What is a cross spike???
It has never occurred to me to use anything other than a distance track spike with 1/4" pins.
What is a cross spike???
It has never occurred to me to use anything other than a distance track spike with 1/4" pins.
If you can get away with track spikes it wasn't an XC course. Come and do Parliament Hill Fields on a wet day.
TrackonXC wrote:
https://instagram.com/p/BMICz5sDloa/Take a look. I can almost swear these are Nike zoom victory 2s, a TRACK, not cross spike, but hey maybe I'm an idiot.
College XC courses are often well manicured, flat, and fast. High school XC courses are more often hilly, not manicured, muddy, etc. The golf courses that college athletes often compete on allow for track spikes to be used effectively whereas many high school courses don't.
British XC courses often have steep several 100 metre long hills, deep mud everywhere, unavoidable water/mud pits up to the knees, fords and obstacles to hurdle (e.g. tree trunks).
In these conditions XC spikes are essential. 9mm-15mm spikes recommended.
As far as I'm concerned most XC races out of the UK are simply road races on grass.
Track spikes would be fine at Parliament Hill, the main issue is that the plastic plate could get a bit chewed up. When it gets properly wet, the grip is all coming from the pins - anything with a bunch of 9mm+ spikes on the bottom will be fine. There are plenty of UK cross-country courses I'd wear track spikes on if I got given a new pair every race...
As a D2 runner in the south, there seems to not be many courses like I see a lot of D1 schools race on. I would say every course we race is a legitimate XC course. There are a few extremely fast courses but our team doesn't go for some reason. I could not imagine wearing my Nike victory track spikes on these courses.
Sam wrote:
Track spikes would be fine at Parliament Hill, the main issue is that the plastic plate could get a bit chewed up. When it gets properly wet, the grip is all coming from the pins - anything with a bunch of 9mm+ spikes on the bottom will be fine. There are plenty of UK cross-country courses I'd wear track spikes on if I got given a new pair every race...
If you got a new pair every race being the key bit :)
I agree with this, only I'm DIII in the northeast. Lots of the courses we run on have fairly sizeable gravel that would probably bruise your heel if you came down on it in track spikes. Honestly the only reason that I wear XC spikes is the gravel.
The Scot wrote:
If you can get away with track spikes it wasn't an XC course. Come and do Parliament Hill Fields on a wet day.
Pics:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/11429049/The-greatest-running-race-you-have-never-heard-of.htmlOld geezers in the mud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJrrPpmnx_0Not XC wrote:
Most USA 'XC' courses are probably faster than road races. Pancake flat, bowling greens. Absolutely no reason at all to wear big clunky spikes. Track spikes are perfect.
What courses were you running? When I was in sub-15 shape on the track I ran in the 27s and 28s most of my cross country races, some real beasts of hills. VCP was one of the quicker ones.