Sam's Running, People, Places, and Things.

OR Introduction- Saucony Adventerra GTX 4 mm drop Light Hiker

2012-01-20T12:56:00.001-05:00

Most summers my wife and I head out on a 7-10 day trek across the Alps. Last summer we did the Walker's Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. I wore the Salomon XA Pro Mid GTX essentially a higher version of the Salomon XA Pro trail runners. They were a bit light for the rocky terrain. Saucony introduced the Adventerra GTX at Outdoor Retailer and it immediately caught my eye as a candidate for

OR Introduction- Saucony Kinvara 3 and Kinvara TR

2012-01-20T12:40:00.000-05:00

Saucony introduced an update to the popular Kinvara, the Kinvara 3 and a new Kinvara family member, the Kinvara TR or Kinvara trail. Both of these shoes share FlexFilm tm technology in the upper "to secure the foot on the platform throughout the gait cycle." They also share a 4mm heel to toe drop. Kinvara 3 and TR. Click to see details. Kinvara 3 I have had 2 pairs of the Kinvara 1 and

Headed to Outdoor Retailer (OR) Winter Market 2012

2012-01-18T18:53:00.002-05:00

Starts Thursday 1/19. Will be reporting on trail and road running, hydration, and nordic ski finds. Should be fun, as always. If there is a product or up coming product you want me to find out more about please post your questions in the comments below. While products introduced at OR are for winter 2012-2013 typically the running companies are also displaying spring and summer releases for the

My 2011 Running Favorites-Shoes, Apparel, Gear, and Trails

2011-12-28T20:40:00.000-05:00

2011 was the year shoe heel to toe ratios dropped all over the place. From road to trail I mostly ran in 4-9mm heel to toe drop shoes. While not a great competitive year, my legs felt great, no more hamstring soreness and rapid recovery from run to run. Favorite Shoe Brooks PureFlow Reviewed here. I found racing and race recovery in the PureFlow to be a pleasure. This second generation low

Brooks PureFlow-On Snow

2011-12-23T20:09:00.001-05:00

15 miler on thin hard pack snow on a cold clear day in Park City. Incredible blue bird day. PureFlow was just fine in terms of traction on everything except the steeps. Don't think it will be great on ice. I now have about 300 miles of wonderful injury and soreness free running on my first pair of PureFlow. Soon I will get a new pair and outfit this pair with roofing screws for winter all terrain

Brooks PureFlow: Different Race Recovery

2011-11-15T15:13:00.001-05:00

Ran the Seacoast Half Marathon (NH) this past Sunday. What a great race and course along the scenic and historic NH coast. $75,000 donated to Seacoast Big Brother Big Sister. I was pleased with how I felt and my time: 1:39.29. My first road race since Boston. If only I had another month of speed work and tempo before the snow flies.... I have been running roads exclusively in the Brooks

Nike+ SportsWatch GPS Firmware Update: stopwatch, auto looping stats, black text on white option

2011-10-29T09:54:00.000-04:00

Going out for a run to try these new features. Nike got going, releasing this important update, no doubt moved along by the MotoActv Android competitor I previewed coming in November 6th. Firmware Update 2.0.1 This update is for the firmware that runs on the Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom and is required for all users. It includes the following: • Adds stopwatch mode. (Excellent) •

MOTOACTV: Motorola GPS Fitness Tracker & Music Player

2011-10-18T15:51:00.001-04:00

Just announced. MOTOACTV is an Android based fitness tracker with music player. Includes GPS and accelerometer (for elliptical machines only initially according to an excellent first overview by DCRainmaker ). $249 for 8gig model plus $29.99 for wrist or arm band. Comes with headphone/mic as the system will also give audio workout feedback. Optional headphones add wireless heart rate through in

First Impressions Brooks PureFlow and TrueGrit: They really nailed it!

2011-10-10T10:31:00.000-04:00

Really liking the Brooks PureFlow I recently purchased from RoadRunner Sports. Brooks has really nailed the next generation (after Saucony Kinvara, Inov-8 Road X, and Newtons) trainer focused on more natural running, and less shoe, yet with adequate cushion for day in day out road running : Brooks PureFlow Brooks PureFlow a low heel to toe drop-4mm , decent cushion- 23 mm heel 19 mm

Trying to follow some sage, ancient advice

2011-10-03T12:18:00.001-04:00

Live sensibly-among a thousand people only one dies a natural death, the rest succumb to irrational modes of living. Maimonides 1135-1204 Today I went for my physical and my doctor gave me his business card about half way through the visit and ask me to look at the back of the card. This saying was on the back. A little running, decent sleep, a few beers-trying to follow the sage advice

Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 2011 Trail Race-Helicopter Flyovers

2011-09-01T09:41:00.000-04:00

Incredible helicopter video of the 2011 UTMB race and alpine scenery at last weekend's Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, a 100 mile plus mountain race and the unofficial World Series of ultras. Notice the "casual" pace of the leaders and eventual winner Kilian Joret in white at the beginning of the clip. Kilian won in 20:39 hours looping the Mont Blanc in horrendous conditions (snow, wind, rain)

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2011: Saucony Drops... Heels

2011-08-29T10:33:00.002-04:00

Fresh on the heels of the success of the 4mm heel to toe drop in its minimal road Kinvara and trail Peregrine shoes, Saucony is dropping the heels of most of its "franchise" models which will be on the market late 2011, early 2012. The new road Triumph 9, Hurricane 14 and Guide 5 will all have an 8mm drop, down from 11 to 12 mm. The Ride and Omni will not be heel dropped this winter as they

Who Says Minimalist Running Shoes are New

2011-08-25T11:19:00.004-04:00

A couple of pictures from my high school days, circa 1974-1975. Mount Washington Road Race-Halfway House ( I am at right cheering something). Click to enlarge. The weather was so bad, the road so muddy, on Mt Washington that day that they stopped cars at the halfway house and we had to run down from the top in the storm. I was sporting Onitsuka Tiger Marathons, less than 1/2" of midsole and

Outdoor Retailer Summer 2011- Salomon Synapse Run your Hike, Hoka One One Stinson EVO Hybrid, Technica MAX trail runners and trekking boots.

2011-08-14T12:21:00.003-04:00

A quick introduction to some of the trail running innovations on display at the recent Outdoor Retailer Summer Market. Salomon Synapse Available Spring 2012 this 12 ounce $120 shoe recently took Jennifer Pharr-Davis through her 2200 mile, 46 day Appalachian Trail record. A record for this epic trail for anyone by almost 7 days! Salomon gave me a pair of Synapse to try. A full review will follow

Headed to Outdoor Retailer Summer Market

2011-08-05T14:24:00.000-04:00

Off to Salt Lake. I will be spending Saturday at the Outdoor Retailer summer show, largely products which will show up at retailers Spring 2012. Human powered outdoor sports. All the gear, gadgets, shoes and apparel Most running companies are there too and this past winter I got some near scoops on among others the Saucony Peregrine and Hattori and the Hoka One Bondi. I will be looking for

New Ways to Beat the Heat-CoolCore Sports Fabrics

2011-08-05T12:00:00.003-04:00

A Portsmouth NH start up: CoolCore is introducing fabrics which claim to cool your core as you exercise. I have used a Craft T-shirt which makes some of the same claims and found it to be my day in day out go to shirt for our recent Chamonix to Zermatt trek. Call it a good micro climate but no discernable cooling effect. I recently purchased a CoolCore bandana and put it to the test. The

Trip down my high school running lane-wonderful post by my team mate Ed Ernst

2011-08-05T11:08:00.006-04:00

How much Running is Enough. Great blog post by high school cross country team mate Ed Ernst. The post focuses on how much mileage high school athletes should really do. I am the high mileage guy in the post. I always ran far more than my team mates in the summer and tended to peak earlier in the season. I was always race ready no matter the distance, even ran a 2:37 marathon at 17 and this before

Nike+ SportsWatch GPS does different continents just fine

2011-07-14T08:44:00.000-04:00

I was recently in Switzerland hiking Chamonix to Zermatt on the Walkers' Haute Route. Pictures of our trip here. While in Geneva I took my Nike+SportsWatch GPS for a run. I had not synched it to the computer since leaving the US. Signal was acquired in about 10 seconds and the run was tracked perfectly. Once back at the computer the run uploaded and mapped just fine. So, take your Nike+

Back from our Chamonix Zermatt trek on the Walkers' Haute Route across the Swiss Ailps

2011-07-13T15:39:00.008-04:00

9 Days. 12 passes. 100 miles or so. 34,000 vertical feet. We had a great time and found new friends and fine food all along this incredible trail from Chamonix to Zermatt. A detailed trip and gear performance report in a few. In the meantime some pictures. At the start at the Col de Balme near Chamonix Some nasty boulder fields on this trek. Follow the white and red blazes Grande

Time for the Mount Washington NH Road Race

2011-06-14T14:23:00.056-04:00

Getting nervous for the classic "Only One Hill" race up Mount Washington this Saturday. This will be my 5th or 6th time running up the Rock Pile: 7.6 miles and 4,650 feet of unrelenting average 12% grade climb to the clouds. It's only a 6280 foot mountain, right., but known for "The World's Worst Weather". My last run up was in 2007. My first 3 back were back in the 1970's when I won the junior

Time to Hike: Gear for Chamonix to Zermatt on Walker's Haute Route

2011-06-14T09:05:00.064-04:00

We are off in a week or so for our annual "big" hike. This year we are tackling the Walker's Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. Longer, higher,and tougher than the Tour du Mont Blanc which we did last year. On the menu: 180 km (112 miles) and 12,000 meters (39,000 feet) of climbing. Of course incredible scenery. As with the Tour du Mont Blanc we will stay in a combination of mountain huts and

Nike+SportsWatch GPS Firmware Update: Average Pace!, Improved Instant Pace and Shoe Sensor Calibration

2011-05-27T21:25:00.004-04:00

When I updated my Nike+SportsWatch GPS last week I received the following details for a firmware update: Firmware Update 1.0.11 This update is required for all users of the Nike+ SportWatch GPS and includes the following: • Adds average pace metric • Improves instantaneous pace calculation when running with GPS and the Nike+ shoe sensor • Improves auto-calibration of the Nike+ shoe sensor •

The only Peregrines on the trail today were the Saucony kind but I did see 2 great blue herons, 5 beaver dams, a huge goose, 1 runner, and 2 walkers

2011-05-04T16:56:00.002-04:00

Took a drive over the Newmarket NH to run the Sweet Trail, a new out and back trail of about 8.5 miles. Named after donors it is Sweet indeed. Through magnificent forests lined with old stone walls. By at least 6 glacial and beaver created ponds and over ancient stone bridges I saw 2 giant blue herons take flight, a very noisy goose, heard lots of other birds, and saw only a few other

Review: Nimble Saucony ProGrid Peregrine Trail Runner is also a Mighty Fine Road Runner

2011-05-01T16:50:00.008-04:00

I have had 2 pairs of the Saucony ProGrid Kinvara and have liked their low (4mm) heel to toe drop and light weight. My only complaints has been that the combination of light soft, foam and minimal upper makes the Kinvara somewhat mushy and sloppy for me. Saucony Peregrine I saw the Saucony ProGrid Peregrine at Outdoor Retailer this winter. Saucony offered to send me a review pair. I sensed

SwiftWick does a Great Deed for the People of Japan-Donating 14,642 Pairs of Socks

2011-04-28T14:43:00.000-04:00

Swiftwick one my favorite light compression sock and arm warmer companies did something wonderful for the people of Japan. They recently donated 14,462 pairs of high performance Vibe socks worth $150,000 to the people of Japan to help with the recovery. Press release is here. Knowing the day in day out comfort of Swiftwick socks in all conditions this gift will be much appreciated by the people