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

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

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.

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

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

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

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