 man, a changing of the guard type day. It's so crazy. The Solomon Speed Cross 4 is being retired for the Solomon Speed Cross 5. It's a little emotional. It's a little emotional. This guy went through so much in 2018, so many miles, so much vert, so much rock and mud and just nasty terrain all over Colorado and even outside of Colorado. Just like put this thing through the ringer and guess what? The Solomon Speed Cross 4 still has life in it. I am not going to completely retire it, but yes, it is going to go up on the shelf for now because it's time to get you my first impressions of this guy, the Speed Cross 5. Look at the lugs on this thing. Look at this shoe. It's just ridiculous. So again, the goal is to get this shoe as muddy and dirty and snowy as possible today. All right, let's lace it up, put them on, and let's do this. They keep going, but I got to turn around. We're at 10 miles and it's from this point it's like two miles back to the car. 3,000 feet of vertical gain thus far and anyway, got to be patient. I'd love to keep going because it's absolutely incredible out here. Give you an update on the Speed Cross 5 here in a second, but bottom line, man, nice snowpack trail and mud at times. You saw that in the clips, but overall, we're just ascending mountains, ascending mountains. All right, back down. Let's do this. Come on. Okay, let's see. 12 miles about, what is that about? About 19 kilometers, a little over 19 kilometers. Correct me if I'm not doing the math right. And 3,000 feet of vertical, it looks like. So good day. Oh my goodness. Okay, remember the baby blues. Remember the baby blues for new balance. Love those shoes. Love the nickname. But now, hold on, hold on. But now the question becomes, what do we call these guys? The Solomon Speed Cross 5. I was leaning toward the mountain eaters, the mountain eaters, but now I'm thinking like, what about the Big Bad Wolf? The Big Bad Wolves? Something like that because this, the red, the blood, and I did inflict a little wound today, a little blood down there. But this thing, look, I just cannot get over the lug action on the bottom of the shoe. All right, now I'm in my car. Basically, the battery died. Thankfully, I had a backup battery and it was just getting a little too chilly out. So I thought, yeah, let's just finish the thought process on the car ride home. Let's see. It was 50 degrees today. I was spot on. I knew it would be muddy today because the snow is melting and I just, I just knew it. I knew like if it got up to about 45, the mud would appear. And sure enough, it did. And that's what I wanted to test out the Speed Cross 5's. And we crushed it. And we crushed it. You saw the mud there. There's probably still some on my face. Yes, there is. I suppose I should take off my vest before going in and in and getting the, getting the food. Okay, made it to Texas Roadhouse. I'm just gonna ask for help. I'm gonna ask for help. Anybody in the UK, Scotland, Wales, Northwest England, I would love, hold on one second, I would love, love, love to compare the Solomon Speed Cross 5 to the Innovate Mud Claw 260. Okay, this is another shoe that's on my radar. It's basically designed for running in mud like I did today in the Solomon Speed Cross 5. I would love, love, love to do a side-by-side test. If you know anybody who works for Innovate to send them, grab the link above, grab the link, send them this video. I'm just totally game to compare the Speed Cross 5 to the Innovate Mud Claw 260. That would just be amazing. Okay, just putting it out there. Anybody in the UK, you've got connections. Let me know. Let me know. All right, let's go get food. Got the stakes. Everybody was looking at me kind of funny in there. And I realized, oh yeah, my shirt's all muddy. Probably have a little mud left on my face. Oh well. All right. Time for steak. Let's go have some. All right, here we are. Oh, burger and fries. So tasty. So tasty. I feel re-energized after 12 miles with 3,000 feet of vertical gain. And I'm realizing now I need to do the conversion for meters for all of you. I've got kind of the kilometers and miles down, but I'm realizing what about the meters. So I'll work on that next time. Next time. Okay. This is my first impression of this shoe. This is not my full review. That will happen probably in 10 to 14 days. Hopefully, I'd like to put at least 50 miles into a shoe before I give my full review. All right. Where to begin is the big question because there's a lot to talk about with this Speed Cross 5. I'd like to begin actually with a Speed Cross 4 because guess what? When I was going up the mountain today, I was like, wait a minute. This feels like the Speed Cross 4. And that's a good thing because I love, I love the Speed Cross 4. And if you love the Speed Cross 4, you will love the Speed Cross 5 so far. And I know it's just my first run. They feel very similar. There are some differences, but they feel similar thus far. One of the big differences so far is definitely the upper, the upper on the Speed Cross 5. I can already tell is much more nimble, soft, not cushioned, but it feels better. It feels lighter, not quite as thick as the Speed Cross 4. The Speed Cross 4 was, it was a good upper, but it got a little stiff and heavy after sweating, after getting in the mud and the dirt. And I can already tell that I don't know if it's, I need to do a little more research and see it feels like a different material through the upper. And that's a good thing. So a more nimble, lighter upper thus far in the Speed Cross 5. I'm excited about that because I actually mentioned maybe a month ago how the upper and the four did get a little stiff after, you know, three months of running in it. It's because of all the sweat and dirt and mud. So anyway, what else? Let's talk, okay, let's talk about the rock plate in the Speed Cross 5. Yes, there is a rock plate in this shoe. So basically in the four foot and mid foot, there's a plate in there to help protect your feet from the sharp rocks. Today I did step on a few sharp rocks that were just peeking out underneath that snow and I didn't feel a dang thing through this rock plate. So bonus points for Solomon for putting a rock plate in here. Okay, as far as, all right, the biggest question mark I have right now is the heel. I need to put more miles into this shoe on normal, regular dirt that is not muddy nor snowy because I need to feel and figure out what is going on through the heel. You can see that the heels are just a little bit different. The five is different than the four. So anyway, I want to figure out what's going on there and they're calling it the energy cell in this, I guess you would call it a foam. I think it's an EVA injected foam through this heel. Again, just my first impressions. I'll do more research. But okay, moving on to the drop. It's a 10 millimeter drop. That's a pretty high drop and I like it. I like the drop. It helps with the uphill climbing. I think to have a 10 millimeter drop and somebody asked in the comments, what was it two days ago? What is a drop? And that's a great question. Frankly, if you like aren't a running shoe geek, you may have never heard of that terminology. So the drop is basically the slope in the shoe. So from heel to toe there, it's called the stack height, the stack height. So how many millimeters of basically outsole and midsole are between the ground and the bottom of your foot? Basically. So this guy is a 10 millimeter drop from the heel all the way down to the toe box down here. So pretty high. I am weighing in at 11.3 ounces. So 320 grams, 11.3 ounces, 320 grams for one shoe. Very heavy, very heavy. And I love it. I am totally okay with it. That's okay, Solomon. These shoes are not designed for racing just so you know. So what would I use this shoe for? Not racing. Don't race. Well, okay, you could race in this shoe, but there are better options out there for trail running in aggressive trail running fast shoes. This is more of a trainer and just to all day get out in the mountains and attack the rocks, attack the mud, attack the snow type of running shoe. I would not race in this thing moving forward. And it's the traditional Solomon lacing system where you basically pull the laces and it cinches down and then this little plastic thing. I don't even know what they call it officially, but it basically slides down. And that's how you lace down the shoes, which was really bizarre at first. When I had my first pair of Solomon's, I was like, I did not like it at all. But over time, I've come to learn and appreciate why they do it. And at this point, I do like that lacing system. It took me a little time to get used to, but I like it so far. And as far as the fit goes, no complaints. I had no slipping in the heel. I did go a half size up, but be careful. Like it's borderline for me. I think I just, I went a half size up because I like a little more, a little more room in my toe box when I'm climbing like steep hills. So I don't get black and blue toes all the time. And especially for a trainer, for a racing Solomon shoe, I would go true to size. But for the, for this guy, for the speed cross five, I decided to go a half size up just to allow a little more movement of the toes for those longer, let's say 15, 20 mile mountain runs, where I don't want my toes to feel cramped through the toe box. And pretty yeah, no slipping in the heel, no slipping in the heel and through the midfoot. Yeah, felt no issues at all. And as far as price goes, I'm kind of in shock. I'm in shock how they are able to pull this shoe off for $130. And I know that's not like ridiculously cheap, but it's not too expensive either in the whole running shoe market. Like there's a lot of shoe here. Okay, this is not a streamlined, like there's a lot of material, whether it's the, whether it's the outsole material, like these lugs, the midsole with the foam, the upper, the laces, the padding that's throughout like, so they put a lot of, you know, just overall volume of material into the shoe. And so I'm a little shocked that they're able to sell it for $130. I would say bonus points again, like that's a good price point for Solomon. Cause I know, you know, Solomon actually can be a little expensive at times, but for this guy, like shoot, I'll take it. Like I'll take 130 bucks any day. All right, moving forward, I'm going to do a lot of videos on this shoe and comparing it to this shoe and comparing it possibly to an innovate shoe, huh? Mud claws, huh? Anybody out there listening? I'd love to compare this shoe to some mud claws, but anyway, I'm going to be talking about the lugs, the upper. I just need to put some more miles into them sooner rather than later. So stay tuned for more Solomon shoes coming up. If you're a Solomon fan, let me know down in the comments and that keyword, that keyword is speed cross altogether, speed cross for this guy, the speed cross five. Thanks for hitting it up. Oh man, we're going to come back to this guy very soon. All right, the question of the day. And this comes from yesterday. Remember, I was looking for ideas and I'm just going to run with it. And I love it because it connects so well to the conversation from two days ago about your favorite running YouTubers, favorite running YouTube channels that you watch on a regular basis. So docut agurin docu, I'm not saying it correctly. I apologize, but docut agurin, he asked this question of the day from all of those great running YouTube channels, running YouTubers that everyone has mentioned two days ago. So remember who you, who you mentioned, if you could watch just one episode from each one or maybe just pick one, what would that episode, what would that video be? So think back to like, okay, maybe it's how you discovered that particular runner or maybe they did a great gear review. And this is a little bit of a homework assignment because you're probably going to have to go back and think like, oh yeah, that documentary from ginger runner. Yeah, that was a really great one. Or when Ben Barrows, you know, talks about his marathon training or his, his aspirations for the Olympic trials, that's a good one. Or, you know, Forrest of Dean runner getting chased by a wild boar or Kofusi or Sage or the list goes on and on. Hey, maybe there's a vlog from this channel. Just say it, just say it. I would be fascinated to hear over the last two and a half years, but especially the last six months, what has been your favorite video vlog episode that you have watched on this channel as well. That would be a subsection to this question of the day from Dokut Aguren. You're amazing. Thank you so much for being here. And I just cannot believe it that they are in my possession. Cannot wait to get them dirtier in the not so distant future. Seek beauty, work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow. That's what I'm talking about.