Monkey Shake Winner; GoLite Spring Blowout Sale; Soft Star "Princess" RunAmocs; Random Shots of Beauty

A few business notes of interest before our customary weekend RSOB ..

First, let's announce our Monkey Shake winner!  Mike Dixon: e-mail me your contact info - you've won!  In case anyone's curious, Mike's winning entry was the famous "I'll stir fry you in my wok!" line from the classic "Intergalactic" - which, just as a final MCA tribute, I've decide to embed below.  Interestingly, considering that this is a running blog, nobody picked the "I run the marathon to the very last mile" line from the same song.  Anyway, congrats to Mike, and thanks to everyone else who entered - that one was kind of fun.


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I used to do a number of product reviews for GoLite - but that stopped roughly one year ago as the company laid the groundwork for a somewhat radical new business model.  Basically, they're dramatically downsizing their marketing and completely eliminating their relationships with third party outdoor retailers.

The upside of this from a customer's standpoint is that their product margins aren't impacted by those additional costs, so they pass the savings - in many cases, up to 50% of the previous MSRP - on to customers via direct website sales at GoLite.com.  It's a model that's driven by discounts and word of mouth marketing, and depends upon returning customers who have strong loyalty for the brand.

Of course, the model won't work unless the products are high quality - and in the case of GoLite, that's exactly what they offer.  Their Rush pack is still my favorite for day hiking, and their 9" Mesa Trail shorts are a top choice for chilly winter mornings that aren't quite cold enough for tights.   And right now you can get those items as well as anything else at the GoLite site at deep discounts while the company blows out their Spring 2012 inventory - for example, the Rush pack I linked above is only $45, and the Mesa shorts are $22.50.  Click here to check out the sale, and it will be interesting to see how GoLite's new business model fares in the months and years to come.

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I'm not exactly sure whether this next item pertains to any of my readers, but you never know, so here goes: Soft Star shoes is now able to make shiny, starry varieties of your running moccasins if that's something you're into.

Black suede with white stars (middle), cream leather with gold stars (right); photo from Soft Star website

The company has recently sourced some decorative suede hides with star patterns that can be used for adult RunAmocs.  They also have a cream and gold star leather that can be used for decorative accents.  So if you want to get carried away with shiny leather and starry accents, you could potentially create a spectacularly princess-y version of the RunAmoc Dash like this one:

Like I said, I'm not sure who might bite on this one, but hey - feel free to go wild.

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Finally, out Random Shot of Beauty is leftover from my Pebble Beach trail run report.  It's hard to see at first, because the subject is camouflaged so well among the trees and brush - but if you click to enlarge, you'll see her in there:

That's another thing Pebble Beach is known for: a whole lot of native deer.  Sometimes I wonder if they realize what a remarkable place they happen to inhabit -  or at least on some level understand that they contribute to making the place more remarkable for me.  I doubt it, but I hope I'm wrong.


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Beastie Boys, "Intergalactic" (click to play):

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The MCA Memorial Monkey Shake Promotion and 30-Bag Giveaway!

"Monkey tastes def when you pour it on ice -

Come on y'all it's time to get nice ... "

- Beastie Boys, "Brass Monkey" (video after post)

Two quite unrelated topics today - one sad, one happy - that I'll try to combine in some sensible manner by the time we're done ...

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First, the sad part, which is belated news from earlier his month:  RIP, Adam Yauch.  And most likely, RIP Beastie Boys.  I'm almost ashamed to admit how profoundly sorrowful I was to hear about MCA's passing, but I can't tell you how many hours I spent memorizing lyrics from Licensed To Ill, or how many times the Beasties' distinctive combination of humor and hip-hop brought a smile to my face in the years since their debut album.

Anybody remember the flip side of this cover?

Intellectually, it doesn't make sense that I'd be sad about a rap singer who died too soon - an occurrence that happens so often as to be cliché.  Perhaps there's something about being obsessed with a band at a formative age that makes the attachment more heartfelt than it would later in life; if that's the case, my 15-year-old self spinning Licensed to Ill over and over again would make me the perfect candidate. 

However, I think there's another element of Yauch's death that hits closer to home: mainly, he had become just a regular guy.  As he grew older, Yauch left the insane hip-hop miscreant persona of his youth behind, and became a family man concerned with providing for his loved ones and doing his part to serve the greater societal good.   And it wasn't a rap squabble that brought him down - it was cancer, which cuts the lives of most victims far too short, usually for no reason at all.  So maybe there was something in his transformation from basic idiot to respectable, vulnerable person that I identified with. 

Whatever the case, he'll definitely be missed.  Like a lemon without a lime, a lime without a lemon.

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On to our good news for the day, which is courtesy of the Monkey Shake company I've endorsed a few times in the past.  They have a cool promotion going on this month, and they're also offering a killer contest prize for one of my readers.

  

Here's the promotion, which we'll call the Tuesday Special: for the rest of the month May, if you buy any two items in the Monkey Shake store on a Tuesday, you'll get a third item for free.  All you have to do is put three items in your shopping cart, and if it's a Tuesday, the discount will automatically be applied.  

And if you'd rather take your chances with a contest entry, we've got a tempting one: this weekend, I'll award a huge 30-serving bag of Monkey Shake original mix to one lucky reader chosen from the comments section below. 

Monkey love!

The company was kind enough to provide me with one of these bags a few weeks back, and it's been one of my key refueling strategies during the high-volume training weeks of my early season ultras.  If there's a better post-20-miler recovery drink than Monkey Shake with yogurt, banana, frozen berries, honey, and orange juice, I haven't tasted it.  Like the Beasties said, Monkey tastes def when you pour it on ice ... or on frozen berries, as the case may be.

The ground rules for this one are that I'm making the contest entry process a Beastie Boys / MCA memorial.  To enter, leave your favorite Beastie Boys lyric in the box below - and you'll get two entries if it's a line by MCA.  I'll announce the winner next Saturday, May 19th - but remember to shop at the Monkey Shake store on Tuesdays throughout the month as well, because there's only one winner for this thing.

Special thanks to the Monkey Shake company for this contest, and good luck to everybody.  I think you know what time it is - it's time to get ill in the comments!

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Beastie Boys, "Brass Monkey" (click to play):

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The Barefoot Files: Training Update #4

"Let it flow, let yourself go -

Slow and low, that is the tempo."
- Beastie Boys, "Slow and Low" (video after post)

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An old-school shout out seems appropriate for the current barefoot report, which features low mileage and very slow speeds. This two-week period was also a classic “one step back, two steps forward” phase for me. The steps back were partially logistical, and partly stupidical (yes, I just made that word up – but trust me, it fits), while the steps forward moved me into some uncharted waters as far as time and distance are concerned.

And I’m happy to say that after nine weeks of dedicated training, I’ve finally progressed beyond the level of a 7-year old; more on that later. For now, let’s get to the numbers. Also, if you missed them …

Update #1 is here

Update #2 is here.

Update #3 is here.

These updates probably deserve their own sidebar by now – I’ll add that to my list of things to do this month.

Week 8: 2 barefoot runs, 1 minimal footwear run

Barefoot:

• 24 min on asphalt
• 20 min on top of Half Dome

Minimal footwear:

• 45 min w/ Feelmax Osma

This was the week of my planned Half Dome run, so I knew going in that most of my miles would be done in shoes, and the barefoot thing would have to take a backseat for a while – that’s the logistical part.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the barefoot bug out of my system, so on the Monday holiday, after doing some yardwork and going for a short bike ride with my son, I ditched my shoes and headed out for a late-afternoon run on my neighborhood streets.

More specifically, it was late afternoon on a hot summer day - when it was over 90 degrees outside, and the asphalt had been simmering in the sun for several hours prior to my arrival. Needless to say, this wasn’t the wisest choice I’ve ever made.

Not quite like Badwater, but far too hot for my tender soles

The strange part was, for the first few minutes, the discomfort on the bottom of my feet didn’t feel remarkably different than it normally does when I’m dealing with the rough asphalt of my neighborhood streets. After about 10 minutes, however, the situation became clear: the asphalt was giving me heat blisters on the underside of my feet, and I needed to shut the workout down. Trouble was, I had headed out in a direct beeline from my house – so there weren’t any shortcuts home aside from retracing my steps. By the time I returned, I had some decent sized blisters on my big toes and across the soles of my feet, with only days before I was scheduled to head off to Yosemite. Does my stupidical word make sense now?

(And don’t worry, I won’t post any closeup blister pictures here - but feel free to enlarge the final photo if you're in the mood for something a little bit graphic.)

The next morning, I jogged around in regular shoes (well, not exactly regular: the Newton Gravity, which I’ll review next week) for a while, and used my Feelmax shoes the day after that, and by the time we started our 18-mile adventure up and down Half Dome, I was pretty much recovered – in fact, I was able to kick my shoes off on top of the rock and jog around up there for a good 20 minutes or so.

Barefoot and happy on top of the world

Seriously – if there’s any cooler feeling than bouncing around barefoot on top of one of the most beautiful, distinctive mountains in the world, on the most perfect kind of day imaginable, I’d love to know about it. Because I’m still wondering how I’ll ever top that particular experience.


Week 9: 3 barefoot runs, 2 minimal footwear runs

Barefoot:

• 34 minutes, 50 seconds on asphalt
• 25 minutes on asphalt
• 35 minutes on mixed asphalt/grass/dirt

Minimal footwear:

• 45 min w/ Feelmax Osma
• 90 min w/ Vibram FiveFingers

A brief note about the FiveFingers: this was my longest trail run to date in them, and at the time, I felt like I could have kept right on going … but afterwards, I was much more sore than usual after a typical 90-minute trail run. I love wearing them so much that I’m probably pushing beyond the recommended buildup period for your body to get accustomed to the changes, but I don’t really care. Call me impetuous.

As for the barefoot exploits: after a couple of days recovering from the Half Dome run, I climbed back on the horse in pretty good style. This week marked a key transition point, in that my barefoot runs have become long enough in duration to stand alone, as opposed to tagging a few extra minutes onto the end of shod workouts. It’s a good news/bad news situation: it’s great to know that my asphalt tolerance is in the 30-45 minute range, but I’m still moving at such a snail’s pace that I’m uncertain whether I’m getting any cardiovascular benefit or caloric burn from these outings. And since they’re now taking the place of my regular runs, my overall weekly mileage is trending steadily downward.

(Translation: I’m getting fat and slow. Thank goodness it’s the off-season.)

Here’s a good example of what I mean: notice that one of the entries above doesn’t say “35 minutes”, but rather “34 minutes, 50 seconds” – that’s because I decided to actually time myself on a measured course to get a realistic assessment of how quickly I could move with an honest effort.

After my first asphalt 5K: the white spots don't hurt nearly as bad as they look.

I chose a completely flat 5K course that I ran more than three years ago with my son, who was 7 at the time. When he and I did the race together, he was still in the porta-potty at the starting gun, took several walking breaks, and was trading places with a potential Biggest Loser contestant in the final mile … and he completed the course in 37 minutes. Alongside him, it barely felt like exercise to me; I think I wore a warmup jacket for the entire race.

So obviously, it was unfathomable to imagine that I would ever clock a similar time while racing on my own someday – but that’s almost precisely what happened when I tried the course barefoot. Fortunately, my clock time put me just a shade of my son’s age 7 posting … and the terrible part is, I had an actual sense of accomplishment about it afterwards.

I mentioned last time how frustrating the idea of running slowly was, but I feel like I’m finally starting to have some acceptance of that fact, at least for the time being. Slow and low's going to be my theme song for a while - and rather than drive myself crazy with frustration, I might as well just accept it. Perhaps that’s the most noticeable change this barefoot experiment has affected thus far: it’s changed my expectations so completely that I’m gloating over running faster than a 7-year-old.

Whether that represents progress is a little difficult to say.

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This song is too old for a video, so you're just stuck with the iconic Licensed to Ill album cover while tripping down rap's memory lane. Quick question about the Beastie Boys: If someone had told you in 1986 that a group of three white Jewish boys would have a 25-year, multi-platinum career in the rap music industry, would you have believed him? Me neither - but I'm sure glad they did.

Beastie Boys, "Slow and Low" (click to play):

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