One foot in front of the other.
In this video, we get to see the Newton running shoe broken down and disected to see what’s really going on inside.
A friend of mine was telling me today about Levain Bakery, a bakery here in NYC that was founded by two women that were training together for an Ironman event. As their site says, they were “starved for calories and dreaming of delicious things—they discovered they not only shared a love of serious competition, but they also shared a love for food.”.
I have yet to make my way over there, but you can be sure that a visit is not too far off! Be sure to check out their site to try out some of there baked awesomeness!
Hey there everyone! I am just dropping a quick post to share with you my new gadget! I got a Flip Video Mino! It is a video camera that is roughly the size of an ipod and holds 60 minutes of video. One of the accessories is an action mount that I am going to try to pick up in the next couple of weeks. Also, don’t be surprised if an upcoming episode is filmed on it!
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Running in the Center of the Universe
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Here are the details:
First; about 3 days before the race I was riding a bike to the store. The bike has SPD pedals, but I was wearing flip flops because it was just to the store and back. Somewhere along the way the pedal rolled and I cut my the high part of my heel (almost near the bottom of my achilles). No real damage, but there went any hope of not wearing socks.
Days before:
I kept up regular, but lesser workouts up until the Friday before the race (race was on sunday). During the day on Saturday, I went to the check in/clinic they had for the event. Got to take a look at the course and so on. On Saturday night I had a big plate of penne with pears in a gorgonzola cream sauce. Went to bed at 10 pm.
Race day:
I woke up at 5 am, had two eggs with cheese and a banana. I wanted to be checked in and in the transition area by 6:15, but made it at about 6:20. I had plenty of time to set up my transition area just right. I was wearing a one piece tri suit by TYR, and a Zoot Fuzion, full wetsuit (which I will never do again, I’ll explain later). I had two bottles of water set to hose the sand off my feet and everything ended up working out just right.
The start:
The day was overcast, so not so hot and the water was about 62 (f-ing cold). I was in the 3rd wave, which I think was the biggest (34-14 y/o). I got near the front of the group.
The swim:
Had a clean start and got into the mix right away catching multiple feet hands and elbows to my face and other parts. I am sure I also returned the favor. It took me about 5 minutes to pull out in front of the big pack. There was one guy that just took off and ended up out of the water about 30 seconds ahead of me. I pulled way out and I think I was third out of the water for my wave. The reason I will never wear a full sleeve wetsuit again is that it created resistance to my stroke. I had to work harder to get my arms out of the water and this ended up killing my breath. And let me tell you, I am feeling it today.
Coming into the breakers was fine. I caught a couple nice wave that gave me a great push, but I also caught one that broke under my legs and almost flipped me. Once i was standing, I had about 20 yards of water to run out of, which was SOO hard. Once out of that, I had about 75 yards to go to the transition. The real problem was that the entire run up the beach really was UP the beach. By the time I hit the boardwalk into T1 I was in so much pain. I got to my area ok, took a drink of FRS and got my socks and shoes and helmet, etc. on. I then tried to get on my bike before they reminded me that I had to run out of the transition. All in all, I think I was in the transition for about 45 seconds to a minute.
The bike:
I was riding a Cannondale R5 with Look Keo Sprint pedals. It is a road bike and not a tri-bike per se, but it did a great job, and since I train on my own road bike anyway, it is what I am used to. I did rather well on the bike and I believe I only lost about 4 places to guys that were definitely seasoned triathletes and riding $5,000+ tri-bikes. I took advantage of drafting and using it even passed one of the guys that had passed me. I made it into the transition very well and got my cycling shoes off and my running shoes/hat/glasses on in about 30 seconds.
The run:
I was using Yankz for my shoe laces so I saved a lot of time with that and the fact that I had socks on made my shoes go on even faster. The run was a 2 mile course, that was on a lot of boardwalk, which was nice and easy on the legs. However, running is by FAR my weak point and I lost probably about ten or so places to guys that were crazy fast. At mile one there was a set of about 5 stairs that burned like hell. Just beyond that was a water station. It was at that water station that I discovered the bad side of drinking water from a cup while running (I choked). I also dumped the remainder of my water on my head, forgetting the fact that I had a Nike Dri-fit hat on and it would push away any water that hit it! Oh well. The final 30 yards included a hill (up) which sucked and then a nice sidewalk.
My official time was 52:48 and I finished 6th in my age group. I am not sure about my overall place, but I will let you know once they post that info (if they post that info). Overall, I was extremely pleased with my performance. I need to work on my running, no doubt, but I hung in there and it felt awesome to finish.
THE ARGYLE AVENGER!!
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Welcome to episode 2! Hope you enjoy!
Go check out: Running with the Pack
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So, I know I haven’t written in a few days, sorry! I am now in Virginia to do Lucia di Lammermoor with Virginia Opera in Norfolk, Virginia. That being said, we have been in rehearsals a LOT since I got here. I have, however, been running rather consistently.
Unfortunately, my Ipod Nano was messing up and I had to restore it, which basically means I lost all the info stored on it, which included my Nike+ calibration. So, the mileage of my runs has been even more questionable thn usual. I also went and got a pedometer, which I have not yet calibrated yet. That said, the run I did yesterday was an outdoor run.
I ran for 54 minutes wearing both my Nike+ and my pedometer (which I kind of guessed at the calibration). At the end of the run my Ipod said I had run 5.97 miles and my pedometer said I had run 7.5 miles! That is quite a difference!! I will recalibrate them both over the next couple of days.
Anyway, I will put the graphs for all my missed runs on the “Run Graphs” page. 
The title kinda says it all. My run today was absolutely amazing! I was just cruising along and probably could have gone for twice as long as I did! That said, I ran for what my Ipod says was 4.68 miles, but which the treadmill said was 5 miles (that pesky calibration again!).
Anyway, I was literally cruising and it was amazing. My new shoes are WONDERFUL!!! Hopefully I will not regret upping my distance so quickly when I wake up tomorrow morning!
First let me deliver the sad news that I had to get rid of my Jasairi’s (sad face). They were really killing my feet and I just felt that numbing myself to that kind of pain is not the way I want to train. So I went to the Nike Town Store here, in Manhattan and exchanged them for a gorgeous pair of Nike Air Zoom Vomero+ 2′s. Then of the “heels” of that (get it?) I ran for 4 miles today (4.08 to be exact)!
My body is definitely not used to going for that long, but I pushed, and once I hit about 20 minutes, I was cruising the rest of the way. My biggest gripe about this run is the calibration of the damn Nike+!! I love it but I probably ran much closer to 4.5 miles than 4, but once it warms up, and when I go to Virginia in two weeks, I’ll be able to do more outdoor runs and then the calibration will pick up my on-screen pace a lot!
As for the graphs I promised, they were messing with my template, so for now I have put them on the page labeled “Run Graphs” (look to the top of this page and you’ll see it).
Since I have Nike+ (plus) shoes/Ipod, and have been using it now for a while, I am going to do my best to start putting the graphs of my runs into my posts. Some of them may come up a bit after the fact because I don’t always update my Ipod or my runs every day.
So, keep a lookout for some cool graphs and such!!
F.Y.I. The calibration when running on a treadmill is somewhat less than spectacular, so if I do an outside run and you see a sudden spike in my pace, it’s because running on a road or track is far more accurate and thus shows a much faster pace. Here is an article about the Nike+ calibration issues.
I really do love being sore. I love it, that is, as long as it is a result of a nice, solid workout. Today however my feet are a bit sore. I think it’s because of the new running shoes that I just bought. They are Nike Zoom Jasari+. They really are extremely light and flexible, but for whatever reason my feet are killing me! The shoes I had before this were Nike Air Zoom Moire and I adore them. They were like wearing slippers. I have a feeling that I may have to return my new shoes and get a pair of the Moire’s, oh well!
Anyway, aside from that, today was a swimming day for me and a good break for my feet. It’s amazing how much swimming helps with every aspect of exercise! Running presents basically no cardio or breath challenge to me because of the work I put in in the pool. However, up to now, I haven’t run as much as a marathon, so I’m sure I WILL indeed hit a cardiopulmonary wall at some point.
Tomorrow, I am aiming for a 4 mile run. I’ll let you know!
Thanks so much for visiting my site! My name is Brandon Wood and I am the social media manager and a customer service rep for Newton Running. 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!
Who: This contest is open to anyone and everyone in the U.S. and Canada (also APO)! Tell your friends!
What: Stuffitts! I have spoken about these simple yet awesome shoe savers in the past. Click here to read more about them. I cannot say enough how great they are!
When: Starting NOW! This is an ongoing contest that will be every month, or until every person on the planet has nice, fresh smelling shoes!
Why: Because Stuffitts are awesome! The folks at Stuffitts are being SUPER generous and I also want to give you guys something that I think is a great addition to any athletes arsenal!
How: On the last podcast episode post of each month (example: Episode 99 on June 28 HERE) entrants should leave a comment (however long you'd like). On the following week's show (the first show of each month) I will draw, by random number generator, one winner! That's it!
Good luck!
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