Running Hills and eating good food w/TPG

Turns out this tpg crowd can fire up some good grub and Max cooked up enough burgers, dogs, and gardenburgers to send all home happy and full. It was a great turnout (40 for the workout, and a few more for the bbq), a solid hill workout, and really nice to hang a bit with this good group of people. Thanks to Max for coordinating and cooking, Bart at Rebound Perfomance Lab for hosting, and everyone else for bringing all the good food. Seems like we'll have to do that again sometime! Cheers-Teague

Born To Run

I just finished reading Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. I actually met Christopher in Salt Lake a couple weeks ago and got the chance to talk to him a little about the book and footwear and Vibram Fivefingers. He's an interesting guy and its a great book. I'd even call it a bit of a page turner. Much of the book focuses on the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico and some unlikely interactions with ultra running characters including Scott Jurek, Jenn Shelton and Billy Barnett. Jenn and Billy spent a year or so in Bend not too long ago. Jenn actually still owes me a half rack of beer (she bet me on one of our noon runs that Obama would select Clinton as his running mate). I'm pretty sure she'll never pay up.

Born To Run isn't especially flattering of the specialty running business but it raises some great questions. I really enjoyed all the talk of over-supportive shoes and barefoot running and the like. These are ideas we've batted around at the FootZone for years now so it doesn't feel very challenging. Many of these concepts have influenced the way shoes are made, and the way we sell shoes, for several years. It's also part of the reason we play with minimalist shoes like Inov-8 and ultimately, 5 fingers. I'm convinced that we will all benefit from strengthing our feet, but equally sure that it requires baby steps. I'd even say that the running industry (or at least some of the larger shoe manufacturers) have known for years that you can't just lock people up in the most stable shoe without eventually creating other problems. But we also see on a daily basis that stability will help runners avoid many common overuse injuries. Like so many things, there's a balance. At the shop we know our job is to meet people where they are at, provide them with good information, and get them into footwear that will work. I do think the running industry will continue to evolve. Shoe heights will continue to come down and shoes will focus less on stability and more on balance. I'd also bet that almost all of us will still wear running shoes. I've run some in my Five Fingers and I don't see them replacing my running shoes.

Regardless, for a shoe geek like me who's spent the last 20 years fascinated by running shoes and what works best for people, I love the conversation. It will hopefully all just make us healthier. Cheers-Teague

Dirty 2nd Half Course Map

Here is a link to the course map of the Dirty Second Half... or at least most of it. I will make it 13.1 by raceday so don't think you are getting a free half mile suckas!
If you do go run it please be respectful of the fact the the Seventh Mountain Resort is trying to run a business and they do own some of the land the course is on so if they are using if for any reason just try to minimize our impact on their daily operations. My suggestion is if it is packed park at the Road 41 entrance and link up with the course from the south side of the resort.
I am working on some preview training runs so keep an eye out on this blog for details.

Thanks,
dave
Course Map

Chance to be part of American Record bid.

Rare opportunity tonight to help out Suzi MacLeod AND be part of her bid for an American Record in the 800 for 75-79 age group. She just needs some folks to show up and at least start to give it legitimacy (preferably women). Nothing fancy here, just show up for the all comers meet at 5:30 at Summit High School. Run any and all events you want but at least toe the line with Suzi in the 800. Good Luck Suzi! Cheers-Teague

Doubling up at Crater Lake and Haulin A.

Several folks doubled up this past weekend with runs at two tough events over the weekend. I caught this foursome as they we're testing a new recovery drink from Starbucks, resting up from various distances at Crater Lake in the morning, and picking up their packets for the Haulin Aspen Half. This wasn't the first time I've felt like a bit of a slacker just running around the FZ fitting shoes. Left to Right: Mark Koopman, Jennefer Lloyd, Tonya Koopman, Tonya Koopman and Kathy Lein. Nice work-Teague

The big V for Jeff C

That would be V as in Victory. Congrats to Jeff Caba for his win at Haulin A Marathon today. Beautiful morning for running and looks like he made the most of it. Santi took honors in another local half marathon and Andy Martin was close on his heels. I think Santi's getting all his speed from the Tuesday night workout (actually, he was really fast before he started coming out to those). But at least it's not slowing him down any. Good job to all those who took on that beautiful but challenging course. Marathon Results Half Marathon Results

Cascade Lakes Relay

We we're fortunate enough here at the FootZone to be involved in a couple teams at the Cascade Lakes Relay this past weekend. Melanie and Tonya ran on the "In the Zone" team and I ran with the FootZone/Rebound team. I'm trying to get Melanie or Tonya to post about there experience so hopefully you'll see that soon.

In all fairness, the team I ran with is really Jeff and Katie's team with a bunch of really good people and friends who just so happen to be exceptional runners (a few of us on the team wouldn't include ourselves in that e.r. category, but loved being involved anyway). On the ladies side (and in van #2) was Katie Caba, Jill Gozdowski, Ahna Jura, Laura Fritz, Jen Sventek and Cindy Brennan. Van #1 included Jeff Caba, Andy Martin, Michael Dennis, Ryan Rein (Katie's Brother), James Nelson and myself. Most of the team ran together last year but injury or other commitments added James, Cindy and myself this year.

The boys ran first starting at 11:30am and Friday was hot. We were thankful for some great comic relief along the way. First was a 62 yr old retired nurse who developed a persistant fondness for one of our runners. Second were some exceptional volunteers who immediately upon our arrival at one of the exchanges began fanning James and Andy with huge paddles and followed them around with umbrellas to provide shade. Everybody ran great, but there was some suffering going on between Diamond Lake and Beaver Marsh. The lasting image for me was patting James on the back after his ultra exposed, 7ish mile leg and realized that he was so cooked that he was no longer sweating. I actually had a couple drops of moisture and some shade on my leg 2+ hrs later, and it still might have been the least fun 5.5 miles I've ever run. We weren't sad to hand off to the more than capable ladies van to run the road on into Silver Lake.

The middle of the night legs were wonderful if for no other reason than it was so cool by comparison. Things get a little blurry the farther we went into the night but it was spectacular to watch the guys clicking off such fast legs. We handed off to the gals again around 1:30 in the morning and got to catch up with the ladies a bit before driving off to the next van exchange and hopefully some sleep. The first 7 miles of that drive was the leg Jill just started running and it was uphill and lookeded like it might never end. We found out later that she rocked it (no suprise). We managed a whopping 1:15 of sleep before the call came at 4 am that we'd be moving again.

The unquestionable highlight of our 3rd round in the boys van (other than Andy and Jeff continuely churning out 6 minute miles) was Michael in the costume leg. If anyone thinks they saw an under-clothed, caped figure on the Cascade Lakes Highway in the early hours Saturday, it wasn't a dream. James gutted out a tough uphill leg with a bum hamstring for his third leg and by 8am on Saturday we'd handed off to the women. That left us to follow along and watch them roll back into Bend. That was a treat since we hadn't really seen them much the rest of the run. Jen was amazing climbing the Sparks Lake grade and all the way to Dutchman. Laura hammered down from Dutchman then back up to the gravel pit (ouch) then down to Swampy. Katie Caba, in case you didn't know, is fast, even after no sleep and 2 other runs in the past 15 hours. Cindy looked smooth and strong down to the INN and Ahna smoked a hot leg to the finish.

This was humbling, exhausting and incredibly fun. What really makes the event is the comraderie you can only get after more than 24 hours in a smelly van with your sleep deprived cohorts. It was an honor to run with these guys and gals and kind of them to fly the FZ colors!

Cheers-Teague