Archive for running
Vasque Blur SL Trail Running Shoe Review
Posted by: | CommentsThe Vasque Blur is real trail running shoe. I have been wearing what I call “fake” trail running shoes for years. Sorry Nike, but I gotta call it like it is.
This weekend I snatched up a pair of Vasque Blur SL trail running shoes. I needed a pair of shoes that were going to keep the rocks out of my shoes and sharp stones from cutting into my heals. I have shied away from “real” trail running shoes for years because most of the time the shoes felt like I was running on boards. Additionally, they were about a half pound heavier.
I ran a nice 3 hour trail run this weekend and my feet were sore from rock bruises. My running buddy Steve ran through the rocks like a mountain goat. He suggested that I try out the Vasque Blur. Years ago, I had tried so many different trail running shoes and hated them all. However, Steve was not having issues like I was having with the rocks.
I swallowed my pride and made the drive to REI to try on the Vasque Blur. With me, I know within a few seconds if I am going to like the running shoes or not. If they do not feel good when I put them on, then they never will feel good. The Blur felt great immediately. I wore them at home in the evening and then to work the following day. All systems go!
My first run with the Vasque Blur was great. I headed to the roughest trail around-the rail road tracks that have sharp stones packed to support the rail road bed. I did not have to “tip toe through tulips” when crossing the tracks. These shoes protected my feet. Picked my favorite week day running trail that borders Alameda Creek in Fremont. I ran an hour loap on a crushed gravel bicycle trail. The shoes did not feel much different than any of my street running shoes. No blisters or hot spots. The Vasque Blur are keepers.
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| Vasque Men's Blur SL Trail Running Shoe,Bundgee Cord Picante,12 M | |||||||||||||||
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Spring Time Trail Run To Mt. Allison
Posted by: | CommentsLast night I made sure that I packed up all my trail running gear so I could hop out of bed and hit the trail. I was in bed by 930 PM. I woke up without an alarm at 430 AM`. Read More→
Life Time Fitness
Posted by: | CommentsI can remember vividly the the day that my father gave me my first ice skates. They were a cheap pair of strap-on plastic skates with 2 blades on each skate. Our family skated on a a frozen pond in a vacant field in Minnetonka. This marked the starting point of my craze for fitness. My father quickly followed up with a pair of real leather hockey skates that I could lace up.
When the ice skating season was over and it finally turned warm in Minnesota, my father gave me a used green bicycle with a fake crank up motor mounted on the handle bars that made a vrrrrooom noises when I pulled it. I beat on this bicycle so hard that Dad bought me a Schwinn Sting Ray bicycle to withstand the punishment that I gave it.
I don’t think my father understood exactly what he was doing. I was a kid and he was making sure that I was having fun. As I got older, my addiction to being active increased. I played baseball, hockey, football, track, broom ball, basketball, cross country, wrestling, and cross country skiing. I was in excellent shape without ever having to “work out”. Exercise seemed so boring and foreign to me. I heard grown ups talking about it and I vowed to never participate in it.
My point is that staying in shape should be fun. I avoid painful activities at all cost. If a person detests going to the gym, he will stop going even if he has paid a few thousand dollars for a membership. I dare you to look at attendance rosters at your gym on January 1 and July 1. I bet the attrition rate is greater than 50%. The clubs bank on this and hope that you stop coming (as long as you keep on paying).
I have 3 fitness activities that I absolutely enjoy. My first love is long distance bicycle riding, followed by in-line skating, and running. I tend to run more than all the others combined because I can run just about any where.
Pick a fitness routine that you enjoy and you are guaranteed to stay in shape. Additionally, it must be convenient and readily accessible. This is your recipe for success to life time fitness.
If you enjoyed this and would like to see more fitness articles, please leave a comment.
Run To Carver Park
Posted by: | CommentsWithin 10 minutes I was on the crushed limestone trail that is built on an rail road bed. It’s a killer trail. No cars and whole lot birds. I saw a few red cardinals. Three white tail deer darted ahead of me.
I made my first stop at the Tamarack Lake Bridge. It’s an old wooden bridge. I can hear the whistle blowing from days gone by. Only 25 minutes had gone by. I felt like I was 100 years back in time.
I was running around the lakes at Carver Park within 35 minutes. I darted through the woods where I usually get tormented by biting deer flies. I out smarted them this morning because they do not come out for another 3 months.
My 90 minute run was a slice of heaven for me. I had time to reflect my thoughts of my brother Mike’s recent death. I remembered that from dust we come and dust we return. Life is lived in cycles. Mike’s cycle was less than most and greater than some. We don’t know the hour or the day. Because of this, I choose to live like there is no tomorrow.
Trail Run in The Dirt to Sunol
Posted by: | CommentsOn Saturday mornings, I usually wake up before my alarm goes off at 4:30 AM because I am so excited to go on my weekend trail run. This morning promptly at 4:25 AM, I woke up feeling very rested and ready to run. I had everything packed up last night except for my camera. I ate a good size bowl of super porridge(millet, oats, rye, amaranth, quinoa, millet,etc) with cultured kifer milk and raisins and a large mug of jasmine green tea.
We had 2 new editions to our running group this morning, Sue Corrie & her dog Rio. She had 1 or 2 cancellations and so did I. It was Sue, Andria, and myself. I changed the route slightly to accommodate Rio. Dogs really don’t like running on a paved road for 4 miles. Neither do I! After approximately 2.5 miles, we hopped the fence and were trail bound in the dirt to Sunol!
It was a clear starry night. Temperature was about 45 degrees. Perfect! We started out with flash lights on and shucked them after a mile. When we hit the trail everything was so green. It was like being in the dales in Ireland. No, I have never been there. It’s my blog so I can write and fake it if I have to. We ran to the top of Mission Peak and saw a spectaculiar sun rise. We did not linger as we were in the running mode.
When ever we get a new addition to our group, I am always leary. The person could either be really slow and mess up our pace or the person could be super fast and kill us! Sue was kind of like a Goldilocks girl. Just right! Andria and I not really training for anything, so we are very flexible. Sue is training for a what seemed like a half dozen races. Been there/done that with kids. God bless my wife for putting up with my 6 hour long training runs.
At the sign in gate to the Ohlone wildnerness we spotted a lone runner. Runners are rare at 6:30 AM anywhere. Practically non existent here. It was Steve Bradley! We ran with him to Sunol. Steve and Sue had never met. Their only connection is an old baby jogger that I gave to Sue 4 years ago. Steve gave it me 8 years ago and I needed to get rid of it. I suggested they become friend on Facebook a few days ago without realizing the baby jogger connection. They live a few streets away from each other in the Niles district of Fremont.
We reached Sunol in 2′15″. That was excellent considering that we ran Mission Peak before running down to Sunol. We took a nice long break and ate dried cherries,apricots, figs, cocoa nibs, nuts, and other running power food.
I have been running for 35 plus years. This may seem like a bragging moment-running is almost like walking now. Trail running seems effortless because we enjoy it so much. Don’t get me wrong, by the time we are finished, I am very tired. When I started ultra running 8 years ago, I would go home and go to bed after a 4 hour run. Now I go home and play floor hockey with kids and walk 3 miles with my wife.
After our 20 minute break at Sunol, we had the monster hill to climb. It’s approximately 1500 vertical feet to climb out of Sunol. I would be lieing if I told you that we ran the entire hill. We walked.
I am a die hard runner. However, I rarely talk about running. It’s kind of boring topic. Running is a life experience. Each run is different and somewhat philosophical. If I read someone’s blog about how many hill repeats, track work outs, and sprint works, I would be so bored. To each their own. I run the trails to see the beauty of God’s creation. I love the ever changing weather patterns. I get to see deer, cattle, goats, wild turkey, hawks, and occasionally a mountain lion.
Today was very special because I got to run with Andria and Sue. Running is not about running. It’s not glamorous. You stink when you are done. Your muscles get sore. Most of the time you do it alone.
Hilll Run out in the Country
Posted by: | CommentsThis morning I was looking forward to running with my 2 running partners Andria and Nadia. Princess Nga is a fair weather runner and will stay inside even if some morning fogs hits her in the face. It rained on and off all day yesterday. The typical pattern here in the Bay Area is a break in storm patterns early in the morning before sunrise. I am no weather expert. It’s a typical phenomena that I have been experiencing for years. This morning I peeked out my door at 530 AM and it I could see thin clouds and stars.
I called Andria at 600 AM to inform her that I was running a little late. She was still at home in San Francisco. Nadia had called her at 5 AM and said that it was raining. It may have been a light drizzle. By the time that I hit the road it was absolutely beautiful. My rule for me is that I always show up. I have never canceled on a run. Runners are weird. It’s just so addicting!
I changed my running plans on the fly and ran up Morrison Canyon road into the rural ranch country. The sun was just rising over the distant green mountians. Everything had a fresh look. The ground looked like it was steaming as the sun shined through the low ground fog. I ran past beat up old farm shacks from days gone by. One old building had a patchwork of green moss growing on the side. I wanted photos but could not find my large running back pack in the dark before I departed.
I saw my 4 deer running on the hill side. A flock of wild turkey were out on what looked like a family hike. The cattle were grazing lazily on the hills. It looked so peaceful. Actually, it was peaceful. It hardly felt like I had run at all by the time that I returned home in 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Running is so much more enjoyable when you a great roads with plenty of scenery to look at. When ever I travel in the country, outside the country, or visit friends, I always am exploring for new roads to run on. I have been running for 35 years and it seems like it just gets better!
Running with the Stars
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever watched Dancing with the Stars? I have to admit that I have been forced to watch it several times with my wife. I watched the episodes with Kristy Yamaguchi so it was not all bad. This morning I had a chance to run with the stars. No, Kristy nor anybody famous that I know of were running on the trail. I am talking about the real stars.
It was a clear, cloudless, starry night. We hit the trail at 5 AM. While ascending the first hill, we were greeted with a falling star. I know that a shooting star is not really a star at all. A “falling star” or a “shooting star” has nothing at all to do with a star! “These amazing streaks of light you can sometimes see in the night sky are caused by tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids falling into the Earth’s atmosphere and burning up. The short-lived trail of light the burning meteoroid produces is called a meteor”. (This is from NASA)
Who cares as long as what we saw were natural fire works. It’s some rocking burning up as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere.
As long as we continued to look up into the sky, we could see the shooting stars. It must have been a combination of no moon and a meteorite belt that we were experiencing. I saw no less than 15 shooting stars. One even appeared to explode. As night gave way to dawn, the fireworks show ended.
Up near Mission Peak, the ground was frosty white. It was a picture perfect winter day. Even if it had been rainy, the east bay hills always manage to take my breath away. The sun rise was amazing over the San Francisco Bay Area. The City (San Francisco) had a yellow glow to it as the morning rays descended over it. Visibility was at least 60 miles. Cold nights tend to open visibility possibilities. Mt. Tam loomed ominously in the distance like a sleeping bear.
This mornings run included Dan L., Nadia C., and Andria H.. We had only one cancellation. There were no stars in our group. All of us run because we love to run. Even more important than the run is the time spent together. It’s a special slice of time for all of us to run and let loose. We leave the fast pace of Silicon Valley in another compartment. It’s not like we can leave it behind. It’s more like putting it away in the closet for a while. It’s always there. But so is our run!
