Archives for April 2014

Foot Strike Patterns in Barefoot and Minimalist Runners

Back in 2011 I attended the New York City Barefoot Run. I was in town for a meeting organized by Merrell Footwear (they invited a bunch of folks – scientists, writers, journalists, runners – to talk shoe trends), and the Barefoot Run was included on the list of events for the weekend. Rather than participate […]

Video: David Epstein TED Talk on Whether Athletes Have Gotten Faster, Better, and Stronger

I came across this TED Talk video on the 278 to Boston blog. In the video David Epstein questions whether athletes really have gotten faster, better, and stronger. He looks at things like the role of technology in improving athletic performance, the role of body types in various sports, and much more (lots of running […]

Skechers GoBionic 2 Review and A Run Through the Development Process

I have been working with Skechers as a wear tester/consultant for several years now, with the majority of my time spent in the GoRun and GoBionic shoes. My closet is filled with prototypes of many iterations of these shoes, and right now I have protos of a few other shoes sitting on the floor next […]

5 Things I Learned From Running A Trail Race Last Weekend

It’s been a long time since I’ve run a long trail race. I paced for about 7 miles last year at the Vermont 100 (my runner dropped), but the last trail race longer than a 5K that I ran for myself was the HAT Run 50K back in 2011. I forgot how much fun they […]

The Return of the New Balance MT101 Trail Shoe

I’ve run in a lot of shoes over the past 5 years since starting this blog. Some were memorable, others not so much. And there are a few that rose above the rest and found a special place in my heart. The original Nike Free 3.0. The Brooks Launch. The original Saucony Kinvara and the […]

This Week in Runblogging: 2/21–2/27 2014

The past 8-9 days have pretty much been a runner’s dream for me. Near PR in the 5K, Meb wins Boston, vacation to Mt. Ascutney VT with the family (site of the VT 50K each Fall), and I ran my first long trail race (~15K) in several years yesterday. Getting out on the trails reminded […]

Newton Motion III Review: Five Lugs Are Better Than Four

One of the most frequent complaints that I’ve heard over the years about Newton shoes is that the forefoot lugs compromise mediolateral stability, particularly when turning. This issue arises due to the fact that until recently, Newton shoes had only 4 lugs under the forefoot, and these lugs did not extend to the edges of […]

Meb’s Boston 2014 Post-Race Interview

“I’m almost 39, I just ran a personal best, and just won the Boston Marathon.” – Meb Keflezighi As a fellow 39 year old runner all I can say is, Meb, you are an inspiration. via Runner’s World (note: video may not work on some mobile devices) And another from Universal Sports

Go Meb!!!!!!

This needs no introduction. Go Meb!

A Tale of Two 5K’s: How a Change in Race Approach Led to a Near PR

Sometime last year I decided that it was time to step away from the marathon for awhile and focus on shorter, faster races. I love marathons, but the training cycles had become a grind, and I was tired of focusing all of my effort on only one or two races per year. I have also […]

This Week in Runblogging: 4/14 to 4/20 2014

Another solid week of training in the books, and another 5K race completed (#2 of the year). The race was a bit of a surprise as I finished 50 seconds faster than I did in the 5K I ran two weeks ago, and was two seconds shy of a 5K PR – there’s something to […]

Beginner Running Tips: Nutrition and Hydration for the 5K and Beyond

Two weeks ago I met for the first time with my Spring beginner 5K group – I’m co-coaching 23 new runners who share the goal of completing a 3.1 mile race in early June. Things have been going great so far (aside from the normal new runner aches and pains), and tonight we have our […]

Running History: Is This 1885 Article On Shoes and Running the Original Born to Run?

Every once in awhile I like to poke around Google Books for old articles on running. I recently found the article below by W. Mattieu Williams in an 1885 issue of the publication Knowledge – it reads as if it could be an outline for Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run. In the article, Williams […]

Inov-8 OROC 280 Trail Shoe Guest Review

by Carsten Hoever The Inov-8 OROC 280 is a shoe I never wanted to buy. After two winter running seasons with way too many sidewalks, roads, and even trails covered in snow-turned-slush-turned-solid-ice I was fed up with running on the tread mill. What I needed for the coming winter was a shoe with enough traction […]

Nike Lunarglide 5 Review

I recently purchased a pair of Nike Lunarglide 5’s for a consulting project that I was working on. I didn’t really know much about the shoe, and it’s not one that I’d considered before because it has a bit more heel to forefoot drop than I typically like in a running shoe. But, when I […]