAX was no exception!

There are certainly some interesting and exciting sounding innovations in the new ultra specific shoe though and I was very interested to try a pair out. One thing I have been frustrated with many of inov-8’s shoes are that they are zero rise (or very low rise) and/or too narrow for my feet. Well, the TRAILFLY would rectify this for me, as it has the same upper shape as the TERRAULTRA which fitted my foot beautifully, and apparently fits many other people feet nicely too. Unlike the TERRAULTRA which is zero rise which instantly makes it unsuitable for many people, the TRAILFLY has a decent 6mm drop. Ticking my boxes nicely!

What are the innovations then? Well, inov-8 first utilised the wonder material, graphene in their Graphene grip compound outsole, which is reported to be stickier yet more durable than others. Now they have incorporated graphene into a midsole compound they have titled, G-FLY. According to the site “The foam delivers 25% greater energy return and retains its optimum levels of underfoot rebound and comfort for longer, so runners feel faster and fresher over greater distances.” Well it all sounds pretty amazing of course, but although I can’t say I am immune to some good promotion from companies, I can only vouch for claims if I feel it after a decent test period.

The other new innovation, is the ADAPTER-FLEX on the outsole which is basically a very deep groove on the outsole which allows for the foot to react well to uneven terrain adding stability and confidence. This is interesting as Inov8 are attempting to retain as much trail feel even with a relatively large and soft sole unit. Again, I was intrigued to see how this worked.

Providing grip, would be the already tried and tested Graphen grip compound which I have used before on a few other shoes and I knew was a good solid compound.

The final part that caught my attention was the 300 in the name. The number in all inov-8 shoes relates to the weight of one shoe. 300g is not light, but just on the edge of being too much in my opinion. The problem is, both my left and my right shoe weigh a rather hefty 358 grammes! That is a huge discrepancy, and in my opinion, places it in the heavy region. I am guessing that the upper is pretty light, and the outsole is fairly standard, so the weight is in the G-FLY midsole. If I am right, then it really needs to shine as some sort of magical foam to make it worthwhile!

Anyway, enough waffle with my theories, let’s run this shoe and see what it actually feels like!

My first impression on opening the box was, what is that stink! Don’t get me wrong, I like the ‘new shoe’ smell, but this was potent, and still is! My partner has a very keen sense of smell and can’t stand it! I am guessing it is the G-FLY foam as my TERRAULTRA's didn’t smell like this! Anyway, this isn’t a performance issue obviously. I suppose it is (maybe?) better than the smell of my other old smelly shoes!

The upper, as previously mentioned, is very similar to the TERRAULTRA's, which has a wide fitting, the widest that inov-8 make, and was a fantastic fit for me giving my toes plenty of space. It was good to pull the TRAILFLY's on and instantly realise that they had the same secure, yet spacious fit. Luxury!

From my house, you have to run some road to access the trails. That combined with the fact I am running loads of slow aerobic kms on the flat (as I slowly rebuild my aerobic base) means I have been running more than usual on rolling road and trail, though still getting on the rougher singletrack trails with plenty of vert. The trails here are generally dry as they drain so fast, but wetter than most of the year as the snow melts. Overall, I’d say there has been a good variety of terrain passed beneath the TRAILFLY's soles. 

The midsoles give a comfortable ride, and they do smooth a rocky trail out a bit which would certainly help tired feet when you are well into a long run. Sharp stones are really well dulled when you step on them, and they do have some bounce to them. Are they noticeably different to anything else out there at the moment due to the G-FLY foam? I really couldn’t tell anything different. I was hoping for more bounce if I’m honest. There is certainly no issue here. Maybe it is that inov-8 make a huge deal about it, so it ups my expectations too much? I suppose the bottom line is, the midsole is comfortable, fairly springy and has plenty of protection, so it is good. I am just not sure the G-FLY is superior to other compounds out there.

The GRAPHENE-GRIP sole is an excellent patterned tread with 4mm studs, giving very good grip in all conditions and terrains, yet runs very nicely on the road. As I write this, I am still not sure whether the wear after 200km is as enduring as it should be. I have added pictures for you to decide. I will also plan to update this in a few months once I have got some heavier mileage on them to review the durability.

This image was taken showing the wear at 165km

The other major new feature from Inov8, which they got patented, is the ADAPTER-FLEX. This large groove in the sole aids flexibility as can be felt when you hold them in your hands and bend them. For an Inov-8 shoe, the heel height of 25mm is fairly high, but for the whole market, I wouldn’t say it is that high, so I am not sure how unstable I would be on a 25mm shoe anyway. I can’t feel any difference when running technical trail, but I certainly wasn’t going over on them any more than I normally would. I felt like the trail feel was decent for the size of the sole, so maybe it works well. I guess the only way to truly tell how effective it is, is to have an identical shoe minus the groove but that is pretty much impossible. 

This image was also taken at 165km showing the front section of the sole.

I do like this shoe and it will get worn a lot more, but there are certainly some things I am not sure about, with the number one being, is the G-FLY foam a worthy addition? It seems to be a relatively heavy foam (I could be wrong with this) which bumps the weight of the shoe up to a fairly heavy weight. I am not too sure I can feel the magical bounce either. It feels fairly normal to me. Maybe I am just not very sensitive to such things. 

The other main issue is the weight. When I run in them, they feel good, but the fact is I have around 80-100g more on each foot than a lot of other shoes in the same market, which over a long period will make a difference. Maybe if I get to 1000km in them and they are still holding together alright it will be ok, but to be honest I will be surprised if the upper lasts that long as it is built lightly. Time will tell.

Overall, the TRAILFLY is a solid first ‘ultra shoe with a big midsole’ from inov-8. I admire that they have broken away a little from their norm and not only that, but they have done it with new innovations. It is brave and I am a fan of that. As with all first attempts, there is refinement needed, but it is certainly an excellent shoe and I personally am looking forward to wearing it plenty more this year.  

It has a hefty price tag of £170/170 Euro so is near the top of the pile when it comes to price. I guess the research and innovation with the Graphene enhanced sole and midsole has a cost, but whatever the reason, this is a shoe you want to be happy with. It seems steep to me, but only you can decide whether it is worth it.

The TRAILFLY ULTRA G 300 MAX is a top end shoe designed specifically for long/ultra runs on decent trails and even road. It performs great at a slow plod as at pace. Descending is a dream with the well cushioned midsole and the excellent grip. I think it is well able on more mountainous terrain too due to the excellent tread and amazing fit of the upper. As long as you are ok with the weight, then you can’t go too far wrong with them, though I am excited to see how they evolve in future versions.

To purchase the Inov8 trailfly ULTRA G Max shoes, click on the Wiggle button below. You will get a good price and a small commision goes to the URC. Thanks