Category Archives: Running

Bonnaroo, Training Partner Extraordinaire.

November 9, 2012 By in Running Tags: , , 1 Comment

Bonnie-Buddha getting her Zen on…

Well, I’m back. After an eventful 90 days downrange, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things. To be honest, I wasn’t able to run very much due to the long days and unpredictable schedule. After Bear Paw, I considered trying to train through the deployment so I could come home and get right back after it at the Bonny Sosa Tuesday Night Race Series, which some of you may remember was my intro to the Anchorage racing scene last year. In fact, it felt like a bit of a waste because I felt so strong at the Bear Paw that I really wanted to see what else I could produce through the fall. But 12+ hour days and combat conditions aren’t wholly conducive to producing elite fitness. And to be honest, I haven’t taken a good long break in a quite some time (2010 was my last extended break from training). So I decided it was time to ease back for a few months, focus on work, and get back after it over the winter and get ready for a Chicago 2013.

Long breaks can be a very good thing. It gives your body a chance to absorb the training, then de-tune for a while before you once again ask it for great things. But coming back is never easy, regardless of desire. Routines have been broken and fitness is lost. It cracks me up when I talk to the un-initiated, who seem to think that just because you ran X for Y distance sometime this year, or maybe even last; you should be able to just lace up and throw down a similar time. But the stark reality is this: your body will answer its demands. Give it inputs that demand fitness, and it will answer. Take away those inputs, and it will answer as well by losing fitness.

So, it makes complete sense that after three+ months of running little more than 5 miles a day, often 2.5 at a stretch, I would be out of shape.

Which is exactly where I am today.

Enter Bonnie, our newly-adopted daughter. We first spotted Bonnie on PetFinder this spring. A Border Collie/Shepherd mix and bred as an Alaskan Sled Dog (basically mutts bred small with strong pull instinct), she was rescued in Fairbanks as a feral dog by Momma Carol with Arctic German Shepherd Rescue. Carol painstakingly socialized her for a couple of years, then put her up for adoption, which is how we found her. Carol vetted Jen and I over a couple months, then approved our adoption a few weeks ago when we drove up to Fairbanks. When we first saw Bonnie, we knew that she was the dog for us, and meeting her proved the hunch correct.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Rider. But Bubba isn’t much for running more than a couple of miles unless he’s roaming free in the backcountry. I’ve always wanted a dog to run with, and Bonnaroo is just the lass for that.

Case in point: upon arrival in Anchorage, Bonnaroo escaped from the garage as we were unloading into the night. Old girl took me on a half mile chase that would have ended up right back in Fairbanks had I not cornered her in some woods. After some serious coaxing, and a little nervous poo (her, not me), the story ended happily with me emerging from the woods with Bonnie in my arms, an anxious Jen awaiting with a leash.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve gotten into running shape together. So far, our longest run has been about 12 miles of combined path and trail. There have been some slight hiccups, since she’s still learning leashed travel. But even 12 miles seemed to leave her unfazed. And her unbridled enthusiasm often leave me smiling and laughing over my own personal fatigue. She does this little gallop-thing: all leg and torso, mouth agape and tongue out as she bounds alongside me. It leaves me in stitches and reminds me of the joy of fulfilling one’s recognized purpose in life.

I’m not sure how long she can or should run, but The Plan is to take her on my runs in and out of work at the very least. I know a well-conditioned dog on a sled team can run practically forever. But those dogs have years of training under their collars. I guess we’ll find out together. I have to think that eventually she could handle a 90-100 mile/week training load as well as I could, but I’ll have to do some more research and talk to some of the local mushers.

In the meantime, I’m happy for the slight tug on my waist that represents my new training partner. Bonnaroo is hardly labored at the end of our little jogs; I actually get the feeling on each and every run that I’m holding her back as opposed to pushing her limits. It’s a bit humbling to say the least, as well as refreshing. After training solo, for so long, it’s nice to have a partner in crime who always seems ready to get out the door.

Gear Reviews That Don’t Suck: Brooks Pure Flow

September 10, 2012 By in Gear Reviews Tags: , , , 1 Comment

Well, after putting in a few hundred miles, I feel safe saying I can fully review the shoes. I’ve run everything from a couple of miles to 10+, and some long threshold work as well. I’ve run just about every type of surface you could encounter with these shoes, and every type of speedwork short of dead sprints.

This is going to be necessarily short, because I don’t have a ton of positives to relate, but I guess we can start with those:

1) Comfort. I’ve got a wide foot, low arch, and I’d call it a mid-volume foot. The shoe fits glove-like and well. No slop on a fairly straight last. I’m sure you could go sockless with them, although I never really tried it. They are an extremely comfortable shoe to be sure. The cushioning is plush, and I’ll get to the drawback that relates in a bit. But as far as how comfy it is, I found it to be a very comfortable shoe. No obvious features in the shoe that I’d call design flaws, like seams that rub too much or funky sole features that cause serious discomfort.

2) Weight. The shoe strikes a great balance between weight and comfort. When it comes to minimal shoes, I believe the industry recognizes that there is no such thing as “One Shoe to Rule Them All.” It’s clear this was apparent to Brooks with the entire Pure line, which runs the gamut from chunky to lean, based on what you’re capable of handling. These shoes do a great job balancing weight with comfort. If, as a designer, you go too light in the name of minimalism, you take away from the cushion of the shoe. Go too heavy, and it won’t be minimal enough. It’s really a fine line, and I firmly believe it all comes down to midsole material. The Pure Flow balance the two fairly well.

Negative:

1) The shoes are just too damn squishy. Maybe it’s my weight/height (180lbs/5’11”), but I feel like every stride, I’m looking for the ground. If minimalism is about getting your body in touch with the ground, the Pure Flow run too much interference in the midsole. Yeah, cushioning is great, but the midsole is too cush. I can’t feel the ground. If I can’t feel the ground, I can’t get my body in touch with it. It’s like running on blue sponge cake, if you ask me.

2) How the shoe fits my foot. Having a wide foot with little toes that are hammered down and out from years of tight-fitting shoes means the fit in the toe box is critical. While the toe box is plenty wide for my type of foot, I consistently get hot spots on the knuckles of my little toes. This is a deal breaker for me – I simply refuse to deal with shoes that give blisters.

So in the end, it’s just not the right type of shoe for me, which doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. I’d recommend this shoe for someone fairly new to minimalism AND someone who’s lighter weight. The midsole is just far too squishy for the amount of kilonewtons I happen to generate during the foot strike. I’d be curious to know if the industry conducts any kind of force plate testing with shoes to see how runners of different styles (heel strikers vs. mid-forefoot strikers) and weight interact with the shoe. It stands to reason that if the midsole doesn’t change between a heavy runner vs. a light runner, then all that changes is the amount of force the ground sees during the respective runners’ footstrikes.

But for me, I’ve stopped even running in my Pure Flows. I tried giving them a go for the days when I’m just commuting in/out of work (6.5M each way). But I got tired of fighting the shoe for feel. I’d finish a day and feel like I put in 13M of beach running. That may sound like a lark for the uninitiated, but it can put a lot of fatigue into the stabilization muscles of the lower leg, and that’s not what I’m looking for when I’m putting in 70-80M a week and running a couple of hard workouts a week.

Brooks, let me know when you work on your midsole design. Until then, I won’t be running in your shoes…

Gear Reviews That Don’t Suck: Lifeproof iPhone Products

July 22, 2012 By in Gear Reviews Tags: , , , 3 Comments

I have two confessions:

1) I used to hate on iPhones something fierce. Now I own one and love it.

2) I used to deride anyone who ran with an MP3 player. Now I rarely run without music.

Not too long ago, I had a phone, and I had an MP3 player. I tried a couple of times to use a phone as my MP3 player, but it just never worked. In the end, I settled on a player that supported music subscription service, which is far more economical than actually buying the music in digital or physical forms, provided you download more than an album a month (which I do). But when my last MP3 player was phased out by the manufacturer, I realized it was time to combine the two functions. Smartphone tech has blown up over the past couple of years, so I figured I’d take a shot. I tried it out on my Samsung Captivate, and boy did it suck. I used a Rhapsody app, which crashed my phone repeatedly. When the phone finally quit on me, Jen talked me into an iPhone. I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back at this point. I’ve had no problems with using the Rhapsody app, and iTunes works just fine for music you actually own.

One of the clear draws of the iPhone/iPod has been the wide propagation of peripherals. For crying out loud, you can’t go to a Walgreens without finding a whole endcap of products. Enter LifeProof, which makes cases that are water/dustproof and impact-resistant. Anyone who knows me will vouch for my ability to destroy phones. I drop them, drown them, throw them into oblivion, and sweat profusely into them when I run. In fact, I deposited so much salt in my last MP3 player that it actually warped and broke a portion of the casing.

So LifeProof made sense for me. Additionally, they make armbands compatible with the case, so it made even more sense, considering the transition to using my phone as an MP3 player as well. I picked up the iPhone 4S case and armband back in Feb/March, and I’ve put each through the ringer over about 1000 miles or so of winter/spring/summer AK running. I’ll address the case (~$80) first and the armband (~$40) system second.

The case’s nearest competitor has to be OtterBox, which uses complementary silicon sleeves and ruggedized plastic skeletons to provide impact resistance. But unlike OtterBox, LifeProof is completely waterproof, and much lower volume. One my main complaints about OtterBox is that they take slim-engineered technology and double the volume to the point that you can barely fit it into your pocket. LifeProof’s impact-resistance likely falls short of OtterBox, which makes sense. Put a boy in a bubble and he can live through just about anything. Put a boy in a bubble wrap, and he can survive some bumps and bruises and that’s about it. LifeProof’s slim case is supposed to be able to take a drop of a couple of feet, but that’s contingent on the phone falling on its edges. The face is protected only by a thin sheet of plastic, so I’m confident that a good hit on the faceplate will shatter the glass.

Once you snap the case together and screw in a little widget that secures the headphone port, you have a completely functional, waterproof iPhone. Before you go scuba diving with your phone, you are supposed to to do an hour-long dunk test, which I’d advise you do if that’s your angle. For me, I just need the phone to survive a good rain and my sweat, and I can vouch for the case’s performance under those parameters. After 1000 miles, I’ve had no issues with moisture finding its way inside the case. I’ve also managed to drop it a few times with no ill-effects. 80 bones seems steep, but worth safeguarding your investment if you ask me. I think a new iPhone 4S runs about $600 off-contract, so you have to do your own math. For me, running with it all the time and being pretty clumsy, it’s a no-brainer.

The armband emerges as one of the better-designed systems I’ve seen. It’s got thin neoprene, and addresses a complaint I’ve had with every single armband I’ve ever used: buckle slippage. Most systems, as you tighten them, are apt to cause the buckle to slip from its intended orientation, which is uncomfortable and annoying. LifeProof uses a metal buckle and semi-rigid, thin neoprene to keep the buckle from slipping. With the phone in its case, it simply mounts to a bracket on the armband, which makes it the slimmest armband setup I’ve used outside of an old Rio MP3 setup. If you don’t have Bluetooth headphones, you have to screw a little adapter cable into the headphone port, which keeps the system water proof. Instead of plugging your headphones straight into the phone, you plug them into the adapter cable.

I do have three complaints about the armband. One is that after a month of use, I tore a surface layer of the armband neoprene while tightening the armband. It didn’t go all the way through, but still, it’s either a design flaw or an isolated case, and unsatisfactory if you ask me. My second complaint is that the bracket can dig into your arm, depending on how you orient your setup. On a long run, I actually caused some bruising on inside of my arm, which wasn’t too comfortable. Finally, unless your earbuds are also designed for talking or you have Bluetooth headphones, it’s a pain in the butt if you have to to take a call in the middle of a workout. Maybe it’s not a problem for you, but some calls I have to take regardless of what I’m doing. So I would have to stop my run, unscrew the adapter cable, call the person back, then screw everything back together and continue on my way. I solved this by getting a Bluetooth earbud setup, which I will address in a separate gear review.

In the end, going with a LifeProof setup will set you back about $120, and while far from perfect, it’s the best setup I’ve seen in nine years of running with music in my ears.