Half trail, half road - which shoes are best?

My legs are suffering from a little too much road running and I want to do more trails.  However, where I live there will always be some road running to get to and from the trail.

If an 8 mile run is, say, half trail and half road, are trail shoes or road shoes best?  Are there certain off-road conditions that would alter this?

All comment greatly received! 

I think that some road shoes make decent trail shoes, but pretty much all trail shoes are lousy road shoes. 

As I understand it, trail shoes are only of benefit when the ground is very wet and muddy.

If the off-road section is hard underfoot, then trail shoes are not much benefit, and as they tend to be less cushioned than road shoes, are less comfortable on hard surfaces.

I notice the extra grip on my Asics Gel Attack  trail shoes even on short grass in summer, and I have done a road marathon in them quite happily, so I would use the trail shoes.  If you're talking out and out mudclaws or walshes, forget the road, but a less aggressive trail shoe would be fine I think.

I did just this yeserday... 15 miles - half trail, but with around 7 miles on roads, in Adidas Kanadias.  For the first time in a very long time, I'm nursing a nasty little blister!

There were a few places where the mud was bad enough to have cause me real slippery problems in my road shoes... but I'd have managed... and I won't make that mistake again!

EDIT... anyone with examples of road shoes that are good in mud, it would be interesting.

Brooks do Adrenaline and Ghost with on/off-road soles and Goretex liners.  The orad ones are great, so can only assume that these are too.

I've been doing mixed terrain runs for 10 years now and having gone through a range of Salomon "door to trail" shoes, Inov8s and others I have now settled on Asics Trail Attack as being by far the best hybrid option, especially for runs of 25km +. Saucony Peregrines also good especially for shorter runs.

Mizuno wavw ascends are a reasonable compromise. Some cushioning for roads and enough grip to cope with most dry trails. Hopeless in mud though...

cougie wrote (see)

What are the trails like ? Do you need grip ? In which case I'd go trail.
If not - use road shoes.

Agree 100% ... take a good look at your local trails Rob, are they well maintained or quite rough and bumpy, flat or hilly...  etc,etc...   

Pete S wrote (see)

Mizuno wavw ascends are a reasonable compromise. Some cushioning for roads and enough grip to cope with most dry trails. Hopeless in mud though...

I'll echo Pete, I bought some Mizuno Wave Ascend 5 shoes after finding my Mizuno road shoes weren't much good off road unless totally dry. I find the Ascends fine when on the road\hardpack sections and great off road, I really noticed the difference between these and the road shoes when wet; if really muddy they get overwhelmed, but then usually so am I by that stage 

Hi guys - many thanks for all the comments.  My local trails are usually fairly easy, so I am tempted to stay with the road shoes.  However, if it keeps raining, sleeting and snowing for the rest of Spring (and Summer???) I can see myself using the trail shoes more and more!

Trail shoes with a reasonable amount of cushioning are fine to run in on-road in terms of how your feet and legs cope with them, but the softer rubber soles and aggressive tread pattern will normally wear out really fast. I found Kanadias fine on tarmac but the soles wore down stupidly quickly. I also have Mizuno Wave Harriers which are much less cushioned and I'm not even going to try them on tarmac cause I'm sure it would hurt!

I know of many people who wear road shoes year after year on 100 mile offroad races and they seem to get on just fine. Personally I've found that road shoes are okay offroad in bone dry conditions but in the wet that can all change. Slipping and sliding around in mud in a smooth soled road shoe can be fairly miserable - I've pulled muscles in my thighs and butt that way...