About a month ago I ran a 5K in which I finished just two seconds short of my PR. To say that I was happy would be an understatement. It was only my second 5K of the year, and it gave me hope that a new PR would soon follow. I had set my eyes […]
Running History: Arthur Newton on Pacing in Training vs. Races (1935)
May 15, 2014 By 4 Comments
As Caleb Masland pointed out yesterday in his post on varying pacing in workouts, many runners tend to run too fast, too often in their training. This can lead to burnout and eventual injury. Caleb discussed how and why elites vary their training paces across a broad range, and how, in contrast, amateur runners often […]
Beginner Running Tips: When Does Running Become Fun?
May 13, 2014 By 21 Comments
For the past six weeks I’ve been co-coaching a beginner 5K group. The group has been improving steadily – bodies are getting stronger, lungs are not struggling as much, early aches and pains are slowly resolving. They’ve been doing great, and most are right where we want them to be at this point in the […]
Six Things I Learned on a 14 Mile Run This Morning
May 12, 2014 By 13 Comments
I ran 14 miles this morning. That’s not a particularly unusual amount for a distance runner, but it was the longest I’ve run since last summer, and today is the warmest day of the year so far in New Hampshire. As always, the first long run in heat each year is cause for some gentle […]
Crappy Advertising at the Road Runner Sports “House of Cushion”
May 12, 2014 By 17 Comments
One of the big news stories over the past couple of weeks was the Vibram lawsuit settlement over false advertising claims made about their Fivefingers line of minimalist running shoes. Over the weekend a member of a forum I belong to on Facebook posted a link to the House of Cushion page on Road Runner […]
This Week in Runblogging 5/5 to 5/11 2014
May 11, 2014 By 6 Comments
The big news this week for me was the return of the Saucony Kinvara. Version 4 was a big let down due to a poor fitting toebox, but version 5 has fixed that and then some. I ran 11 miles in them last weekend and wrote up a first impression review on Monday. I’ve since […]
Running History: Video of Roger Bannister’s sub-4:00 Mile
May 7, 2014 By 4 Comments
Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of Roger Bannister’s sub-4:00 mile. In an interesting article titled “A Faster Human: Are We Unique In Our Ability To Get Better?,” NPR shared a great video of that famed run narrated by Sir Roger himself. It also included a video of Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record setting mile run […]
Saucony Kinvara 5 First Impression Review
May 5, 2014 By 54 Comments
The Saucony Kinvara is one of my favorite running shoe models. It’s basically everything that a shoe should be – pretty simple in construction, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive compared to other shoes on the market. I’d go so far as to rank the original Kinvara up there among my favorite shoes of all time – […]
Foot Strike Patterns in Barefoot and Minimalist Runners
April 30, 2014 By 4 Comments
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
April 30, 2014 By 4 Comments
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
April 29, 2014 By 100 Comments
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
April 29, 2014 By 17 Comments
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
April 28, 2014 By 30 Comments
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
April 27, 2014 By 9 Comments
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 […]
This Week in Runblogging: 4/28-5/4
Sometimes you just need to do something a little bit different, and maybe just a bit dumb, in your training. On Thursday I had 8 miles on my schedule, but wound up running three separate times in three different pairs of shoes for a total of almost 16 miles. It resulted from seizing unexpected running […]