Mr. CLIFstone

Admin note: If you haven't done so already, there's still time to get in on my ZYM electrolyte tablet giveaway; leave a comment on that post to enter, and I'll announce three winners this weekend.

And now on to today's post ...

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"I used to do a little but a little wouldn’t do it –
So the little got more and more and more –
I just keep trying to get a little better –
Said a little better than before."
- Guns ‘N’ Roses, “Mr Brownstone” (video after post)

A couple of weeks ago we were pleasantly surprised to find the following gift from our local Safeway store in our mailbox:

Inside were two samples of CLIF Builder’s Bars, which I’ve reviewed here and have a great fondness for. The gesture would have been even nicer, if it weren’t for another box that arrived at our house that same week:


A massive supply of Builder’s Bars – as in 12 cases worth - purchased from the company in an attempt to keep pace with our rapid consumption. To say that my family is a fan of CLIF products is a tremendous understatement; more accurately, you could say our interest is bordering on obsessive.

Our predicament might fairly be considered the dark side of doing product reviews, because our fixation with nearly every one of the items we’re now collectively hooked on started with reviews and giveaways on this website. Remember the ROKS review? They go in our kids lunches as a healthy protein snack. How about the BLOKS? They’re a staple of our family hikes. The CRUNCH bars are also great lunchbox material, and CLIF C makes a healthy midday or post-dinner snack. And of course, there’s the Builder’s Bars, which are my wife’s favorite portable breakfast when she’s rushing out the door to drop off the kids before jumping into her own work day, and my preferred way of getting a midday protein boost without having to hunt down a deli sandwich.

As to why we buy these particular bars (Builder’s) directly from the company – that’s because our two favorite flavors are lemon and vanilla almond, neither of which are carried by our local stores (but trust me, I’m working on it). And in case you weren’t yet convinced of our devotion to this company: what do you suppose we use to open all these CLIF boxes that come to our house?


Have I mentioned that we have a lot of CLIF items around our house? Or that my 9-year-old daughter wants to have her next birthday party at CLIF headquarters? Sometimes I wish I were making this stuff up.

Not to be overlooked in all of this, of course, is the product that started it all: original CLIF Bars, which continue to be my favorite items from the whole product line. I use them for post-workout nutrition if I’m away from home, and they’re a favorite lunch item for my kids if we’re traveling or spending all day outside the house on a hike or bike ride. They’re also the products I use to share the CLIF love with lots of people around my community.

The storage compartment of my driver-side car door

Since the CLIF company makes so many charitable contributions, it seemed fitting for me to carry a stash of bars in my car and give them away to homeless people I encounter on street corners or in front of stores. This practice started as a whim, but has grown into a somewhat sizeable expense from month to month. We’ve even had the kids participate in making CLIF Bar distribution runs to our local homeless population. It’s one of those situations where everybody wins.

Handing out CLIF bars makes sense on a lot of levels: I feel much better about giving healthy food away than I do giving money to people, and there’s something rewarding about being used in the greater scheme of things to help provide daily bread for someone who needs it. From a practical standpoint, the bars are convenient enough to stuff in your pocket for later, have a weather-proof wrapper to keep them safe from the elements, and provide reasonable sustenance if you’re not sure when your next meal will be. The fact that they taste pretty good is a nice bonus as well.

So yeah … it’s no secret that we’ve gotten somewhat carried away with our CLIF infatuation, and that a little just doesn’t do it for us anymore. But I’m also quite certain that our lives, and perhaps to some small extent the lives of those around us, are a little better than before we completely went off the deep end. (At least that’s what I tell myself to justify all this.) And as I have further opportunities to review their products throughout the year, I’ll be sure to share the love with my readers as well.

Finally, if my daughter somehow fulfills her dream and ends up working for CLIF one day, I’m pretty sure we can look back and say we know how it all started.

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At first, the thought of a song that is mainly a tribute by a strung-out group of addicts to their favorite substance of choice seemed a little excessive here … but re-reading what I just wrote, maybe not so much.

Guns ‘N’ Roses, “Mr Brownstone”, live at the Ritz (click to play):

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ZYM Electrolyte Tablet Review and Giveaway

In the space of the past half-year or so, the market for fizzy electrolyte drinks has grown a lot more crowded.

Nuun more or less led the way in popularizing the idea of tablets that could be dissolved in water for portable electrolyte replenishment; more recently, Nathan developed a similar product that never seemed to gain widespread traction among endurance athletes. Then a couple of months ago I announced that GU Energy, one of the biggest names in sports nutrition, was jumping into the fray as well, with a product I’ll be reviewing and giving away here shortly.

ZYM electrolyte tablets

In the meantime, I’ve also been testing a similar product that’s seemingly flown under the radar - even though they've been around for a full five years - but from a performance standpoint is quite comparable to the big name entries. ZYM Electrolyte Tablets are a creation of Chicago-based BE Innovations, and comes in three different flavors, each of which has a slightly different formulation (as well as price points – more on that in a second). The brand also distinguishes itself by using all natural ingredients rather than the artificial sweeteners that some other companies use. All of their products are gluten-free and vegan-friendly for athletes with those dietary needs.

Like other electrolyte tablets, ZYM is formulated to be used in 16 to 20 oz of water, which is the standard size for most cycling-style bottles. It dissolves with effervescence and builds pressure from the inside of the bottle if it’s not open to air on top, which also means that it will leak from bottles with an irregular seal. Its electrolyte balance is designed to quickly replace what your body sweats out – primarily sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, along with vitamins and herbal supplements to improve endurance performance. The tube cap has an internal desiccant to prevent moisture buildup in storage, and the entire tube is recyclable once you’re finished with the 10 tablets inside.

Rival orange flavor

I’ve been testing the newest tablets, an orange flavor called Rival that is sweetened with stevia, a plant-based sugar substitute which has a negligible effect on blood glucose. There’s a slight aftertaste – the website advertises a “clean finish with no aftertaste”, but I disagree - but it generally tastes like your typical orange-flavored energy drinks. Each tablet has 7 calories, and provides 300mg sodium, 100mg potassium, and 150mg Vitamin C as well as an extract of Rhodiola rosea, an herbal supplement that is believed to reduce fatigue and improve mental alertness.

One confusing aspect of this product is that the three different ZYM tablets are all formulated differently, and have different price points from the company website. There’s a lemon-lime formulation called Endurance, which is billed as a “pure hydration” tablet with slightly lower electrolyte levels, higher B6 levels, and no Rhodiola supplement. A pack of three 10-tablet tubes (30 tablets total) sells for $24. The berry flavor called Catapult features 100mg of caffeine from herbal Guarana as well as a super-dose of Vitamin B12 (500mcg), and retails for $27 for a three-pack. The Rival orange flavor that I tested sells for $30 for a three-pack. There's a page where you can compare the three flavors side by side before purchasing them from the ZYM website store.

At some point it would be interesting to see how the electrolyte tablets from various companies compare to each other nutritionally – and since I’ve already reviewed Nuun tabs and will be reviewing GU tablets later this spring, I suppose I’m the guy to put that kind of post together. Look for that comparison in the next several weeks – but in the meantime, a few of my readers will get to try out ZYM tablets to test for themselves.

The folks at ZYM have agreed to provide one tube of Rival tablets to three winners chosen at random from the comments section below. Leave a comment to enter, and I’ll announce the winners this weekend. Thanks very much to ZYM for sponsoring this contest, and good luck to everybody!


*Product provided by BE Innovations
**See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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On the Cover

Throughout most of its nearly 60-year run, Sports Illustrated occupied a place of singular importance for passionate sports fans.

Like millions of other subscribers, there was a period of several years in my life where the highlight of every week was the arrival of the magazine in my mailbox. I looked forward to behind-the-scenes reporting from big games I had seen on TV, in-depth profiles of my favorite athletes, and stories about people or events that I didn’t even know existed. In the era before the Internet and ESPN, there was simply no better source of sports information anywhere, and no more authoritative influence on shaping the American sports landscape.

Even though their influence has diminished somewhat in the modern era, SI still retains much of its old-school aura, and its sense of importance in framing the national discussion about mainstream athletics. In that light, it was kind of a shame – although honestly not altogether surprising – to learn that distance runners have been so long neglected by the magazine that neither my friend Mike nor I, despite being lifelong runners and hardcore track fans, could remember the last time we saw a distance runner on the cover. We decided it was an interesting enough topic for our Monterey Herald column, which follows below.

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Running Life 3/10/11 “On the Cover”

Pay attention, kids - it’s time for a pop quiz! Here’s a two-part question for you:

1. Who was the last distance runner to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, and

2. What year did this happen?

If you don’t know the answers, don’t worry – we didn’t either. We had to look them up.

Making the cover of Sports Illustrated is a coveted honor, placing an athlete in the spotlight of the American sports scene. Considered cumulatively, cover appearances indicate who our greatest icons have been through the years. Michael Jordan leads the pack with 56 covers, followed by Muhammad Ali (38), Tiger Woods (30), and a three-way tie at 22 between Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Jack Nicklaus. Lance Armstrong, the world’s most famous cyclist, has 10.


Still scratching your head about our quiz? 50 years ago, you wouldn’t have had any problem. During the first half-century after SI’s first issue in 1954, runners appeared on nearly 60 covers, averaging at least one per year. The magazine’s very first Sportsman of the Year was awarded to Roger Bannister, and in the era when milers ruled the Earth, distance runners were commonly featured in the magazine, especially during Olympic years. But somewhere on the road to the 21st Century, distance runners seemingly fell off the map.

In the last 15 years, only 2 covers have featured runners, both of whom were sprinters: Marion Jones in October 2000, and Usain Bolt in August 2009. The good news is that Jones’s appearance wasn’t related to her drug scandal, which happened several years later. The bad news is that by the time it did, the sports world seemingly didn’t care about track anymore.

With 30 million runners in the United States and 11 million race finishers last year, we would think that American distance running accomplishments would be recognized more regularly. It’s not as if our athletes haven’t done amazing things recently. Alan Webb broke a high school mile record that stood for more than 30 years. Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor won Olympic marathon medals in 2004, and last year Meb became the first American in to win the New York Marathon in more than twenty years. Ryan Hall ran the half marathon in less than 60 minutes a few years back, and Chris Solinsky broke the American 10K record last year in Palo Alto.

It’s not just Americans who get overlooked: the two greatest distance runners in history, Haile Gebreselassie and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who have dozens of world records between them in distances from 3000 meters to the marathon, have never made the cover. In fact, being featured in SI is perhaps the only accomplishment that neither of them has captured.



Which brings us to our quiz answer: if you go all the way back to July 29, 1985, you’ll find Mary Decker Slaney on the cover after defeating Zola Budd in the first rematch after their fateful collision at the 1984 Olympics. It wasn’t her first cover appearance, as two years and one surname earlier – at that time she was simply Mary Decker - she had been named 1983’s Sportswoman of the Year for setting six world records between the mile and 5K. Despite her brilliance, nowadays Mary isn’t even the most famous Decker to appear on the cover – that honor undoubtedly goes to 2010 swim suit cover model Brooklyn Decker (but we can certainly understand the popularity of that one).

You have to go back even farther – more than 30 years - to find the last marathoner on the cover, when Alberto Salazar was featured after winning the 1980 New York Marathon. Before that, Bill Rogers made the cover in 1979 after winning at New York for the 4th time in a row.

So if you’re a runner looking to get on the cover of SI someday, your best options appear to be 1) set multiple world records, 2) win the New York or Boston Marathons 4 times, or 3) become a swimsuit model. Although running has innumerable benefits for all of us, it’s clear that becoming famous isn’t one of them.

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Random Shots of Beauty

Even more than trees in bloom or wildflowers in the park or extended daylight hours, this is one of my surest signs that spring has arrived in Monterey County:


The sheep are back! I'll have a regular post about this in the next week or two ... but in the meantime, I'm off to enjoy a beautiful springtime day.

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Hot Naked Vibram Models On Film!*

*I can’t wait to see what kind of Google search traffic this title draws …

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Last summer I helped Vibram spread the word about a very cutting edge microsite called You Are the Technology that was launched to celebrate the brand’s first running-specific FiveFingers model: the Bikila, which remains my favorite minimalist shoe for use on the road and track. The microsite was chock full of biomechanical rationale for why minimalist running is superior to the traditional running shoe model.

But that’s not really what it was remembered for. Mostly, it was remembered for the naked people.

From YouAretheTechnology.com

Accessing information from the microsite was done by clicking various tattoos on the bare skin of two remarkably hot models - who came to be known as Adam and Eve – whose bodies would then be zoomed or rotated to reveal an instructional tidbit related to natural running. When you weren’t clicking, the models would throw flirtatious glances at each other, and you got the sense that perhaps they were excited about something more than just the Bikilas on their feet.

Predictably, the microsite caused something of an Internet sensation, as well as a lot of questions about how exactly it was created. To satisfy viewers’ curiosity, Vibram has just released a 5-minute behind the scenes video that features snippets of interviews with Vibram CEO Tony Post, as well as members of the Vibram marketing team, the creative media company who envisioned the website, and the artists and graphic designers who made it come to life.

Oh, one more thing … it also has the naked people.

The first few minutes of the clip answer some of the most common questions customers have had about the microsite, such as how the concept was developed, whether the tattoos are real ink, what kind of preparation was involved to get the models ready, and how the video images were captured. And all that stuff is fine, I guess … but I have a feeling that this one’s gonna be remembered for the naked people as well.

Approximately 3 minutes into the video, Adam and Eve make their appearances again, and the video borders on requiring a NSFW warning. I’m sure a lot of folks will find some outstanding click-pause-screen grab-paste opportunities here to keep them occupied for quite a while – but maybe I shouldn’t give people too many ideas.

Anyway, the video is certainly interesting, and it’s also a nice reminder to check out You Are the Technology (as well as my post about it here, if you’re interested) for those who haven’t done so already. They’ll probably get you excited about natural running - or maybe excited about something else altogether, which wouldn’t necessarily be such a bad thing either.

“The Making of You Are The Technology”, from Vibram (click to play - kinda sorta NSFW):

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Black Diamond Spot Headlamp Review (and Discount Sale)

A little more than a year ago, when I first reviewed the Black Diamond Spot headlamp, I called it the most affordable option for dedicated trail runners.

Shortly thereafter, I did a comparison review to Petzl’s equivalent lamp, the Tikka XP2. At that time, the XP2 was a stronger high-performance option, thanks to some additional features - such as a battery life indicator, red lamp option, and compatibility with rechargeable batteries - that weren’t available on the Spot, and a brighter lumen output (60 compared to 45). However, since the price point of the Spot was only $40 compared to the XP2’s $55, I concluded that the Spot was a decent value for basic features in a durable compact lamp.

2011 Black Diamond Spot headlamp

Since then, here’s what Black Diamond has done to the Spot lamp: they added a three-stage battery life indicator and a red bulb mode. They made the lamp compatible with rechargeable batteries. And they boosted the lumen output – not to 60, but to 75.

Sounds great, right? But even better is what they didn’t change. The lamp is just as compact as last year’s Spot, with an overall size and shape that are only slightly different than the previous version. And the retail price remains exactly the same.

(And if you keep reading, it’s even cheaper … but I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.)

2010 Spot on L, 2011 Spot on R

The new Spot operates much like the previous versions. It has separate bulbs that effectively function as flood lights or a spot beam. The flood setting uses two LEDs that shine at only 16 lumens, which isn’t very helpful on the trail, but it’s useful enough to find your way to the trailhead. The larger triple-power LED is the real powerhouse of the lamp, producing a strong beam that burns for 50 hours on the high setting. On previous versions of this lamp, I felt that the spotlight beam shone almost too narrowly to see the whole trail; on the new version, the beam is noticeably wider – which is great, since the flood setting isn’t a viable trail option. Both the flood and spot modes have two brightness settings that can extend the battery life to a maximum of 200 hours.

Smaller multi-function button on 2011 version at R

Despite the overall performance improvement, there are a couple of subtle changes on this upgraded version that don’t compare quite as favorably to the previous model. The new Spot weighs in at 90g (3.17 oz) with batteries, which is 5g heavier than the old version. Also, the single multi-use button on top of the casing is slightly smaller on the new Spot, which makes it somewhat more difficult to operate with gloved hands.

Finally, as you’d expect from a beam that burns 60% brighter than its predecessor but uses the same battery power, the life span of the batteries on the high setting is noticeably shorter – the old Spot lasted for 100 hours on high, while the new one lasts only 50. However, this drawback is more than offset by the fact that the new Spot is compatible with rechargeable batteries, so if you’re a responsible consumer, the shorter lifespan is a non-factor.

Here’s the bottom line with the Spot: at a price point of $40, it used to be the best value on the market for basic compact lighting needs. Now that it’s packed with improvements and retails for the exact same price, there’s no question that the Spot offers more bang for your buck than any other lamp on the market.

And here’s where the deal gets even better: one of my affiliates, Wilderness Running Company, has a full supply of the 2011 Black Diamond Spot, and offers them at a 10% discount if you use coupon code R&R10 at checkout. If you pick up something else cheap (like maybe the best socks in the world) and bring your total order to $50, you get free shipping on everything. My coupon code applies to your entire order – so go check out the Spot lamp from WRC, and feel free to take a look around the place while you’re there.

*Product provided by Black Diamond
**See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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Strength in Pain

“I’ll find strength in pain, and I will change my ways –
I’ll know my name as it’s called again.”
- Mumford and Sons, “The Cave” (video after post)

Considering that I have more than six years worth of archives at my disposal, it might sound strange to hear that I very rarely look back through my old posts. Rather, I’m the literary equivalent of a hoarder, accumulating posts that seem great at the time, only to be tossed on the pile with all of the other stuff I’ve collected and eventually forgotten, while I periodically remind myself that someday I have to go through and actually do something with all this junk.

Accordingly, it took a relatively unusual set of circumstances to make me re-read my race report from the Western States 100 last week. On separate occasions, a couple of non-running folks took to asking about whether I had ever done any 100-milers before, and if I had done Western States … and like a true introvert, I found it much easier to just e-mail them the link rather than talk my way through the whole experience again. And since I’m just now turning the corner into full-fledged training mode for another 100-miler this July, I thought it might be nice to glance through that report before I sent it along, to remind myself exactly what it was all about.

What I found there actually surprised me.

Almost two years removed from Western States, my lasting memories of the event are overwhelmingly positive: the seemingly endless miles of magnificent Sierra Nevada trails, the beauty of running with a good friend through a warm California night, and the satisfaction of eventually reaching the long-awaited finish line. But when I re-read my own report, I suddenly remembered all of the troubling parts as well. The unexpected aches and pains that came far earlier in the race than I anticipated. The searing heat that nearly wilted me in the middle of the day. The awful predicament of being unable to keep any food or fluids down, but still having well over 40 miles to go.

In short, the race hurt. A lot. And many of those feelings are things I’m not particularly eager to experience again.

Sign from Duncan Canyon, at mile 24 of the Western States 100

It all goes with the territory, of course; it’s practically impossible to run through rugged conditions for 50, 62, or 100 miles without having a significant amount of discomfort, and ultrarunners are somewhat unique for their eager acceptance of such trials as just another aspect of the sport. Yes, we enjoy our pain … and no, there’s really no good explanation as to why that makes sense, but it does.

Reviewing my report, I recalled something else from that race as well: I had an inner strength that was virtually indomitable. It was built through hard miles in training and smaller races leading up to the main event. It was a confidence of knowing who I was, and what I was capable of enduring. Even when my physical abilities were depleted and my emotional condition was completely thrashed, there was an overwhelming determination that none of that pain was going to keep me from reaching my goal. When I look in the face of that guy, I see all of the difficulty he's been through - but I can also see that absolutely nothing is going to derail him.

In the depths of darkness at the mile 85 Auburn Lake Trails aid station

As I sit here typing this tonight, I know that I’m not quite that same guy right now. I’m just beginning to log the hours and pay the dues that I’ll need to redeem sometime during the day and night in the mountains around Lake Tahoe this July. The long training runs need to become more routine. The all-day race experiences need to be rehearsed and familiar. And the physical discomfort needs to be embraced again rather than avoided.

So that’s what I’ll be doing over the next few months: finding strength in the pain, and re-forging the identity I had the last time around, in order to have that same confidence about the person who will respond when my name is called again this summer.

Sure, the prospect of actively seeking pain causes a little bit of anxiety - but more than anything else, it gets me more excited than I could possibly express. There’s really no good explanation as to why that makes sense, either … unless you happen to be an ultrarunner, in which case one simply isn’t needed.

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It probably isn’t a coincidence, then, that this song has been on heavy rotation in my head for the last two weeks, in particular during my last couple of long trail runs. Mumford and Sons clearly aren’t your garden-variety rock band, but there’s something about this tune that’s just plain got me hooked.

Mumford and Sons, “The Cave” (click to play):

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