Quote Originally Posted by Spyros76 View Post
My road running shoes are Pearl Izumi Peak and my everyday shoes the Roclite 370. It is also difficult for me to guess if it is the less cushioning or the terrain the cause of the pain, but i think that the X-Talons are a more "specific" shoe for fell racing and especially soft muddy surfaces, while for fire roads or rocky paths a better choice would be the Roclite 285/295 which are more of an "all round" shoe. I think the bigger studs are suitable for mud, soft surface and not for rock.
You could be right, I'm doing everything in the X-talons and even brief sections of road to link up trails/footpaths to where I live and the hills. My terrain could be described as mixed. I have a number of routes which are on tracks and rocky paths like you. I think I may be pushing the Talons to their limits, the stickiness has gone and I can feel the studs a bit on the hard pack stuff. Let me know if you decide to go for the 285's I'd be interested to see what you think.

I am not really suffering from wearing the talons for everything, (I'm doing less and less in the Vibrams as I keep getting stone bruising). In fact I think that it's best to have less shoes. If you have a number of different shoes, for example a road shoe, trail shoe and a fell shoe, then your feet are going to be in slightly different positions when you run in each of these different shoes. I think that this maybe the cause of your knee pain. I'd imagine (although I'm not familiar with the model) that the Pearls could have a reasonable heel in them, if you were running a couple of times a week in these and then taking the Talons out for a long run on the weekend then the cause of the pain could be due to the change - It's a possibility anyway.

Try and go a few weeks in only one pair of shoes, and try and make your everyday shoes something really flat, like converse for example. Consider replacing road shoes with Vibrams or a flat.