Hand Holding

I’ve added a couple of hand helds to my inventory and have been using one lately.   On 2+ hour runs my arms, especially my left one has been bothering me so I thought adding hand helds would help in conditioning my arms to be bent at an L shape for hours on end.   And it lets me not use my belt which can be annoying if I have anything more than keys and my phone on it.

having the most cushion you can get will make it more comfortable for all concerned.”

The jury is still out on if I care for the handhelds.   For trail runs they restrict my ability to catch myself on a fall or use trees as hand holds when the trails get really technical.   Also since I carry my phone with me so that my wife can track me using Garmin Live Track it puts my phone at risk; if I have to catch myself the phone is going to take the hit first.

I read a study that had data that indicated hand held water is the least efficient way to carry water if you carry water at all.   A vest is best followed by a belt or pack and then hand helds.   This is due to the fact that it takes more energy/effort when your water is at the end of levers, aka your arms, as opposed to just riding passively at your back or waist.

This coming weekend is my first 10K race on Saturday and I think I’m going to wear my Hoka Clifton 3’s.   The last few runs I’ve used my Nimbus 19’s, Topo Terraventures and Clifton 3’s with a mix of distances, 11 miles to 3 miles, and road to trails and my left knee on the outside has been bothering me.  Nothing ‘major’ but enough to make me shorten my stride and slow down my pace.  But I think having the most cushion you can get will make it more comfortable for all concerned.

Tomorrow is an hour run at zed 3 pacing, for me that’s going to be around an 10:30 to 11:00 mile pace.   We’ll see how the knee fares with that, I’ll be using some compression sleeves on my calves to see if it makes a difference.

I have noticed that compression sleeves have helped me with calf pain when I run with slower runners; yes Virginia there are slower runners than me.

Last long run I used some DIY Huma chia gels.  Even making my own I’m just not a fan of chia based gels.   It was chia seeds ground to a flour in a spice grinder, a mix of complex sugars, tart cherry juice and strawberry puree.  With some sea salt and salt substitute for sodium and potassium.  But in general I find the gels to be barely tolerable at best and downright eww at worst.

My preferred supplements are still the Stinger waffles and the Stinger chews.  I’m probably never going to be a high fat low carb non-runner in spite of my normal diet consisting of high protein, moderate fat and low carbs.

One month give or take and I’ll do my first half marathon.  I don’t see me not finishing.  I would like to finish in in a 2:30 or less but we’ll see how it goes.   Remember I’m carrying 120lbs more than the average runner’s weight, it takes a lot of energy to move that much mass and the energy costs aren’t linear.

 

Hitting the dusty trail…

I think my training schedule is going to get in the of making running fun.  The trail run we did on Sunday was really enjoyable for a number of reasons; it brought back memories of woods running when I was a kid, of my glory days of stalking my friends and strangers in the woods for the purposes of shooting them with paintballs, of running back with a flag or trailing a flag runner to defend them.   Good times, goooood times.

getting lost, huddling naked for warmth, wolves”

But… I’m training for my first half marathon in April with a second one in May.   By random chance my training finishes the week before my first half.  Timing is purely coincidental.   We’re at the point where short runs are still taking an hour and the long runs are upwards of 2.5 hours.   So fitting in trail runs without impacting that schedule or over-training is going to be tricky.

Not to mention I’m going to be training for a stupid full marathon over the summer months which run from hot to OMFG hot around these here parts.   The marathon training though is a necessity as we’re more than likely barring injury or death going to do an Ultra in October.

Not sure how much time that’s going to leave for trail running between now and then.

Gear wise I’m still loving my UD Jurek FKT vest.   Barring tailoring a custom vest myself it’s about as close as I’m going to get to what’s right for me at the moment of the available options.   I need something possible lighter with just a single water bottle pouch on the back for the shorter runs where I don’t need a bladder’s worth of water.

I like my Amphipod belt but it can be distracting as with a water bottle it tends to slip down and I have to hitch it back up, a vest would resolve that.    Or possibly craft myself something like a Nathan Peak, one of the type that holds the bottle at a slant at the back.

After getting thornbit in our second outing I’m going to have to consider wearing tights when going back out.   I was wearing some calf compression sleeves for that purpose but the thorns nailed me above those.  Enough that wearing pants is annoying.

It was enjoyable talking about getting lost, huddling naked for warmth, wolves and the like even while passing and getting passed by other wanderers.   Lack of experience with the area,  on top of the issue of trails aren’t copiously marked did have us running at almost random rather than the route we’d picked out but honestly if you’re running you’re running so if it’s the right route or not  all that matters is you’re out there.

And that’s the biggest thing to running and notrunning is that you get out and do it.

 

Tick Tock?

I’m not sure but I may give up on the Wahoo TickrX heart belt I have.  I got it on sale during the xmas rush back in December for about the same cost as a standard Garmin/Polar and it’s just been a bit of a PITA to use.

I prefer having some sexy robotic english woman telling me how I’m doing”

First complaint, the brain of the unit is what holds the strap on.  Unlike say a Garmin or Polar the brain doesn’t snap onto the belt and the belt straps onto you, with the Tickr the brain is the buckle basically that holds the strap on you.

Trying to adjust it after it’s on it pops undone on me all the time.  Granted once it’s on and set I’ve never had it come off during a run but I’m not sure why they went the way they did with it.  Unless they wanted to force you to unsnap the brain so you don’t accidentally leave it connected and drain the battery.

Second complaint with my preferred running phone of choice, a Galaxy Note 4, the LE BT is iffy at best.   With the wahoo utility it connects every time, all the time.  But with any running app, MapMyRun, EndoMondo, Sporttractive blah blah blah sometimes I get readings with BT, sometimes not.   It could be the BT on the Note 4 but I have no problem pairing up and using any other device, my car radio, my Bose Sports, my X3’s they all pair instantly and stay connected without any issue.

The ANT+ always works, my Fenix 3HR always picks it up and EndoMondo when it’s set to listen as an ANT+ always works.   Problem is EndoMondo in a recent update took away the ability to modify the voice prompts which is all I was using it for.   I don’t care to pay a monthly fee for voice prompts.

Sportractive, my running app of preference doesn’t do ANT+.

I tried MapMyRun today with my garmin and it worked out okay using ANT+ but not BT LE.   It has the basic voice prompts and I can live with that.   I prefer having some sexy robotic english woman telling me how I’m doing than be constantly flipping through the data fields on my watch.   I do use the DF’s on my Fenix to confirm pace but things like elapsed time, elapsed distance, heart rate I prefer whispered into my ear as I run.   In large part because if the light is dim my old eyes have trouble reading tiny text on my watch face during a run.

Bottom line if I’m stuck with ANT+ being reliable and useful then I might as well just use my Garmin brain stuck on a Polar sensor belt (the garmin belt started giving bad readings after about 3 months of use) and not have to deal with the weird design on using the brain to connect the strap together.

Yes I do end up giving up the metrics the TickrX provided but honestly they’re mostly a curiosity for me, not something driving my notrunning.  I did like the double tap the chest to change to the next song ala some kind of Star Trek communicator-esque action.

Blistering Pace

I’ve got a problem with wearing out the heels in shoes.  Just picture a velociraptor trying to wear shoes and that’s me.  In the last 8 months I’ve gotten blisters twice, once due to a bad tie job on my laces and once due to a combination of distance, pace, old worn out shoes and wrong socks.   It all came together to leave me with bloody heels that day.

the next pair I put in I’ll get my wife to help hold the crease open so I can stick them in”

So I went looking around and found Engo Blister Prevention patches, specifically for the heels.  In my new Nimbus 19’s, which had already started to pill up after only 100-150 miles I decided to add the heel patches.

They went in pretty easy although the next pair I put in I’ll get my wife to help hold the crease open so I can stick them in.   After roughly 15 miles on the heel patches I believe they’re providing the service they say.    My heels feel cooler due to the decreased friction coefficient after the run and they show no signs of coming off.

They’re fairly spendy for what they are, just some teflon impregnated material with an adhesive backing but if $10 worth of patches both saves me from blistering up and gives me an extra couple of months of shoe life then they’re worth it.   My 18’s were still good in terms of padding, just the inside heels were eaten away.

If you have problems with blistering or premature wear in the inside heel liner of your shoes then these are worth examining I believe.

Hey Sweetie…

The Fleet Feet Sweetheart Double has been done.   I ran this with a very old friend of mine.  Not that he’s old per se, he’s younger than me, but that I’ve known him for 25 years give or take at this point.

there was some hot and heavy sweating all the way through”

This was his first 5K and he chose to run both the 5K and the 10K with me.  I’m happy to report he did really well given he’s only been running awhile and he’s only run 3 miles at one time a single time before now.

The 5K was fully ran albeit slow but we finished fast enough to be ready for the start of the 10K.

I wore my Jurek FKT vest for the first time today, just water bottles, no bladder.  I must say I liked it.   It receded from concious notice fairly quickly and easily.  Kind of like wearing a LBE Vest for awhile, you just forget it’s there until you need the stuff on it.

I had no problems having enough ‘stuff’ for the races, some beans, some waffles for the two of us and had pockets to store trash in.   The waterproof pocket held up, I put a couple of salt tablets in it and they didn’t melt on me and there was indeed sweating going on.

Like I thought it might, the lack of any 3D mesh or air foam or ridging meant there was no air flow between the pack and my back.   It’s also fairly wicking so… Since I didn’t have a bladder in the vest there was some hot and heavy sweating all the way through.

I’ve got a long run tomorrow as usual, it being Sunday, 10min warmup, 50min run, 5 min recovery, 50min run, 10min cool-down, and I’m going to put a bladder in it, I have an old platypus that mostly fits.  I may get a new 2L Source bladder, I really like their bladders, for the vest but we’ll see how this one rolls.

When we finish our half marathon training in another couple of months we’ll start a full marathon, just in time for Oklahoma summers.   Since I’m not a morning runner and I don’t like running later in the evening after I’ve eaten, I may end up running alone during the week.  But that’s a problem to worry about later.

 

Start your packs…

An interesting post popped up in my flipboard feed on running today.  A new running pack over on kickstarter.   The most interesting thing is it uses a X harness that’s more like a racing harness than the traditional over shoulder under arm with cross chest linkage that you see for other packs.

rubbing back and forth on those things till something gives”

It’s currently available for cheaper than SRP with a delivery date in April.  Of this year which is pretty fast for a KS in my experience.   I’m more used to buying it now and then getting delivery a year later.

The strap pockets seem more likely to be useful than say the Jurek FKT’s side pockets as you may be able to stuff them with stuffy stuff without having to worry about rubbing back and forth on those things till something gives, most likely the skin on your inside elbows and forearms.   It depends on how far back those things go on your body.

I’m going to keep an eye on it and try to figure out if it’s something I want to try out.   If nothing else it would be a loaner pack for our current wild hare idea of doing a 50K this fall.

And best case it might just be an awesome pack.

Water water everywhere….

So I’m, we’re, thinkin’ about doing something stupid and trying a Ultra in the fall.   Given I’ve not yet run a half marathon distance this is where the stupid comes from.

leave me looking like a masochist trussed up in some basement dungeon waiting to be punished”

To that end I’m going to be running further and further distances in the spring and summer.   In Oklahoma in the summer, long distances?  Soooo stupid.

While I have a couple of hydration packs in case of zombie outbreak they’re not designed for running long distances.  One I designed and sewed myself for attaching to a molle vest (also sewn myself) and the other a Source Hydration Pack.

So long story (too late) made shorter I did some research, then more research on hydration carrying options.  I settled on a vest type as I currently have an amphipod for carrying my phone and one water bottle but a 10oz bottle and a Note 4 cause the belt to slide down my butt and I have to keep adjusting it during a run.  Can you say annoying?

But which vest?  Reviews were spotty and we’re back to that size issue I have.   What fits the normal runner, much less the elite runner would leave me looking like a masochist trussed up in some basement dungeon waiting to be punished for being a bad boy.   So I reached out to my unknown friends at Running Warehouse (it’s weird I keep typing Wearhouse) and sent them an email outlining my trials and tribulations with genetics and bell curves, my current running, my planned running and what I thought I might want.   I got an email back quickly saying they were going to research but it might take some time.

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I can live with that so I patiently waited and in a couple of days got back a long detailed email from them with three proposed options and a breakdown of each one.   Of the three options the Jurek FKT aka Fastest Known Time vest appealed to me the most visually and it had the features I wanted.  And the Large size purported to be likely to fit me.

I promptly ordered, yes from RW and not Amazon.   Choosing something for visual appeal is a little shallow but it was far from the only reasons I chose this one.

In a couple of days (free shipping) I got my vest, today to be frank.   I’ve gone over the thing and the quality is good in my sample.  Even, clean seams, no loose threads, all seams banded or overlapped (sewer talk).    It comes with a two bottles but no hydration bladder.   For the price you’d think they could throw one in but honestly I’d rather pick my own, I have preferences in bladders and unless they happened to source the same I’d still get my own and then have paid for a bladder I wasn’t going to use.

It took me a couple of minutes to figure out the bottle nipples.  They’re a type of bite valve but you also have to pull them up.  And if you bite too firmly they close up on you.   They’ll take some getting used to, at least by a #NOTARUNNER such as myself.

Tucked away in the side pockets are some take up straps that keep the side pockets/straps shorter.  I was able to loosen those and end up with a vest that actually fits me and even has some a little extra.  The bottles end up on my Although chest and not under my arms.

If you border on the big side like yours truly then this may be the best option for you.  If your chest at the nipples (bonus points for using the word nipple twice) hits 48″ or more or your chest at the bottom of the rib cage hits more than maybe 45″ then this is unlikely to fit or at least fit well.   I’m currently a 45/43 so I’m happy to reiterate it fits fine.   But there aren’t that many of us big ol’ boys out there trying to train to run stupid long distances.

There are plenty of pockets to carry plenty of things. Although some seem questionable.  Honestly there may be too many if you’re not long distance trail running as you might be inclined to use all those pockets.  Just be smart about what you put in there I suppose.  Ounces equals pounds equals pain when it comes to moving yourself from one point to another.

My biggest complaint is that the supposed cell phone pocket, I assume it is anyway, on the left side strap is only good for smaller phones.  Nothing + sized need apply.   Something on the order of a iPhone 5 or a Galaxy 2 etc.   Galaxy Note’s, S7’s, LG Flex, iPhone 6+, not a chance in hell of fitting.   But it’ll fit in the side tube pockets no problem.

The side pockets seem questionable.  Anything of any real size is going to cause me and possibly you to rub your arm against it while you run unless you’re chicken wingin’ it.   I tend to be a tucked in and tight running so maybe some gels or waffles or something but that’s about it.    They’re also difficult to get into on the run for me but that could be due fitment on my bigger than life frame.

One design changed I’d make if it was my own design is to add attachment points either webbing loops or D rings on the edges of the back to be used with elastic webbing to help keep a bladder flat rather than balling up in the back.   It does have a couple of clips that can be kind used for that but I think some dedicated keepers for the bladder would be good.  But then that’s one more strap that you have to deal with if you’re you know in a race to race and trying to refill your bladder and adding seconds to that etc.

I’d also like to see a mil-spec D ring sewn in at the top of the bladder compartment for hanging bladders from.  Right now there’s a Velcro loop and Velcro, even good mil-spec Velcro, has a limited life span.   I’ll likely just add a D ring there or design and 3D Print something to hang my bladder of choice from.

If you’d like an insulated pocket for the bladder you’re going to have to provide your own insulation.  Some 2 or 3 mil neoprene would work well and is available online.

There are no air flow ridges, bumps, patterns etc on the next to your body side of the vest.  Having put those kinds of things in my own vest design I’m honestly not sure just how useful they are.   Our skin, shirts etc tend to fill those crevices and nooks anyway.    I wouldn’t mind seeing a 3D mesh though as a backer piece and I may sew some in depending on how things get in the heat.  This though would add an ounce or two to the total weight.

I wasn’t too sure about the color, there’s only two options a white one and the other one that’s kind of gray with some green highlight zippers and a yellow elastic netting pattern on the back for holding a jacket or something similar.   The white one wasn’t an option for me.  But in person the color isn’t bad and is acceptable.

The fit is good.  Once you get the straps adjusted, both the take up straps on the sides and the chest straps it fits snugly.  I haven’t taken it for a run yet, a combo 5K + 10K is this Saturday and I’ll wear it then but just a little jogging around the house and it feels good like you’re not wearing anything.

I think I’d like to see some elastic on the chest straps so I may replace those, something to give with you as you breathe and move especially for trail running.

The straps can be moved up and down which makes it more capable of fitting everyone especially women who may have a little more in the chest area than others so you can adjust it up and down so it fits on your boobs where it’s most comfortable.   They’re held in place by T hooks through something that’s basically a very thin molle web.  Pull them through the ‘wrong’ way and then bend the T so it’ll go back through the strap and you can then pick another location to put it.   It’s not as easy as something that just slide up and down but it’s far better than ones that don’t adjust at all.   And frankly unless you’re sharing it with someone, this type of adjustment is typically a one and done.

All in all, yes it’s not the cheapest option but in my many (too many) years I’ve learned if you’re going to use something and use it hard, then you rarely fare well going with the cheapest option.   That doesn’t mean the pricey option is guaranteed to be the best, but your odds are higher.

If I find out it just sucks majorly after putting 50’ish miles on it, I’ll come back here and denote that.  If there’s no ‘update’ mentioned anywhere and this article is a month old then it’s a fairly conservative bet that it’s working out for me just fine.[/expand]