The Memorial Day holiday here in the US typically marks the unofficial start of summer for me. During my years as a college professor it came right after the end of the Spring semester, and it marked the start of 3 months without any classes to teach and thus more time to spend with my family (and more time to run!). This year I spent the long weekend having fun with my wife, sister-in-law, and kids. Given that, I opted to not post a roundup last week, so this post covers content from the past two weeks.
Shoes I Ran In Over The Past Two Weeks
New Balance Fresh Foam (24 miles), Asics Gel Lyte 33 (16 miles), Saucony Kinvara 5 (15 miles), Saucony Grid Type A6 (8 miles), Asics Hyperspeed 6 (6 miles), Nike Lunar Glide 5 (3 miles).
New to the stable this week are the Salomon Sense Ultra and Pearl Izumi Trail N1, no runs in either yet.
Runblogger Posts From The Past 2 Weeks
New Balance Fresh Foam 980, Pointy Shoes, and Toe Blisters
May 28, 2014 – I’m liking the Fresh Foam, but the pointy toebox is a big problem for me.
How To Avoid Chafing While Running: Nipples, Thighs, and Other Problem Spots
May 27, 2014 – Advice post on how to avoid chafing while running. Lots of great comments!
Nike Free 4.0 Flyknit Review: The Best Nike Free Yet?
May 22, 2014 – Great shoe, one of my favorites of the year so far.
The North Face Ultra Trail Shoe Review
May 21, 2014 – Guest review by David Henry.
Science of Marathon Running: Great Video From It’s OK To Be Smart
May 20, 2014 – Quality video on the science of marathon running.
Saucony Kinvara 5: Forty Mile Update
May 19, 2014 – Update on my experience so far in the Saucony Kinvara 5 – all good!
Shirt or No Shirt When Running in Heat?
May 19, 2014 – A post on a hot topic in running fashion etiquette.
Selected Posts From Around the Web
1. Apparently hedgehogs are quite impressive little runners – check it out! Thanks to my good friend Ben for pointing this story out to me.
2. Steve Speirs wrote a review of the Merrell Bare Access Trail. Not a lot of info out on these yet, and they kind of came out of nowhere. Hoping to get ahold of a pair of these and the Bare Access Ultra in the coming week.
3. Cool post by Ray Charbonneau looking at first half vs. second half splits at the 2014 Boston Marathon. Love a blog post that contains a regression analysis! As you might expect, negative splits were not a common occurrence at Boston. What I found interesting was that there were some runners who ran the first half in under 2 hours and the second half in over 4 hours – I imagine that hitting the wall incredibly hard or injuries must be the culprit there???
4. A nice review on the causes and treatment of medial tibial stress syndrome by Kevin Maggs at Running Reform.
5. Sam Winebaum reviews the MioLink wrist mounted hear rate monitor. I’ve been playing a bit with monitoring my heart rate variability this past week (been using the Wahoo Tickr), and the MioLink looks like an interesting way of accomplishing this without having to fiddle with a chest strap. My main problem – my wrists are already both occupied by devices (GPS watch on one arm, Garmin Vivofit on the other). What I need is a device that combines GPS, fitness tracking, and heart rate monitoring all in one!
About Peter Larson
Thanks for the link, Peter! There’s more to come.
I suspect that this year’s Boston splits skewed somewhat more positive because people were determined to finish, no matter what, after the 2013 bombing. Unfortunately, the BAA doesn’t post splits for earlier years, so we can’t tell what’s the typical distribution.
And FYI, I ran Boston in the Adios Boost :-)
Wearing two devices is no problem with the Mio Link. I wear mine up the arm from my 620. You can put the Vivofit on your other wrist, though when I used mine (I gave it to my wife), I took it off for runs.
I think the Garmin FR15 has GPS, fitness tracking, and heart rate monitoring, right? I have been wondering what to get for heart rate monitoring as I don’t really need a lot of the bells and whistles.
Yes, I should be getting one of those to review soon.