Saturday, May 25, 2013

Merrell Ascend Glove Review: A little test drive- Mt Wilson Loop, 27 miles- wow!


When  I got home from work yesterday I was excited to find that the Merrell Ascend Gloves that I bought on-line last week had arrived.    So at 6am this morning I hit the Sam Merrill trailhead to take the Ascend Gloves out for a test spin...the 27 miles Mt Wilson loop I've posted about the last couple of weeks; the loop has 7500 feet of climb and descent, on the decomposed granite trails characteristic of the front range of the San Gabriel mountains.  I was anxious to try the new Ascend Gloves because my feet have been getting a bit battered on this trail wearing the Trailgloves with their 4mm sole.   Its littered with scree and the descents are often 10-15% grade...feels fine up to about 20 miles but by the final descent back down the Sam Merrill Trail...my feet are getting pretty tender in the Trailgloves.  The Ascend Glove was designed with a 6mm sole and was reportedly made for folks that want to run longer and need more protection on the feet.   That would be me!  But otherwise its basically the same as the Trailglove;  and although 6mm doesn't sound all that much thicker than 4mm, its actually quite a bit more rigid in the sole.

I took a pair of Trailgloves in my running pack as a backup  (cool that one can do that...they are so light and flexible) because this was my  first test of the Ascend Gloves ... a 27 mile test run straight out of the box... and there aren't any bailout points on this run.  Well, suffice to say I didn't need the back-up...the Ascend Gloves were superb.     The traction was noticeably superior to the Trail Glove on this  trail,  presumably because the thicker sole permits much more aggressive lugs to be molded than on the thinner Trailglove. Even on sections with sand and gravel on bedrock the Ascend had great traction.   The thicker sole is just what I have been looking for for my longer runs.  While I could feel the trail, the soles of my feet felt well protected even running through sharp scree.   

The Ascend gloves are noticably longer than the Trailgloves I own of the same nominal  size.  I was dismayed when I saw this and compared the shoes side by side, but I think its because the last is a bit different shape that the Trailglove-1-  the extra length in the Ascends is more in the big toe area and frankly I appreciated it at the end of the run today;  for the first time running this 27 mile loop my toes were perfectly comfortable after the run (unbattered).  Like the Trail Glove, the Ascend Glove also has a big, roomy toe box-  comfortable straight out of the box.
Trail Glove on the left, Ascend Glove on the right, both sized 11.5
What I like best about these Ascend gloves is that they feel just like running in Trailgloves but with more positive traction.  I had a sense that my footplants were more secure and I could push the pace a bit on terrain where previously a faster pace left me feeling a bit battered....my time today was 5:28, a bit faster than the last week.   Many other shoes out there have a base wider than one's foot, this is not the case with the Trailglove or the Ascend Glove...I really like this feature because my footplant is completely natural in these shoes.  For those that may be reading this review without the having read the context of this blog, I must add that the zero-drop feature of the Merrill Ascend Glove and Trail Glove have been decisive in eliminating knee troubles that  had been persistent over my ultrarunning career when I was running in traditional shoes with a big heel cup, arch supports and the like.  So this feature is, for me, a non negotiable requirement for injury free running.

Permeability of the upper:  Another issue I've had with the Trail Glove -1 is permeability of grit/sand through the mesh upper.  Its gotten hard to find a running shoe these days without a mesh upper, they all admit grit and sand...  The Ascend Glove has a sort of dual mesh upper and it did better than the Trailglove-1 has done in keeping grit out over the course of this 27 mile test run.  I did wear socks lightly greased on the inside with Cramers' SkinLube and didn't experience any discomfort from the grit.  I always do wear socks with the Trailgloves for the reason of grit (and to keep them smelling sweet).

POSTSCRIPT Aug 17:

Here is a photo of the pair of Merrell Ascend Gloves reviewed above, taken after the Angeles Crest 100.  You can see in the photo some Velcro tabs which I put on the shoe to hold some lycra covers I put on over the mesh to keep sand and grit out.  I did this as I was racing and didnt want to mess around with changing socks in the race.   These shoes are the most comfortable running shoe I have ever worn and are proving to be quite durable.  The tread shows virtually no wear.



Postscript Sept 6:  Question about the arch in the Ascend Glove as compared to the Trail Glove:

A question came in from "graphissste" about how the arch compares between the Ascend Glove and the Trail Glove.  Feeling it with my fingers the arch seems to have the same contour on the inside of the shoe for the two models;  however, because the Ascend has a more substantial sole, the bottom of the shoe was kept flat in the area under the arch, while the Trail glove preserved the curve of the arch (maintaining roughly constant sole thickness as the material sweeps up and back down in the arch area)...so unavoidably the arch is more structurally pronounced in the Ascend Glove than in the Trail Glove.  I was surprised and cncerned when I saw this and first put the shoes on, but this more burly arch has not bothered me in wearing the Ascend Gloves.  Flat footed folks may want to try the Ascends out... running... to see if the more substantial arch is a problem.
Ascend glove top, Trail glove bottom



5 comments:

  1. Have they been durable? Still comfortable?

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    1. I must say the Merrell Ascend Glove is by far the most comfortable shoe I have ever run in. I have two pairs of the standard version. The first pair (the one I wrote about in the post above)has somewhere around 200-300 miles on it and the tread is showing essentially no signs of wear. The uppers are in perfect shape. This same pair is what I ran Angeles Crest 100 in. The only complaint I have is that for longer runs of greater than > 20 to 30 miles, some sand gets through the mesh. Obviously this concern is only relevent for long ultramarathon racing where one does not want to stop to changes socks etc. I dealt with this by putting skin lube on my toes; I always wear socks; I also used velcro stick on tabs to affix some homemade lyrca dust covers over the mesh. See my Aug 4 post for a photo of these. I ran AC100 in one pair of socks and experienced no problems with grit.

      In case it sounds like I am advertising for Merrell: For the record I am not affiliated in aany way with Merrell and have never recieved anything from them that I did not pay full price for. I think in fact that their sales guy must find me a bit annoying as I have written him a few emails complaining about the mesh on the trail gloves and the Ascend gloves which is admittedly a bit persnickity of me.

      Bottom line I absolutely love these shoes and attest wholeheartedly to their durability. I hope they are available for a long time to come.

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  2. I have flat feet and the Trail Glove has been a God send for me. Has Merrell messed around by adding raised arches like they did in other updates, or is the Ascend Glove just like the Trail glove?

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  4. Hi graphissste,

The Ascend Glove does have an arch in it that, when I first put the shoes on, left me rather dismayed. However, when I ran in the shoes I did not feel the arch at all. It does not seem to be provide support- it seems more of a conformal sit to the arch. However it is more noticable thatn the trail glove. Since you are flat-footed, I cannot say whether the Ascends would work for you. I suggest you order a pair and try them, and if they dont work, return them. Several on-line retailers have no-questions-asked return policies, I would select one of these; and I would not feel shy about returning them for a real good-faith fit problem.

I will momentarily post a photo of the Asend Glove and the Taril Glove side by side.  Feeling it with my fingers the arch seems to have the same contour on the inside of the shoe for the two models;  however, because the Ascend has a more substantial sole, the bottom of the shoe was kept flat in the area under the arch, while the Trail glove preserved the curve of the arch (maintaining roughly constant sole thickness as the material sweeps up and back down in the arch area)...so unavoidably the arch is more structurally pronounced in the Ascend Glove than in the Trail Glove.

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