Before tonight's new post, a separate announcement: Oklahoma, you've got until 5PM PST Thursday to e-mail me your address, otherwise I'm picking another winner for the seasonal CLIF bars.
Nothing else to see here, folks. Move along please.
I think it’s safe to say that barefooters are becoming more recognized in the running community, even if we’re still regarded as the weird nonconformists of the family. However, a couple of years ago it was considered complete lunacy by mainstream observers, which caused barefoot practitioners to seek security in each other’s company, often through online forums.
The most popular of these was the Runner's World barefoot forum, which is where I turned when starting down the road (so to speak) of my own barefoot journey. Like any forum, members came and went, and it was often hard to discern meaningful information amongst the chatter, but there were a few people who emerged as reliable sources of in-depth, practical and effective advice about starting as a barefoot runner. One of those people was Jason Robillard.
Jason was the author of several “start here” threads with comprehensive information to frequently asked questions about getting started as a barefoot runner. He also teaches barefoot running clinics in and around his Michigan hometown. When the volume of inquiries he received increased, and the level of detail needed for proper answers expanded, he began communicating similar information through his Barefoot Running University website, and eventually through The Barefoot Running Book.
Now in its second edition, The Barefoot Running Book is basically a very long “start here” thread for someone who has never run a step in his life, someone who has never cast off his shoes in public, or anybody who has never done either. Jason takes you by the hand and explains in great detail nearly every consideration of becoming a barefoot runner.
His approach is extremely methodical, which can be a plus or a drawback, depending on your point of view. My own experience with starting barefoot running was pretty simple – I just took off my shoes and tried it one day. Jason takes beginners through a veeeeeery gradual buildup, with a whole series of “pre-running” activities such as foot exercises, deep breathing awareness, wall drills, and walking in place. If you’re somebody who likes to read step by step specifics in the instruction manual before trying your new camera or smartphone, you’ll really love his approach; if you’re someone who just turns the gadget on and figures it out on the fly, you can probably skip a few of these early lessons. (Yes, I’m in the latter group.)
I did find two points of instruction that were extremely helpful for me: the idea of a “foot kiss” on the ground instead of foot strike - or visualizing a very gentle touchdown and immediate liftoff of each step - and focusing on increased cadence to improve running speed. This second item was of particular interest for me, as I’ve been experimenting lately with improving my baseline speed in minimalist footwear (separate post coming later), a process that has been very frustrating at times. Keeping these two thoughts in mind seemed to help me through some of my recent speed workouts.
One of the things I appreciate most about Jason’s instruction is how reasonable he seems to be in the context of the whole “barefoot or minimalist or shod?” debate. By now we’re probably all aware that there are some crazies on either side of this issue who have no tolerance for anyone who differs with them: barefooters who will scream at you for even mentioning Vibrams, or shod runners who call you a lunatic for following the “fad” of downsizing your footwear. (It gets even crazier: even among barefoot purists, there’s debate over which method of running is correct – Chi, Pose, Evolution, Alexander and so on. You wouldn’t believe some of the nuances people go to war over sometimes.)
Thankfully, Jason recognizes that what works best for one person might not be best for another. He doesn’t preach adherence to one particular method, and expresses understanding for those who prefer minimalist running to going predominantly barefoot. He even concedes that for some people, there may be no reason to give up your shoes in the first place. I know this seems like common sense, but believe me, it’s a precious commodity among some barefoot advocates.
The second half of the book revisits Jason’s accomplishment of running a 100-miler, and dovetails into basic training advice for anyone who wants to get started in trail running and ultras. Then you’ll find an assortment of running and cross-training programs for various road or trail racing goals, and several excerpts from other prominent barefooters’ books and websites. As with the barefoot instruction, Jason’s overall training approach is very methodical and would be effective for a novice runner – but I have to say I found this portion of the book somewhat disjointed. It seemed like the barefoot topic was set aside in favor of a general training guide that wasn’t necessarily related.
I suspect (although I’m not certain) that this was the material added to the second edition, and it’s not grossly out of place – after all, ultrarunners and barefoot runners are actually kindred spirits in many ways. However, the second half of the book jumps from one topic to another rather incongruously, somewhat like walking through a nice little house that’s had a lot of new rooms built onto it here and there. No individual component is particularly objectionable, but the parts don’t flow very smoothly into a cohesive whole.
That’s a stylistic objection on my part – but on the whole, Jason has very sound, practical advice to share, and The Barefoot Running Book would be an effective tool for anyone interested in starting from scratch to become a barefoot runner. It is available from BarnesandNoble.com as well as directly from his website.
*Book provided by Jason Robillard
**See other book and gear reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.
On the off chance that someone doesn't find enough to read about me here on this website, you can check out an interview I did with Jason Fitzgerald for his Strength Running site. It's called "Pushing the Limits of Endurance: Conquering Fear and Ultramarathons" - pretty cool, huh?
Anyway, the interview is here, and Jason seems like a good guy with an interesting website. Head over there and give him some comment love, lest he thinks the "popular blogger" he interviewed is actually a lonely idiot.
OK, that's an awfully long title ... and as the name implies, it features a few odds and ends about the Soft Star company, who I haven’t written much about recently, but who still factors quite prominently in promoting happy feet for my entire family. It’s also a precursor to another product review later in the week – but for the time being, we start with the benefits of being a slacker.
* During the summer I helped promote Soft Star’s 25th Anniversary video contest, and hinted that I might take a stab at entering the contest myself, since the grand prize - one free pair of moccasins per year for 20 years – was totally sweet. Predictably, I procrastinated about getting around to actually putting something together, and ended up not entering.
Well, in hindsight I’m glad I didn’t – because there’s no WAY I could have topped the winning entry. Some dude and his expectant wife made this artsy/cool video that nicely captures Soft Star’s laid back vibe, and even features an original song. I may have a handful of gifts, but trust me - singing’s definitely not one of them. And there’s no way I could top the voter appeal of a soon-to-be-born baby, so it was clearly a great call by me to sit this one out.
Anyway, here’s the winning video:
"I'll Go Anywhere in My Soft Star Shoes" (click to play):
* Normally when I write about Soft Star nowadays, it’s to promote the RunAmoc, which remains my favorite everyday running shoe. However, attentive readers may recall that this whole relationship started with a pair of slippers – specifically, my grippy suede Roos, which I’ve worn for almost a year and a half now –in the summer as well as the winter - and which I love every bit as much today as the day we met. They’re super comfortable, but also durable and versatile enough to use as an everyday inside/outside slipper.
Grippy suede Roo after about 16 months of wearBefore I announce the winners of the CLIF Seasonal Bar contest, I wanted to share one more tidbit about this product that wasn't mentioned in my giveaway post - it highlights another one of CLIF's ongoing efforts to give back to the greater community around it.
With this year's batch of seasonal CLIF bars, the company is donating 1% of its net sales to the Winter Wildlands Alliance, an organization that works on behalf of skiers, snowboarders, snowshoers, and other cold-weather adventurers to address national issues which impact winter outdoor activity. So you're getting a great product for yourself, and contributing a little bit to a good cause.
Just remember that you'd better hurry up and buy them, because CLIF makes these bars in limited quantities, and they're usually gone by early December. And if your profile name is Justin Nunez, Oklahoma, or Pretend This is Real, e-mail me your address - you've won the giveaway! Thanks again to everyone who entered, and continued kudos to the CLIF company for making all this happen.
**
And now for this weekend's Random Shot of Beauty:
A pumpkin patch in a lettuce field - how very Salinas Valley.
A few administrative notes before today’s post ...
1) There’s still time to enter the CLIF seasonal bar giveaway contest – until 5PM on Friday the 29th – so if you haven’t done so already, get moving!
2) A handful of people have asked whether my book is available in digital format, and the answer is … Yes! It’s currently priced at $9.99 on Kindle, and $7.99 on Nook. Since these electronic versions are already available for download, they don’t have a pre-publication discount (Sorry). But those prices seem pretty fair, don’t they?
3) Today’s post is another Monterey County ghost story, similar to the one I wrote for Halloween last year. One week ago I reformatted that report for a newspaper column, and was delighted to receive an e-mail from a descendant of the family involved: a Salinas resident who invited me to her house to learn more about the people in the cemetery. I’ll probably take her up on it someday – but in the meantime, another story awaits …
**
“These are the bad lands, the worst place to fear –
Making place for the ones we left here -
They're calling, calling to say goodbye -
We’re dead in this ghost town -
You’d better let go so let go, let go of me … “
- Shiny Toy Guns, “Ghost Town” (video after post)
During all the years I’ve lived on the Monterey Peninsula, I’ve known the Fort Ord open space as the perfect location for multi-hour trail runs, as well as my son’s favorite area for riding mountain bikes. To generations of people who came before us, however, Fort Ord was something much more significant: one of the most popular and strategically critical military installations in the United States.
Established in 1917, its ideal climate and proximity to the ocean made it one of the most highly desired assignments in the Army, but Fort Ord was better known for its large expanses of land with a wide variety of terrain. It made an ideal training ground for field artillery exercises, and the base quickly became a final tune-up area for soldiers preparing for combat. At one time during the 1950s and 60s, Fort Ord had more than 50,000 troops living in its barracks.
The base was closed in 1994, but voices from its heyday still linger – especially if you follow a quiet trail beyond the eucalyptus trees towards a recreation area that used to be a gathering spot for the military families who enjoyed this location for decades.
Signs of it are hard to see at first – but as you get nearer, you encounter things that seem out of place on normal trails, such as random metal poles …
… or cages that seem designed to trap wild critters, or perhaps protect domestic ones.
Continuing on the trail, you begin to see signs that time has taken its toll here, past structures that have started to collapse …
… or are merely weathered and abandoned. On the perimeter of the recreation area, buildings like this seem to materialize right before your eyes in the middle of the brush as you round one turn or another.
In the main recreation area, several playground structures are packed more closely together – and it’s fairly clear that when this area was maintained and the weeds weren’t growing wild around everything, this would have been a pretty cool spot for kids to play …
… and if you slow your pace and quiet your breathing enough, you can almost hear the echoes of children's laughter in the breeze.
Even the military training structures would have been fair game, as this bunker seems like an awesome little fort for a bunch of young explorers who needed a spot to trade baseball cards, read comic books, or just hide from their parents for a while.
Chances are that Mom would be sitting on the benches under this gentle oak tree, whose branches reached like long protective arms to provide welcome shade on hot afternoons.
A short distance from the playground is some sort of public address tower, which might have been used to coordinate games for the men who hadn’t been shipped off to duty yet. It stands within bullhorn distance of a family picnic area …
… which is next to a basketball court that probably saw a ton of pickup action in the days before a dislodged roundabout was parked there …
… and across a field from a backstop that was likely the site of hard-fought weeknight softball games, or chaotic Saturday T-ball games.
From the top of a nearby bluff you see a sole remnant of the community that once thrived here: a military chapel that was the centerpiece of the barracks village. In the early 2000s, this area was sold to developers, and most of the barracks were bulldozed in anticipation of creating a subdivision of contemporary housing. Thankfully, the chapel was designated for preservation in the new development, which never materialized after the economy crashed.
Now all that’s left in the area thousands of families once called home are a handful of buildings that escaped the wrecking ball, and the trampled memories of all those who lived and played here many years ago.
When I run through these areas today, I find complete solitude, as it’s rare to encounter another living soul on these trails. Consequently, the spirits and voices of the past are more easily perceived, and my thoughts inevitably dwell on the people who used this area the same way I do: as a place to play, to revel in the beauty of the surroundings, and temporarily escape the stresses and rigors of daily life. I can virtually see them in my mind, and hear them saying goodbye as I make my way back through the eucalyptus trees.
From their standpoint, they don’t know if I’ll ever be back to visit again, but from my standpoint I’m certain. If only there were some way I could assure them.
**
As for the song: it’s probably one of my ten favorites from the past year … but I have to admit that the video is something of a stretch. It’s got a “Japanese manga meets the old-school Heavy Metal movie” vibe to it, and the result is probably a bit more corny than it was intended to be. But that’s just my opinion; maybe it works better for you.
Shiny Toy Guns, "Ghost Town" (click to play):
*See other photo tours under tab at top of page.
I know, I know … the title pretty much gives away the ending of this post, which is another cool CLIF giveaway - but like most things related to the CLIF company, there’s always a bigger and better story to tell. So along with the contest, you’re getting the story of my experience at the new CLIF Bar and Company headquarters open house in Emeryville, CA last week.
(And sure - you could just scroll down to the bottom and try your luck at winning the prize, but remember, karma doesn’t look kindly on that kind of thing.)
Earlier this spring, I compared my company HQ tour to Charlie Bucket visiting Willy Wonka’s fantastic and secretive chocolate factory: fantastic because of all the amazing things I saw there, and secretive due to the amount of information that I had to keep to myself. This time around, the fantastic was the same, but the secretive was different: basically, the whole point of us being here was to help publicize the new digs, which feature state of the art green construction and provide for even more company perks than its employees enjoyed in the previous office – which if you’ll recall, was quite a lot.
Needless to say, I was glad to be included – and with that, we’ll start the tour:
CLIF’s new 115,000-square-foot headquarters occupies a revitalized WWII-era manufacturing warehouse distinctive by its Bauhaus architectural details - or to the lesser trained eye, by all the CLIF vehicles parked in front of it. Best of all, our minivan spent two hours parked outside and didn’t get a parking ticket – which is more than I can say for our previous stop in Berkeley that afternoon, but that’s another story. We pulled up right across the street, and strolled in to join the party.
If for some reason you didn’t feel at home right off the bat, there was an open bar to help make you more comfortable. I felt just fine, but figured I was obligated to taste the wine … you know, mainly so I could report back here to tell you how it tasted. When I put on my journalist hat, I’m 100% committed.
(By the way, it was fantastic. And seemed to get better the more I had.)
We made our way to the reception area, which is notable for two reasons:
1) the wood you see here, like that used throughout the building, is reclaimed from local barns, railroad lines, and other discarded resources. Also …
2) This is where I met CLIF’s communications manager, as well as several members of their outstanding PR team. If you’re a PR company, you can't ask for a better client than CLIF – and everyone in the room seemed to know it. Also, remember what I said about how there weren’t any secrets this time?
Just in case I had trouble remembering anything, they gave me this nifty little zip drive with specs and photos that might come in handy later. In fact, a few of the photos are used in this report - I’ll indicate which ones they are.
Photo courtesy CLIF Bar and Company (See? Like that!)
Photo courtesy CLIF Bar and Company
Having greenery and natural sunlight all over the place gives the impression of being outside even when you’re sitting in a meeting room – which I have to say is a pretty cool architectural effect. I guess if you have to work inside a building, this is probably the best possible situation. Especially if …
… there are free CLIF bar racks around nearly every corner, just in case you get the midday munchies. Or in my case, the mid-open house tour munchies.
This one’s kind of hard to appreciate - clicking to enlarge might help - but see those long flat panels suspended from the ceiling? They’re sound-dampening panels, made from recycled denim jeans. They absorb noise so that the workspace sounds more like a small office than an abandoned warehouse. Tell me that’s not a clever innovation.
Photo courtesy CLIF Bar and Company
… as the tour took us to the exercise facilities of the new building. This is the aerobics, dance and floor workout area …
… which is just down the hall from a cardio and weight room that looks like it’s straight out of The Biggest Loser, except without all the fat people. By the way, anyone who goes ahead and keeps his workout with his personal trainer even though a bunch of wine-drinking looky-loos are wandering around all over the place deserves kudos.
The bouldering wall isn’t as tall as the one in the previous building, but it’s a lot wider, with tricky corners and pitches that would make me slip off in an instant, even if I hadn’t been drinking wine beforehand.
This is the yoga room, which is completely separate from the aerobics room. Also, that’s me having some fun with a mirror and a camera. And a glass of wine in my hand.
Feeling sore after your workout? Just schedule an appointment for one of the company massage therapists to come work on you. This is one of the perks that carried over from the old building, along with the free laundry facilities, hair salon, and company bikes for doing errands. As for the new perks, they include a 6,700-square-foot childcare center, an enclosed outdoor playground, and a dedicated breastfeeding room for new mothers. Lots of companies claim to be family friendly, but it’s hard to imagine anyone topping this.
Photo courtesy CLIF Bar and Company
Another thing that caught my eye was some of the personal detail built into the place – for instance, many of the door handles are made from reused bicycle frames. However, about that bicycle theme …
… they do look awfully cool hanging from the ceiling, but the thought crossed my mind that it might be a little unnerving if my desk was directly below a suspended frame. Maybe it’s a good thing that natural wind doesn’t blow through the building along with the natural light.
Photo courtesy CLIF Bar and Company
Fortunately, we got to see this kitchen: Kali is the name of CLIF founder Gary Erickson’s grandmother, who taught him all about baking as he grew up. Knowing that, the company cafeteria really couldn’t have any other name.
The chefs had a full spread available for us, and this is where the tour ended. So we hung around to graze on some great healthy appetizers …
… and would have sat in the outdoor eating area, if it hadn’t started raining. Most people ended up congregating here:
The amphitheater setting that was carried over from the old HQ. There were musicians playing, toddlers running around, and lots of people just standing around mingling. It was the kind of atmosphere where …
… even though all the boxes aren’t unpacked and some of the pictures are still waiting to be hung, it seems to feel like home to the employees I spoke with during the open house. I honestly hope it does for them – because it’s clear that a lot of love and consideration went into this place. And those are the type of things that every home needs.
However, since it wasn’t MY home, we eventually had to say our goodbyes and return to Monterey. Before I left, however, the CLIF folks gave me a nice little gift box stuffed with various CLIF products; combined with all the items we already had crammed in our pants and jacket pockets, we made off pretty well, I’d say.
There are three flavors in the seasonal lineup – cranberry orange nut bread, pumpkin pie, and iced gingerbread - and it’s something of a three-way coin flip as to which tastes the best. Our family recently held a tasting event where we rated the bars, and the results from our small sampling were: pumpkin pie 3, cranberry orange nut bread 2, and iced gingerbread 1. (If you’re counting at home and wondering why our family of five registers 6 total votes, that’s easy: I counted my vote twice. Executive privilege.)
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