The Stick

Such a simple device but man I love this thing.

I actually remember when it first came out and a bunch of Kenyan runners came to the US and lived on the inventors floor and raced all over as Team Stick. Low budget but it got the product some good exposure.

The Stick is made of plastic and you use it to massage your legs, back, neck, or other sore spots. It has some flex and man you can get in deep if you choose to.

Since I have messed up calves with tons of knots I've taken to using the 17" Stick before every run. I work the device over the muscles and get the knots to loosen up and to get blood flowing. What a difference it makes.

Post run I like to use it again to help with recovery and work out any tender spots. I'll work the calves, thighs, hamstrings and around the front of my shins.

Here's some more info direct from The Stick

General Tips for Use

Keep muscles relaxed during rollout
Use on skin or through light clothing.
The Stick is waterproof and designed to bend without fear of breaking.
It is not necessary to hurt the muscle in order to help the muscle.
Most effective when used before, during and after periods of activity.
For pin-point rollout, slide hands onto spindles.
Excessive use may cause muscle soreness.

General Instructions

A typical warm-up for healthy muscle tissue is about 20 progressively deeper passes over each muscle group (about 30 seconds per area).
Discomfort or pain is experienced when the spindles locate a bump or tender knot in the muscle - this is known as a trigger point.
Muscles containing trigger points are often weak, stiff and sore. They are frequently tight, easily tire and often hurt.
Muscles containing chronic trigger points need 20 additional passes over the involved area, and may require attention several times daily.

So if you want to improve performance and have a nice mini massage at your instant disposal check out The Stick, You won't be dissapointed

1, 2, 3

That would be the race the team just did. The Highland Forest 1, 2, 3 in Syracuse. 7 of us from the Salomon - Fleet Feet Sports Endurance Team headed east last weekend and took on a tough course.

1 did the 10 mile, 5 of us did the 20 mile and Kim did the 30 miler as prep for her upcoming 100 mile race. I'm not in shape to go so far but figured it would be a good day. This is a very low key event in one of my favorite parks in upstate NY. We actually produced an off road duathlon there a bunch of years back. Lots of nice trails and lots of hills.

I took the first loop fairly easy but at times ran a little faster then I should have. I knew that would bite me in the ass at some point. I also knew I'd run out of steam sooner or later but I needed the long day to test my hydration and nutrition which is a weak spot of mine.

Half way through lap one Mark M caught up with me and we started running together along with a few other runners. It was nice to be able to talk a bit and try and ignore the hills. And since Mark is one of my Lab Rats I like to see how he responds to things out on the course. I'll pick up the pace for a bit and see what he does, 9 out of 10 times he'll go too fast and pay for it later. I still like making others break.

We headed out for lap two and I knew it was gonna hurt. A little before half way into lap two Mark started to suffer and I was trying to run with a few other runners. I made it to 16 miles before my legs said no more up hills and my ankle said no more down hills. Oh well I'll have to go easy/death march from here. I was just hoping Mark (or Laura for that matter) didn't catch me.

Moral of the story.
1. If you go long train for it and it will be much easier
2. If you don't train be ready to suffer.
3. If you try and keep up with someone early be ready to sac up later when it really hurts

Overall the team did great. Second overall in the 10 mile, all of us feeling fairly good in the 20 mile and Kim doing great in the 30 mile while taking 5 minutes off her time from last year.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours with friends.

The things in my head

We are launching another new event and it is gonna be crazy. Be there in year one and you'll be telling your grand kids about it in the future.

Fleet Feet Sports Dirt Cheap Stage Race presented by Salomon

When: November 14th and 15th
Where: Mendon Ponds Park
What: A trail running stage race

Stage # 1 - Add-en-on TT
11/14/2009
9:00 am
3 mile time trial. 1 runner at a time against the clock. Tough hilly course

Stage # 2 - Devils Bathtub
11/14/2009
1:00 pm
5 - 6 mile trail run. Should be similar to Dirt Cheap # 1 with some modification

Stage # 3 - The Queens Stage
11/15/2009
9:00 am
10 - 12 mile trail run. New course taking in a lot of the park

Winner is the person with the fastest combined time for all three stages. Go for a stage win or for the General Classification (that's bike talk for the overall)

The leader after each stage will be be presented with a GC leaders jersey to be worn during the next stage. Yellow for the men in honor of Le Tour de France and pink for the ladies in honor of the Giro d' Italia.

Race Head Quarters will be Stewart Lodge but races 1 and 2 will start and finish in different locations. Hang out at the lodge between stages and enjoy some light food, drink and relax for the next stage. Awards after each stage at Stewart lodge.

Stage three will start and finish at Stewart lodge and GC awards will be done after the race at the lodge.

Being a Fleet Feet Sports Cheap Adventure means that entry fee's will be great$12.00 for any one stage or $25.00 for all three. Food each day, Chip timing for all three and shirts for those that FINISH the stage race. There will be plenty of other cool stuff as well.

We will have courses finalized shortly and entry forms will be up within the next month at www.yellowjacketracing.com and online at active.com

This event has been in my head for 3 years or so. I finally found the layout and time of year that should work well. The courses will each be unique and challenging. The park has the amenities we need and the event can act as an end of the season trail party during the best time of year to run trails.

Wonder what else is bouncing around in my head.

This is gonna be fun!

When Life gets in the way

It's been a bit since I wrote any product reviews or articles but I plan to change that. The reason for the lapse has been that little thing called daily life.

Our busy race season has kicked off and we are working on events every weekend. The trucks and trailer and have been traveling around producing races and helping others make their events better. We'll be working on over 100 races this year, crazy growth again this year, should be interesting. We've added timers and support crews to try and keep things going smooth.

The store has been very busy. Even with the not so great economy and less then warm spring we've been pleased with the growth we've experienced. Plans are in the works for a bunch of new programs and events so stay tuned.

Corporate Challenge is coming up next week and that is always a busy time for us. Ellen is the volunteer coordinator, I work on the finish line crew and we provide shirts for 20 different companies. I swear I spend all day for a week straight doing nothing but CC shirts. Crazy but the teams get some great technical shirts at a really fair price

Lab Rats v1.5 is kicking off, late but starting. I'm working with 4 runners and hope to keep them improving and reaching their goals. I've got some seriously nasty workouts planned for them. It's actually tougher having the smaller group as each one will get a custom program.

Ellen and I managed to sneak away for three days to Florida to visit most of her family. I was not ready for 95 degree heat that's for sure. Also got to have dinner with Erik and Stacey, the owners of Fleet Feet Sports Orlando, which is always fun.

I got to watch a few high school track meets since we sponsor three local invitationals. We had a booth at each and got to talk with a lot of kids. Saw a few good races as well.

I've even been running a bit since I decided to register for a 50k in Tahoe in July. Not my smartest move but I've done dumber things. A few friends and teammates had already registered so I decided to jump into it. Unfortunately the race was sold out but lucky for me Fleet Feet Sports Carson City is a sponsor and pulled a few strings. It's good to know people. In the very least it will be nice to get away with Ellen for a few days out west.

So there you have it. My big excuse on why I haven't been writing. Two companies that are growing fast, tons of events, a little bit of travel, and a few days a week of running. I think I'm getting things under control so you'll be seeing a lot more reviews and stories. I've got new shoes to write about, a new event that we are starting, more fun runs and training programs fro mthe store and more adventures with the Salomon Fleet Feet Sports Endurance Team.

I'll see you out there

My new team

Back in January I was having an email converstaion with the marketing guys at Salomon. They wanted to work with us on our Dirt Cheap Trail Series again and I pitched them an even bigger plan. They would get the Dirt Cheap Series along with our two other trail events and would also be the title sponsor of a new Trail racing team that I wanted to put together.

For the last few years I've wanted to build a race team that was about running off road. Of course I needed the right partners in this project and had to build it with the right mix of people. Once Salomon came on board I went about building the team. My goal was to be able to offer up support to the team members while promoting the "trail lifestyle"

To me the Trail and outdoor lifestyle is something we should all strive to have. It isn't just about racing and going fast. It is about being outdoors, enjoying nature and having fun with friends. There is nothing I enjoy more then heading out into the woods and exploring. I don't need to know how far I may go or how hard it may be, I just like to be out there exploring. It really is what I did as a kid all the time.

So now all I had to do was find 11 other people that thought the same way I do. Lucky for me most of my friends have the same idea of fun. I knew K-Robb would be up for it along with his wife Anne. I sent an early recruitment note to two friends hoping that they would be interested, their response was "hell yeh"

So I had 4 plus me. K-Robb and I came up with a short list of potential members and I sent out letters offering support. We filled out 11 spots and I had one to fill. I decided to offer it up to the general public. I posted a note with my concept and waited for the emails to come in. I worked through the dozens of resumes and chose the 12th member.

After reading how so many others wanted to be part of it I decided to add 5 more members that we'll finance on our own and we now have a team of 17. Pretty cool.

My goal with this project is to promote my vision of the outdoor lifestyle. I want to get more people outside running and having fun. I want them to head to the woods and explore a little. Now I have 16 other people helping me spread this vision.

Rochester is going to be known as a trail town. The team will be out running the trails, racing the trails, and getting others out there with us. We'll be hosting races, developing new ones. We'll be hosting trail maintainence days where we get the running community to help maintain the trails we love to run. We'll be offering up guidence and support to new trail runners. This is going to be fun.

Salomon - Fleet Feet Sports Endurance Team

Boots - Director Sportif, Completed Course de Templier in France

K-Robb Ganey - Team Captain, also completed Templier

Anne Esposito - Completed Templier

Alan Powers - 50k completed this year and at least 2 more booked for the year

Laura Church - Multiple Trail Marathons and doesn't want to go much longer (Lab Rat)

Mark Monachino - Learning to go long on dirt (Lab Rat)

Dennis Stearns - Will go longer then he should at times, Ultra vet

Jim Roche - Vows to stay shorter then 15 miles but I bet will be going long soon enough

Chet Jozefski - Will do just about anything. Has completed many ultras

Andrew Baxter - The kid of the team. Has done a marathon on snowshoes (FF Employee)

Kim Rapp - Ultra vet that loves 100 milers (FF Employee)

Krista Englert - New to the game but very much up for the challenge

Dave Sek - The non kid of the team (aka the old dude), Ultra Vet many times over

Karen Kryder - Just completed her first ultra and is signed up for the next one already

Jim McLaughlin - Ironman Triathlete and outdoor enthusiast

Beth Deciantis - Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifier, learning to love the trails

Holly Kuzmiak - Giving the dirt a try after winning Snow Cheap Series

And I can't forget the canine team

Sazerac (Church-Powers) - Our guide out on the trails that finds some great routes for us

Bart (just Bart, kinda like Sting or Madonna) - My over ambitious Aussie that will run all day

Charley (Esposito-Ganey) - The best behaved blonde on four legs

Brandi (Roche) - Learning as she goes. Has been rescued once already on the trails

So if you see any of the red armada (Salomon has hooked us up with some great gear) out on the trails say hello and join them for an adventure

Lab Rat v1.0 Project complete

A little over 3 months ago I put a call out for runners that might want to join me in some fun. I had decided to get back into doing some coaching just for fun and to see what kind of results I could get out of some people using my "method" of training.

Those that signed on had no clue as to what I would have them do or how hard it may be. Eight runners signed up and paid their fee (12 cans of Red Bull) and started training. We started in the dead of winter and now will finish up as spring is upon us.

Those that stuck with it and did the training like I laid it out saw some great improvements. Times came down and PR's were set. Some PR's were crushed by crazy amounts. Like 6 minutes over 5 miles crazy. Man that was fun to see.

Honestly I knew that they would all end up running faster but I really had hoped they just might learn a few more things along the way. I spent time trying to go over how to race smarter. I wanted them to learn a thing or two about themselves in the process. I think I succeeded on both counts there and that is one reason v1.0 has come to a close.

I was out running yesterday and two of my Rats were with me. One of them had set a 5k pr the day before and she was talking about the race to the other Rat. As I listened I loved that she was discussing the tactics she used to race smart and not just talking about running fast. Lesson learned there.

In regards to them learning about themselves I'll let the words of one of my Rats say it. This is an email he sent me after a great race. His subject was "becoming enlightened"

You know, it's funny when we started this Lab Rat thing.
I knew that I would probably get in way better condition than I was in, and I figured that I'd be logging a lot more miles.
Was hoping to get faster, but wasn't counting on it.
I thought that I would learn some things and consider some things about running that I hadn't previously.
Figured I'd be pushed way beyond my comfort level, which I like.
And all of those things have happened. Man have they.
The part I didn't understand and couldn't figure what would happen was in the mental part of the training.
Didn't know what you meant, or how I could get tougher in the head, partly because I've always considered myself to be extremely mentally tough.
It's sort of what's got me to where I am in business ('cause it sure as hell wasn't talent or good looks!).
But I didn't know what I'd get out of this training.
Sure, I'm running way better, and enjoying the crazy workouts and pushing myself way harder than I ever thought I would.
But I think I'm starting to understanding a big part of the mental game and how it applies to me. Sort of came to me over the weekend while I was running.
Over the past few years I've run in a lot of races. All distances, all times of the day and night, sometimes a few on the same day.
But what I've come to realize is that even though I was in races, very rarely if ever did I truly "race" them. Never really pushed myself.
And now I actually believe that I had a fear of racing.
I was never confident and/or knowledgeable in my ability, my endurance, my speed, or my being able to actually finish a race.
In short, I was afraid to try hard and to push because of the fear of failure.
That's really started to change for me.
Now, I'm really getting to understand myself and what I can do.
I'm beginning to really feel free to test my limits, and am enjoying doing it.
Beginning to understand what I can do and how long I can do it, beginning to have the confidence to push myself like I thought I never could.
I find that I really don't care about failing (or puking, or getting passed by poodles), it's all about knowing myself.
And damn that's really, really cool for an old fart like me who thought everything like this was way in the past.
Sure I've had great improvement in my race times (with a lot more to come) and all of that, but it's the knowing and understanding of myself that has really been enlightening.
And that understanding feels really good, especially after such a hard week like last week, and will hopefully allow me to progress even more.
This has been an awesome winter of training and running that I could have never done on my own.
Man I really appreciate being part of this.

So that concludes the Lab Rat Project v1.0. I hope they all enjoyed it. I know they should be proud of how hard they worked. I hope they all realize that they can accomplish so much more. I've simply taught them a few things that they can now take and apply to their running and their everyday life.

Now to figure out what v1.5 will be and who the next victims are.

What a Month

So it has been almost the entire month since I've written anything. That's the kind of month it has been.

We are getting ready for the busy part of our events season to begin. It will slow down again in December so we have been trying to get as many things done and organized in advance. We will be producing or providing services for 100 races this year. We have had to turn down nearly a dozen events this year that wanted to work with us. Sucks for us but we can only be in so many places at once.

The store has been crazy busy. Track and Field is starting and we have nearly 200 people in our No Boundaries Learn to Run program. It is cool that so many people want to get out there and get fit. We've run this program since we opened the store almost 5 years ago as we've always believed that it is our job to get more people out there running and walking. It is the least we can do when we make our living in this industry.

Even with how busy we've been I've actually begun to find time to run a bit more. Still not as much as I need to but I'm getting out there. I'm still testing a lot of shoes and I'm sure there will be more on the way to test.

I'll be making a few more post in the very near future about some of the other things that are going on like the Lab Rat program, product test results, the new Salomon - Fleet Feet Sports Endurance Team and a 50k ultra that I was dumb enough to sign up for.

Gotta keep busy, right?