What is the point of spikeless xc shoes like the Nike Victory Waffle?

I don't think spikes are allowed in high school cross country in California.Also could be strategic for courses with significant pavement/gravel.

limeinmydrink wrote:

I'm not familiar with any xc races where you can't wear spikes but maybe I'm just ignorant.

California

My favorite minimalist shoe for all training. I have four pair of Saucony Carrera.

I train in shoes like that, so that's their point for me.

My favorite xc course, back in HS (late 90s) was in Ashland - it was called something like Lithia Park (sp? - sorry too lazy to look it up). Anyway, that course had a lot of paved walking trails, so spikes were no good. I had some spikeless waffle-type shoes that were great for that; years later, post-college, I wore them in road races.

Lithia. You got it. I have a buddy near there. Beautiful area.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Waffles for trackwork. Didn't know about the California rule. Wonder why that is?

limeinmydrink wrote:

Lithia. You got it. I have a buddy near there. Beautiful area.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Waffles for trackwork. Didn't know about the California rule. Wonder why that is?

spikes cause cancer in California

Probably because it's near impossible to find a CA XC course that doesn't have a significant amount of concrete. In my days as a CA prep, the only course I ever ran where it might be possible to wear spikes would be balboa park (They put down rubber over a road you cross 4 times for FL). Even ones that are mostly (90%?) not concrete still have lots of sections of incredibly hard packed dirt.

you all can thank CA XC for the invention of the Streak XC (now LT)

limeinmydrink wrote:

Lithia. You got it. I have a buddy near there. Beautiful area.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Waffles for trackwork. Didn't know about the California rule. Wonder why that is?

I know this sounds crazy, but they also work great for roadwork.

I run quite a bit of courses where there is about 50% run on concrete and the other 50% trails. I wear those shoes all the time.

Cross Country in California doesn't really have grass, so spikes are pointless. It's all hard-packed dirt with paved sections.

Calibound wrote:

Cross Country in California doesn't really have grass, so spikes are pointless. It's all hard-packed dirt with paved sections.

Pavement is not XC.

even outside California, a lot of courses have significant paved sections, especially in suburban/urban areas

Try running across 800 meters of pavement with spikes or even just a bone dry course and you'll see the point.

kvothe wrote:

even outside California, a lot of courses have significant paved sections, especially in suburban/urban areas

Try running across 800 meters of pavement with spikes or even just a bone dry course and you'll see the point.

If the course is paved, it's not a cross country course. It's just roads.

If the shoe is designed for paved 'cross country' courses, then it's not an XC shoe, it's a road flat.

There's no such thing as a paved cross country course. It's a misnomer. People are just using it to refer to road races that take place in the countryside it in a park. Cross country is grass, mud, bare earth, hills, puddles, even small water crossings such as streams. It requires at the minimum 6mm spikes.

Cross country is also the name of a fall sport in which 5K competitions are run on various natural and paved surfaces.

If you run a course that has two miles of grass and one mile of roads it's a cross country event.

That's not a road race.

And spikeless shoes would make sense for that.

Star wrote:

If you run a course that has two miles of grass and one mile of roads it's a cross country event.

That's not a road race.

And spikeless shoes would make sense for that.

What moron of a race organiser would create such an abomination. Does such a race even exist?

You can't run on wet grass and roads with the same shoe successfully.

I'm sure courses all around the country have courses with pavement and grass.

There was an 8K course in college that I liked that had a mile and half stretch on the road mixed in with mostly grass and trail the rest of the way.

You could run on the grass alongside the road but the road surface was faster and the rest of the course didn't really require spikes.

Cross Country wrote:

Star wrote:

If you run a course that has two miles of grass and one mile of roads it's a cross country event.

That's not a road race.

And spikeless shoes would make sense for that.

What moron of a race organiser would create such an abomination. Does such a race even exist?

You can't run on wet grass and roads with the same shoe successfully.

Despite repeated posts assuring you that such a course does in fact exist, you continue to not seem to understand.

Also, waffles are good for track workouts if you have trouble with spikes for whatever reason.