Kit, Tips and Gadgets

Basics

Shoes:

The terrain that we run on varies from tarmac to heavy mud. Although you can get by with roads shoes for most of the time, in depths of winter you can find yourself lacking grip and sliding around.

Trail shoes come in various soles with different levels of grip.

A 8mm stud is great for the worst conditions and will enable to get traction and stay upright when the going gets tough. Not essential, but certainly nice to have. Drawbacks, not so good on the road.

A 4 to 6mm stud might be the way to go for your first trail shoe. Usually these work well in all but the muddiest conditions

Hybrid trail shoe. These have a slight better grip than a road shoe and work well in the drier months and when running on gravel paths

Head Torch:

The best time of the year for the Nocturns is the darker winter nights when get out in all conditions. Having a good head torch is essential to see where you are going. Some just wear head torches and others have body mounted torches and sometimes both are used! Anything from 300 lumens up should be fine, but then again there is no substitute for a 1400 lumen that lights up the trails!

Top Tip: We need to be considerate of others and dip our head torches when someone or vehicle approaches.

Reflective clothing:

Generally it is a good idea to have something reflective. Be aware that reflective clothing can bounce head torch beams back to other runners and dazzle them. We have tried reflective gillets in the past only to find them unusable and also create havoc for some of the head torches with auto brightness adjustment.

Waterproofs:

Waterproof tops can be good if it is raining as you start a run. Having a windproof top is probably more important. You always get a bit we when running in the rain.

GPS:

Usually a Garmin, but can be other makes or use of a mobile phone and Strava to track a run. You can also use some devices to follow a prepared GPX route. Usually this is a Garmin watch, like the Forerunner; Instinct, Fenix or Epix range

Route Planning:

Numerous apps and websites can be used to plot a route and then transfer (usually) via Garmin Connect to a Garmin watch. Most these days are Bluetooth and the phone can sent the GPX directly to the watch.

Favourite route planners include

www.bikehike.co.uk (old and clunky, but does have two map systems side by side)

https://explore.osmaps.com/ Great in the UK, but does require a yearly subscription. (One subscription can be shared on five devices)