One foot in front of the other.
Donate to IronBrandon (Please!)
Nytro Complete Triathlon Package
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
For a second year in a row, Newton Running shoes were rewarded for their outstanding products in the prestigious 220 Triathlon awards held on 13th February at Sandown Park.
Following their 2009 win for ‘Innovative Product of the Year’ the popular ‘Newton Gravity’ training shoe was awarded the 2010 ‘Run Shoe of the Year’ award, beating Asics Noosa and Saucony Fastwitch 3 to the title.
Mike Trees, managing director of Triathlon Consultants (Newton Running’s UK distributor) accepted the award and said “It is a great honour to receive this award on behalf of Newton Running, who have put so much research and development into producing what is now recognised at possibly the greatest running shoe in the world for forefoot and mid foot runners. We at TCL have the relatively easy job of selling the Newton Running shoes the eagerly awaiting public.”
The attached image shows Mike Trees standing with his long time hero in sport Dave Scott, 6 times winner of the Hawaii Ironman and arguably the greatest triathlete to date presenting Newton’s award for Run Shoe of the Year.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Date: 2/11/09
Consecutive Days Run: 42
Runner: Brandon Wood
Shoes: Newton AW Trainers
Location: New York, NY
Type of Run: Easy recovery
Time of Day: 2:23 PM EST
Distance Run: 6.45 miles
Time Run: 00:50:07
Average Pace: 7:46 per mile
Weather Conditions: Cold (35 degrees Fahrenheit), Windy, Sunny
Disposition: Good
Link to Run Detail: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/24480060
About the Run: My assigned run today was a fifty minute, steady recovery run. I had every intention of following Jeff’s instructions on that, but it turns out, the road surface had other ideas. If you recall, yesterday the NYC area got about a foot of snow. While the roads themselves were 99% clear, things such as pathways in the park system took an obvious back seat.
I started out running West on W. 50th Street toward the West Side Greenway. The beginning part and even the first quarter mile or so Northbound on the Greenway itself were fairly clear. However, a little over a mile into my run, the pathways became choked with dense, packed snow. Yesterday I talked about what a great time I had running in the snow and hills. The difference was that the snow today was MUCH more packed down and had become slick. On top of that, I decided to wear my Newton AW’s and, it turns out that on that particular kind of snow, the actuator lugs under the metatarsals act like tiny skis, which I found out the hard way!
All the slipping and sliding I was doing really forced me to pay attention to my technique and REALLY made my legs work extremely hard. Having forgotten my heart rate monitor, I couldn’t see what my BPM was, but I’m sure it was much higher than my pace indicated. Speaking of pace, having just seen my data about ten minutes ago as of this writing, I am shocked at how fast I was going!
Overall, I had a good time, though a lot harder of a run than I had planned on.
EMAIL THE LAMINATOR ANY QUESTIONS FOR ME!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Barefoot running was clearly one of the most talked about trends in the running industry last year. From the bestselling book Born To Run, to the explosive growth of the Vibram Five Fingers, runners everywhere seem to be talking about barefoot running.
Well, the buzz about barefoot running is about to hit a fever pitch. As we’ve talked about in previous posts, Harvard anthropologist Dan Lieberman has been studying the evolution of human running for several years. Dr. Lieberman has just published the results of his study in the journal Nature and the mainstream media is running (cough) with the story. For those of you who listen to NPR on the drive home, you might have heard this story on “All Things Considered” today. The story is also available on NPR.org and features a pretty interesting video:
Not surprisingly, Vibram Five Fingers are also getting a lot of attention from the media (Vibram sponsored Lieberman’s study). The Five Fingers clearly help people to try barefoot running, while providing some protection from rocks, glass, etc. As we talked about in the previous post, Newton’s are built for Natural Running but some of you may be wondering how Newtons compare to Vibrams. Amanda Brooks asked just that on her blog, Run to the Finish, and Newton Running’s Director of Education and Research, Ian Adamson, had this response:
Running Newton Shoes and Vibram Five Fingers have many similarities, at least from a form perspective. The primary difference is the cushioning and energy return provided by Newtons, which is largely absent in Vibrams.
Both Newton Performance Racers and Vibrams have a 2 mm heel lift, or toe drop depending on how you look at it. This translates into a 1.3% down grade in the shoe, also referred to as ramp angle or drop. Newton Performance Trainers have a 2% gradient, which although very small, can be felt by aware runners. Regular running shoes have a much steeper angle, up to 15% depending on the shoe.
Barefoot running forces you to run efficiently and preventatively with respect to injury. Vibram’s allow people to experience barefoot running with an added layer of protection from harsh surfaces, while Newton’s go one step further, adding forefoot cushioning and a significant energy return component.
Newton shoes are much kinder to the body’s structure and musculature when transitioning from a traditional running shoe to barefoot, and allow you to perfect a natural (barefoot) form while providing protection and cushioning. Newton’s active membrane technology has been carefully designed to facilitate afferent feedback, which means the nerves in your forefoot feel the ground very quickly through the shoe. This is achieved through the outer lugs and internal semi-rigid chamber that is connected to the bio-mechanical top plate adjacent to your foot inside the shoe.
Traditional shoe cushioning mechanisms dampens afferent feedback, hampering proprioception and thus hindering your ability to self-regulate the impact of your foot strike. Studies show that runners strike much harder in shoes that dampen afferent feedback, one of the causes of injury. Barefoot runners and runners in shoes that allow you to sense the ground encourage you to run protectively, as if barefoot.
Bottom line is that both Vibrams and Newtons encourage a barefoot or natural running style, but Newtons make it much easier for runners to transition from typical running shoes.
Beast of Burden Winter 100 Miler
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Racers Against Childhood Cancer
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
For the past week or so, much of the United States has been in a deep freeze. Even places that are not accustomed to cold temperatures are feeling the bite. Here in New York, it’s been pretty bad, and it has been especially cold by the time I do my daily run. This requires a good bit of gearing up to keep from freezing to death. So, partly inspired by Ari’s post on his winter gear, and partly inspired by the fact that it takes me about ten minutes to get dressed, I thought I’d list my favorite winter running gear.
Under Armour HeatGear Sleeveless T (compression layer to prevent chaffing)
Zensah Seamless Long Sleeve Compression Shirt
Lower Body Layers:
CW-X Insulator Stabilyx Tights
Nike Lightweight Running Gloves
SmartWool PhD Running Ultra Light Mini with WOW
Head:
I also wear a hat which is an off brand
(Pictures to follow)
So, what do you wear when it’s SUPER cold out?
Black Diamond Sprinter Headlamp
Racers Against Childhood Cancer (RACC)
Carved by God, Cursed by the Devil by Ted Archer
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Date: 1/2/09
Consecutive Days Run: 2
Runner: Brandon Wood
Shoes: Newton AW Trainers
Location: New York, NY
Type of Run: Easy pace
Time of Day: 6:47 PM EST
Distance Run: 2.02 miles
Time Run: 00:14:55
Average Pace: 7:23 per mile
Weather Conditions: Cold (20 degrees Fahrenheit “real feel” of 1)
Disposition: Happy
Link to Run Detail: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21539133
About the Run: Cold man, cold. I know that I will have more runs that will be colder. I also know that, due to the fact that I hate treadmills, I will endure them. That said, it was cold tonight and I felt it. Thankfully, running was not on my training calendar for tonight (that’s a 1 hour ride on the trainer that’ll come later) and I have no distance requirements in this challenge.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Josh Cox 2nd Place at the California International Marathon!
Carved by God, Cursed by the Devil by Ted Archer
If you’ve got any extra cash layin’ around, please help me take care of some race fees!!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
As is the case for many at Thanksgiving, my Thursday morning was met with a Turkey Trot. A Turkey Trot, for those not yet in the know, is a race of varying length on or around Thanksgiving. The race in which I, along with two of my brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, mother-in-law and my wife were participating was the Dreamcatcher Classic Road Race in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The race had two distances to choose from; a five miler and a two miler, I chose to do the five.
When recovering from a marathon, conventional wisdom says to rest one day for every mile you’ve run. Since on Thursday I was only four days removed from the Philadelphia Marathon and had not reached the requisite 26.22 days of rest, I was rather curious to see how my recovered my legs would be.
If you’ve visited my site before, or you’ve listened to my podcast, it’s no secret that I am a rabid member of the Newton Running Tribe. I make no apologies for this and defend my choice of footwear at every turn. I never fancied myself a runner until I stepped into my first pair of Newtons. Since then, I have only gone farther, faster and stronger than I ever thought possible. This race report is a testament to what is one of the strongest arguments for “natural running’ (i.e. Newton running); recovery.
Race morning was perfect, in my opinion. It felt like it was in the mid-40’s with no wind to speak of. I had not really done any research for this race in terms of terrain, so I was clueless as to what kind of hills and such lay in store. The race was a mass start and not chip timed, so in an effort to get the most accurate time I could, I lined up as close to the starting line as I could. This is not a place where I usually find myself, but I figured why not?
The starting horn sounded and 1,200 of us were on our way. The front row was, as expected, the races “elites”. They pulled away pretty quickly and cleared out the space in front of me. I haven’t looked at the data from my Garmin yet, but I imagine I was at about 6:30/mile at the start. There were a few of us who fell into a stretched out pace line and who seemed to be running a similar race. As the race progressed, many people who had taken it out hard, simply fell off and ended up walking. The course was, in my opinion, good, if a little hilly. Some of the climbs definitely knocked me down a couple of notches, but I just seemed to have more in my legs.
When doing a last minute race plan in my head for this event, I readily assumed that I would go out pretty quick and sustain that for as long as I could and then lest my pace fade to something more comfortable. The problem with that plan was that I just kept going. Don’t get me wrong here, I felt every step. I took it out quick and pushed myself to do what I could. I guess I just expected my tank to run out at some point and it just didn’t. When the hills came, as I said before, I really felt it, BUT, rather than muscling through it with raw power, I reassessed my body position and technique. This kept my pace fairly consistent on the hills and kept my heart rate at an acceptable place.
I crossed the finish line with an official time of 32:55, which made my per mile pace 6:35 (my Garmin read 32:54 and 6:34 but who’s counting?). This was a PR by exactly FOUR minutes. That, to me, is insane. I finished 3rd in my division and 32nd overall.
But why was I able to do this? I believe that this was a perfect storm of proper training (MASSIVE hat tip to Jeff Kline, @coachprs) and the rapid recovery facilitated by natural running (forefoot/midfoot striking) by way of Newton. My legs, SHOULD have been dead from top to bottom. Instead I felt like I was just doing a fast tempo run.
It’s funny how many are calling “natural running” a fad or trend when, before forty years ago, it’s what we all did. Barefoot technique is what we did through millions of years of evolutionary history, so why did it all change when Mr. Bowerman decided to put a big-ass wedge of air-injected foam under our foot? Newton has been at the forefront of “natural running” since well before that term made it’s way into the vernacular of the running community. Look, I don’t work for Newton and they don’t ask me to write or say things like this, I do it because I want to. In my opinion, because of Newton and the natural running technique that they promote:
I AM A RUNNER.
Additional kudos to my bro-in-law C and mom-in-law K for running their first ever road race (the 2 miler). Also to my bro and sister-in-law A and K for making the early trip to run the 5 miler with the fam. Last but not least to my wife, Danielle, for finishing a 2 mile race while being 6 months pregnant!
2009 New York City Marathon Results
Darren Rovell: Jackass, Part 1
Darren Rovell: Jackass, Retraction
Damon Runyon Yankee Stadium 5K
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This morning in New York City was one of those autumn days when the crisp air bites just enough to make you feel invigorated. It is the part of the year where the city seems somehow washed clean of the humid grit and grime that the summer brings.
So, it was an incredible canvas upon which to join the team from Newton Running for a clinic and group run in that stalwart of nature stuck squarely in the middle of the city, Central Park. We all met at The Boathouse at about 7 o’clock AM amidst runners getting in their last taper runs before the 40th running of the New York City Marathon on Sunday.
Once the group of about fifteen runners had assembled, Danny (Abshire, co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Newton Running) bid us all good morning and went on to, first and foremost, discuss exactly what “natural running” is. Among the assembled members of the Newton team were Jennifer Abshire (Danny’s wife), Erin Gehlsen, Pam Simich and Josh Cox (American Record holder in the 50K and super nice guy!).This was followed by a quick demonstration by Danny of proper form and technique. It still strikes me how everything he says is not some huge secret, but is quite simply common sense.
After Danny’s introduction we all set out for a quick three mile run around the bridle path that encircles The Reservoir. I have discovered, twice now, that The Boathouse is a fantastic meeting place, however upon leaving The Boathouse and heading North along East Drive, you immediately come upon what has come to be known to many a runner as the bane of their existence; Cat Hill. Today however, with a group of new friends and runners, the Cat was tamed without a problem. We then entered the bridle path loop at about East 85th Street. Now, when I spoke earlier about the time of year, I neglected to mention the brilliant colors the abound in Central Park. Entering the bridle path was like entering another world. We were surrounded by the brightly colored tree canopy as we all ran effortlessly through the park. The other runners on the path, including the occasional professional who came flying by, made the air ring with fresh excitement. Danny, Jennifer and Josh (the Newton crew accompanying us on the run) were so wonderful, and took the time to speak to everyone in the group, discussing everything from technique to the weather to Broadway shows! The wellspring of running knowledge was unparalleled and the kindness and caring with which it was dispensed was overwhelming.
As we wound our way through the trees and back to The Boathouse, it was the perfect end to a wonderful run. There were lessons learned, friends made and a good run had by all. Among those that came was Ty Garner. Ty was at the Newton clinic in the spring and also became and Ironman in Wisconsin with me in September. The next time Newton does a clinic and group run in your area, I cannot encourage you enough to go. It’s an awesome experience!
Thanks so much for visiting my site! My name is Brandon Wood and I am an opera singer living and trying to make it in New York City. This site and podcast follow my adventures on the way to competing in and training for all kinds of endurance events, especially triathlon and running. Click the "About Me" tab for more info!
