I received an email this morning from Aaron Smart, who co-produced a the official documentary video account of the 2013 Vibram Tarawera Ultramarathon in New Zealand. The documentary was just released, and you can view it below – looks like a beautiful race, and further enhances my lean toward running a trail 50K this Fall! […]
Clever Training: New Partnership, 10% Gear Discount, and Garmin FR10 Giveaway
May 21, 2013 By 2 Comments
I’m happy to announce a new partnership with Clever Training. If you’re not familiar with them, Clever Training specializes in carrying gear for runners, swimmers, and cyclists, with a particular emphasis on fitness electronics (think GPS watches and the like). The folks at Clever Training contacted me several weeks ago about developing a relationship, and […]
Be Careful About Converting Your Experience into a Prescription for All Runners
May 21, 2013 By 40 Comments
One of the big challenges I face in writing this blog is trying to remain objective given that I have personal biases stemming from my own experience. For example, I review, promote, and like running in more minimal shoes and don’t foresee myself ever going back to more traditional models. However, I try hard to […]
Army Study: No Difference in Injury Rates Between Traditionally and Minimally Shod Soldiers
May 20, 2013 By 26 Comments
I was poking through the abstracts of presentations for the upcoming meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine the other night and came across one for a study comparing injury rates between traditionally and minimally shod US Army soldiers. Titled “Injury Risk and Performance among Soldiers Wearing Minimalist Running Shoes Compared to Traditional Running […]
2013 Running Shoe Sales Data: What Do They Tell Us About What Runners Are Wearing?
May 19, 2013 By 19 Comments
The Dollar Sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Last week Scott Douglas published an article on Runnersworld.com with the title “Sales of Minimalist Shoes Plummet.” I’ve seen this article referenced a number of places over the past week, and I wanted to add a few comments. The data that Douglas referenced come from a SportsOneSource 1st Quarter […]
Merrell Proterra Sport Review: A Nice Hiking Shoe That Needs a Bit More Flex
May 18, 2013 By 10 Comments
There was a time when I used to hike a lot. I spent a summer working in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and got to the point where I could almost run up mountains with a frame pack filled with wooden boards on my back (I worked on a salamander survey crew and we used […]
Running Destination: Woodstock, VT
May 16, 2013 By 13 Comments
My wife and I don’t often travel without our kids. In fact, the last time we went away together alone was over 5 years ago! However, now that my youngest son is old enough to not need constant parental attention, I proposed the idea of a two-night getaway to celebrate both Mother’s Day and my […]
Marathon Training: Respect the Heat
May 14, 2013 By 25 Comments
Image via Nasa.gov I’m at the two week countdown to marathon day and my confidence heading into the race is at the lowest point that it has been this training cycle. My major goal for last week was to get in a final, solid 20+ mile training run. Well, I ran 20 miles last Tuesday, […]
Skechers GoBionic Trail: Photos and Review Link
May 7, 2013 By 57 Comments
Over the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to do pre-release product testing and development work with the performance footwear team at Skechers. It’s been an incredibly fun process, and getting to see suggestions that you make find their way into a shoe released on the market is quite a kick! I’ve been given […]
Dirty Runner: Blisters – Causes and Prevention
May 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Running 100 miles is not that hard. For most races you get at least 30 hours to do it. You only have to run a little over 4 miles per hour to break 24 hours. Almost anybody who has a strong will and puts in a decent […]
Marathon Training Update: A Lesson in Perseverance From My Son
May 5, 2013 By 7 Comments
Some weeks life aligns in such a way that running becomes secondary to other, more important/essential pursuits. Such it was that what was supposed to be the final big week of this marathon training cycle aligned with my final week of classes, final exam prep, and office/lab clean-out and packing. I’m giving a final exam […]
Dirty Runner: Montrail FluidFlex Trail Shoe Review
April 29, 2013 By 19 Comments
If you’ve read any of my past reviews you know that I have a certain ideal shoe that I’m searching for. My perfect trail shoe would be one with a minimal upper that fits like a glove over the forefoot, a wide toe box, excellent drainage, great grip, soft ride, 0-4mm heel/forefoot differential, and enough […]
Marathon Training: DNF’ing a Long Run – Is It Sometimes Better To Cut It Short?
April 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I hate cutting workouts short. I’m a numbers guy, and when I have a target distance for a workout I like to hit it. However, one of the lessons I’ve learned over the past few years is that sometimes it’s better to cut a workout short when things just aren’t feeling right. Today was one […]
Saucony Fastwitch 6 Racing Flat Review
April 25, 2013 By 33 Comments
I have a fair amount of history with the Saucony Fastwitch line. The Fastwitch 2 was my first racing shoe, and it was the shoe I wore for 2 of my first 4 marathons. It was also my first real racing flat, and it introduced me to the benefits of lightweight footwear. Two years ago, […]
No Meat Athlete’s Matt Frazier on Blogging Full-Time
Earlier today I read a great Copyblogger interview with Matt Frazier of the No Meat Athlete blog. Since I’ve written a bunch lately about my decision to pursue blogging as a bigger part of my own future, I thought I’d share the link to Matt’s interview here since so much of what he has to […]