Chrissie Wellington Brooks T7 Racer

One of my favorite sayings is Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while".  Fortunately, I was at the right place (BrooksRunning.com) at the right time (a few weeks ago when the new Chrissie Wellington Brooks T7 Racer went on pre-order).  A few days ago, I was one of the lucky 200 people to grab a pair of the limited edition shoes at the surprisingly low price of $85.  SCORE!

Now, I’m honestly not one of these guys that ohs and ahs over shoes. I don’t watch much Bravo TV, I don’t wear skinny jeans, and I don’t even know what the color mauve is (Green? Purple? Orange?).  However, I have to say that these shoes IMMIDIATELY caught my eye when I saw them showcased at Ironman Arizona.

Oh, you didn’t hear about Ironman Arizona?  That is the race that Chrissie Wellington broke the world’s record for Ironman…..Wearing the Brooks T7.  So, I can only anticipate that when I wear these shoes, world records will fall.  Anything less than that will be considered failure.

What it will look like in my head (click to see my sweet head the sweet shoes)
I finally have man boobs "pecs"!

Photo courtesy of RunnerMark - Surprisingly, his had a girls head on it.  Strange

Here is what Brooks has to say about the shoe.  I've heard everything from they were "testing the market out" for a custom shoe like this to "there are only 200 of them, so you better not run in them because they'll be worth $800 bucks some day".

In late October, 200 pairs of the Wellington limited edition will go on sale for $85 on www.brooksrunning.com, more than three months before the standard T7 Racer’s launch on February 1, 2011. For each Wellington edition T7 Racer sold, Brooks will donate $25 to the Blazeman Foundation for ALS, a charity close to Chrissie’s heart.

They fit really snug - like a condom like a racing shoe should, and are SUPER light at 6.4 oz.  For comparison, my Brooks Adrenalines are 12oz.  They are a neutral shoe with no "support", so I'll probably only use them for races shorter than 10K, with the possibility of a half marathon in the future.

The shoes have a few cool features that none of my other shoes have.  The upper seems to be one large piece and it says BROOKS along the front.  The latter I'm sure only readable by people cheering as I'll be too busy breaking world records - with everyone else behind me.

Laces curve to the outside just like me for a better fit

Since Chrissie is a Triathlete, the shoes have loops on the tongue and back post to pull 'em on quickly.  I probably won't use that, but I thought it was cool how the tabs said stuff on them.  If I were designing the shoe, I would have put something good on the loops like "go faster, loser" or "why are you reading this? shouldn't you be running?".  But I'm sure what they put on there is cool too.

"Swim Bike Run" on the Tongue Loop
Sparkles on the shoe laces

"Wellington" on the back loop. British flag and "Fight for ALS" on the back

Overall, I really like these shoes.  I toyed around with not running in these shoes and instead keeping them for memento sake. You know, they might be worth some money some day.  But, I realized that since I didn’t have Chrissie’s signature on them they are probably just worth what I paid for them.  So, unless any of my blog readers have connections, I’ll probably just use them as a sweet looking race shoe.

Has anyone else bought something full intending on NOT using it??  I’ll admit that I was 50/50 when I bought these. 

My son wasn't nearly as excited as me during my photo shoot

Don't worry Child Protective Services, he only sleeps on his stomach when we are watching him

Funny Foto Friday: The Worst State

This morning was a tough one.  I could not drag my sorry butt out of bed.  Granted, I did get up and feed my son at 2:30 and then again at 4:30 (which was too close together - doh) but honestly that shouldn't be an excuse.  Looks like I'm going to run a few extra during my long run tomorrow - and I won't hit 40 miles this week.  BLEH!

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Statistics are fun, generalizations are dangerous.  What do you get when you mix fun and dangerous!?!? Arrested followed by child support...   You get hilarity!!! 

Happy Friday!

Would you pee your pants?

Life has been a bit crazy. No word if my son still knows who I am. In the words of my buddy Chad “I’ve put one of my race shirts on the lamp for him to cuddle”. But, for the most part I’m still getting my runs in. They are what keeps me skinny like a little girl sane. Daddy needs his medicine. Fortunately, I only run when everyone else is asleep. Unfortuantley, this is also when I should be asleep…..

Today was a 5 mile marathon pace run – 7:15 overall pace (plan was 7:25). I was scheduled to do 8 miles, however I only had time for 5. It was a good run.  One of those where I really can't remember the first two miles.  Not remembering runs is a good thing for me.  I can space out and just enjoy the moment.

Here in lies my problem: Because I don’t have a training plan (or only a loose one), it is easy to cut these runs short. I’m still going to hit 40 miles this week – but I wish that I had a better reason to stick on my “mental plan”. A heaping spoonful of runners guilt to go along with my absent father guilt. Tastes like failure.

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A while back, I was talking to a bloggger friend about trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Fortunatley, he is very close and will likley qualify on his next attempt. Unfortunately, I am NOT as close. I’m still 13 minutes away. Or, one short post-run shower. I like to measure time in incraments of when I am naked. Don’t ask how many units of “business time” 13 minutes is.

Soon, like all of my conversations do, the topic turned to bodily functions. My friend asked the question: “if you thought that you were close, would you pee your pants to save an extra 30-90 seconds?”. My answer? An immidiate yes. I totally would without thinking about it.

Simply put, for me, qualifying for Boston is important enough that I would buck the social norm and keep on trucking. Usually by mile 20ish of a marathon, I’m so hyper-focused on putting one foot in front of the other, even a small break in rhythm throws me off.

So, would you pee your pants? I realize that not everyone wants to, or can, qualify for boston…. So would you pee your pants if you thought that it would help you get a sub 2 hour half marathon, sub 5 hours full marathon, etc etc? Everyone has goals, how far would you go to meet them?

Got Corns? Foot corns?!

I’ve received a lot of things as a result of my running – some good….some not so good. On the good side, I’ve lost 40 pounds, increased my overall fitness to a level that I thought only possible with the help of very strong, very illegal steroids, and I’ve got an ass that won’t quit. (Glute muscles ARE one of the primary muscles in bi-pedal forward locomotion after all. Anatomy knowledge bomb!!! POW!)

On the bad side, I’ve got tiny T-Rex sized arms that are only good for twisting off the loosest of beer caps, I go to bed at times that my grandfather would laugh at, and my feet take a beating worse than a stripper with no morals. Oh, and I’ve got a corn on my foot. Super.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the good kind of corn. It is the bad, old man foot kind. I know what you are thinking: ”But Adam! You are a specimen of perfect health!? Michelangelo’s David blushes when he sees your weak upper body….. private parts chiseled legs. Why would you fall victim to such a pot mark on an otherwise perfect physique?” I have no idea.

Corns on your feet are very similar to warts, but fortunately they aren’t the kind that you have to call all of your past lovers and explain that they have to get tested. Score! Unfortunately, they are the kind that you have to take care of.  So, after (literally) 4 days of begging, my wife picked up some foot pads at Target and I’ve been wearing them ever sense.

Shame.  Note the Fat Tire beer to kill the bad feelings

Doesn’t look like much, but it feels like a thorn poking my foot with each step

Oval shaped padded relief

The pads have a little medicated disk that is basically the same ingredients as wart remover.  Here is what it looked like after 4 days of "treatment".  You can really see the corn hole (hehe) in this one.  Shortly after I took this picture I used a pumus stone to try to scrub it off.  Bad move.  Now it hurts even more than before!

What are some of the unintended side effects of everyone else's running?  It can't all be rainbows and unicorns for everyone, can it?

Although, putting a positive spin on it, I DO get to gross my wife out with pictures of my disgusting feet on my blog.  So, that is nice.

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Finally, since I KNOW that he loves been associated with this post.  Go check out Georgia Snail's blog for a great opportunity to help out his sister with winning a FREE wedding.  His little sister has an autistic son and a deployed husband-to-be.  Who wouldn't want to help them out!?!?  Here is where you can vote for them:
http://q108.upickem.net/engine/Details.aspx?p=V&c=25019&s=6454215&i=1  You have to sign up for a log in - but it is totally worth it.  Don't weddings cost like $4 million dollars each now?  That is what Bravo TV seems to show on all of their reality shows.

2011 Running Goals / Resolutions

Ah yes, the ubiquitous “goals” or “resolutions” post. You’ve seen them across the blogosphere or even posted on fridges. It seems that these posts go one of two directions: Throw a few wishy washy goals up that are either so immeasurable or easy that a drunken monkey could achieve them…. OR throw a million super hard specific goals up that only superman achieve.

Whelp, I decided to fall somewhere in the middle. So, I’ll have a Superman cape on, but I’ll be drunk.....and I'll be having a BLAST with the x-ray vision.

Here are my goals / resolutions for 2011.

Run a 3:15 marathon
Yeah, remember that I had a 3:20 marathon goal out there? I decided that since I couldn’t muster that in 3 tries, I’d just train for a 3:15 marathon instead – skip right over it. This is how my brain works. Can’t win the lottery? Just start digging for oil. Skip right over.

Make one attempt at a 3:10 marathon
During 2011, I WILL start a marathon running a 7:15 pace and hold on for dear life. In fact, I will probably start out closer to a 7:10 pace. I’m not saying that I will actually RUN a Boston Qualifying marathon time – but so help me, as long as I wish I was a member of N'Sync, I’m going to give it the college try. I’m really going to focus on quality marathons vs quantity this year which I think will help a lot.

Run a sub 18:30 5K
Run a sub 18:10 5K
That is 20 seconds faster than my current 5K PR.  I think I’ve farted longer than 20 seconds. I should be able to knock 20 seconds off a 5 THOUSAND meter race. Right? RIGHT? (In actuality, this will be pretty hard)   (Update: So, I've been writing these over the past 3 weeks or so and as it turns out, I sort of / kind of ran a 18:35ish 5K.  So, needed to kick this one up a notch.  BAM)

Do some form of core work after EVERY training run
One thing that I’ve been lacking this past year is poop jokes core work. I don’t at all consistently do core work and it is really the key to fast 5K times and not bonking during long runs. The trick here is that I’ll do it as part of my cool down / stretch routine so it will just seem like an extension of running.

To go from this:

Hopefully, to go to this:

Volunteer for at least one race
It is fun, you usually get a free shirt, and you sometimes get to meet cool online running buddies. Just like Wilford Brimley says: “There is just no reason not to”

Eat healthier

Yeah, this is my drunken monkey resolution. I thought about making this one “eat x vegitables a day” or “only eat french fries once a day” but in the end I’d like to make a bunch of little changes to help me be just a squeek heathier. All told, I sort of eat like a teenager….who just took a hit off of a massive bong and thereby has the munches – and I could probably clean that up a bit.

So, there they are! Hopefully I don’t need a superman cape for all of them. But, I think that they are just hard enough that I can’t be drunk the entire time and waltz right through them either.

Funny Foto Friday: Food Facts

Why don't I ever learn!?  I should know better than to cook bacon on the stove naked talk up an awesome run.  What the run gods giveth, the run gods taketh away.  No sooner did I have my best run in ages (my 8 mile marathon pace run) than I have one of my more crappy track sessions to date.

I wanted to do 8x400, but partially because I was running out of time and partially because my legs felt like they were filled with a combination of port a pot slurry and cement, I decided to cut it to only 6 repeats.  Frustrating.

But, today is a rest day.  For that, I am thankful!  My legs are feeling just a touch beat.


Make sure you read today's funny foto friday all the way through (including the sources at the bottom).  Awesome things include:

• Pies are delicious
• Juice boxes include pork (duh)
• Kick mother earth in the throat

Happy Friday!

I won! Probably because I'm stylish

First, thank you thank you thank you!!  The promise of either more race reports, giveaways, nude pictures, or poop stories convinced enough people to vote for my blog at everymantri.com!!  While I didn't win first (a Spanish blogger did), I did win second.  I'm number 2!!!  I'm number 2!!!!  Very fitting I'd say.  So, since I won some free blog loot, I'm going to pay it forward with another good giveaway sometime soon.

Second, I AM still running – quite well in fact. I even had a tempo run on Tuesday that didn’t make me want to strap on a pair of cleats and try to kick myself in the crotch. So, that is nice!

Tuesday: 7 miles @ 7:11 pace with 5 at 6:43 pace.
Well crap – I see why this run was so good, it was too slow!! Ha! Well, I suppose that this was a good training run for the half marathon that I have coming up in February. I’m going to try my best to hit 89:59 (sub 1:30). Hopefully I don’t poop myself trying.

Wednesday: 8 miles @ 7:19 marathon pace.
This.was.a.great.run. Actually, this morning’s run was the reason that I decided to do an actual ‘run review’ in this blog post. I normally take a solid 2-3 miles to start to hit any sort of groove, but during this run before I knew it I was already at mile #5! I honestly ran it a BIT too fast (goal was 7:25ish) but close counts with runs that good.

Finally, I was recently tagged for the stylish blogger award by Jen, Staci, and Detroit Runner.  I actually think I was tagged by another person as well but after 15 minutes of looking for the post I gave up.  PLEASE tell me if you tagged me as well :(  Blogger fail.

At first I thought it was a mistake.  Most of my style comes from a combination of doing whatever the Jonas Brothers do, that creepy host guy from the bachelor does (is it just me or can you totally see that guy rubbing one out in the bushes watching the girls at the pool?), and wearing whatever makes my "special area" tingly.  Example:

However, I must have known something was up this past fall, because I gave my victory jump some practice before the Rock and Roll San Antonio Marathon.  As you can see, with the self timer on the camera, I was less than successful:

In my head, I had envisioned a picture like this:

Opps, jumped too soon

(Still happy though - with ripped leg muscles)

Hmmm, didn't even jump for this one

Ahh yes, jumped, but too high

(This is when I just gave up)

Anywhoo, the rules of the game are name the seven dwarfs and which bloggers they remind you of share 7 things about yourself.  Here goes:

1.  Drinky the dwarf, Jamoosh.  While out of date, I actually listed off 100 things about myself when this blog was just a weeee lad and was busting the mailboxes of other blogs with a baseball bat.

2.  I was voted “most outgoing” in my high school class. Too bad they didn’t have a category for “most likely to post pictures of yourself on the toilet”. I would have NAILED that one.

3.  I can type something crazy like 90 words per minute. Unfortunately, that is mostly because I am an instant messenger whore. Because I travel for my job, so many of my friends live all over the country that is the only way that I can keep up with them.

4.  I’m currently not following any formal or structured running training plan and it bugs the shit out of me. Must change that soon. Until then, I’ll continue to run what I wanna run, say what I wanna say, and pee where I wanna pee.

5.  Mounty the dwarf, Andrew….or Neil Whenever I calculate the overall time that I need to run, I can’t help but fall back to my original long run pace of 10 minute miles. I have to remind/force myself that I’m now running 7:30 miles and will be done much sooner than I originally planned. Old habits may die hard, but speed is a fickle lover that will leave me at the first sign of a bag of Doritos. I’ve always got to be on my game.

6.  While up until 2 months ago, I would fly every single week, I had a lot of very strange very morbid tendencies. For example, I REALLY do not like to take standby flights. I can’t get the picture of the crying widow out of my head who sobs “if Adam just wouldn’t have taken the earlier flight!! But, thank goodness I upped his life insurance – who wants to go to vegas?”

7.  Poopy the dwarf, Beth I’ve made more friends than I could have ever expected while blogging. Blogging friends, you….complete me. **Makes heart shape with hands over chest**

Next up I need to tag some new bloggers whose blogs I have recently found.  I choose some of the recent comments on my last post about Rock and Roll Arizona:
2 Slow 4 Boston
Dash
Eat Drink and be Meiri
Lily on the Road
Nicole

Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon Expo

More often than not, each run serves a purpose.  They could be grand and holistic like "loose weight" or "look more like Matt Damon...naked" "Run a 3:10 marathon".  Or, they could be much more utilitarian - like "I just ate an entire box of cookies, better go for a run" or "go pick up your car you left at your in-laws after your brother in law's 30th birthday party."  (You know - just....examples)

So, yesterday morning I headed out for what turned out to be a 13 mile run.  I allowed myself to slow down a touch because I had been on my feet the entire day before and I had been out late at my brother in laws 30th birthday party.  So, I managed a 13.1 mile run in 1:42:00.

The reason I was so tired (other than being out so late) was that I had volunteered at the Rock and Roll Arizona Expo they day before.  Since I am a mega-huge Brooks shoe fan, I got hooked up with them and was able to hang out with other shoe fans for the entire day.  It was exhausting, I lost my voice, and my legs still hurt, but it was a BLAST.  The nervous excitement of all of the runners was infectious.

The Brooks booth carnival show.  Surprisingly entertaining.....the first 5 times you heard it.

The interesting thing about volunteering at a (very large) expo was that you got to do whatever you wanted to do see a little bit behind the scenes.  I was there on Saturday a full 30 to 45 minutes before the expo started and the silence was deafening.  Absent was the dull roar of people roaming the isles of booths or random medial cream and foot roller companies trying to get you within arms reach to shove free samples at you.

Packet pick up, 30 minutes before the expo start.  

I can already hear people bitching about being in the wrong coral

Only 2 hours later - it was like Wal-mart was having a sale on toilet paper and florescent green nail  polish

I didn't really mention this a lot because I was her guest, but RunningLaur is basically a big deal and was invited to interview Meb. The winner of the New York City Marathon, Meb?  2000 Olympic silver medalist Meb? I'm going to post our interview in detail later in the week but I can say that Meb is just as genuine as you would think he would be (very) and that I am taller than him.  So there is that - which is nice.

After the interview, I decided that I would take a long lunch break from handing out free T-Shirts and see what free loot the expo had to offer.  Ok....ok....  Honestly?  I saw people walking through the Brooks booth with wine in their hands and I wanted to see what the deal was.

Jamoosh would be proud - no MGD 64 for me.

No comment if there was any drunken heckling of the Miller girls

Success!!  I was able to sweet talk my way into TWO free samples

As you can see, I was excited

Although, I wasn't able to weasel my way into buying a bottle of the wine.  The PF Changs marathon logo on the side was similar to a stained glass (not a sticker) and VERY cool - but no amount of eye batting or white teeth flashing could get me a bottle.  Can you believe that!?

Wine in hand, I continued to (now a bit wobbly) walk the isles.  One of the best things about doing so many of the Rock and Roll races is that I've started to see some familiar faces.  It is always awesome to see friends that I've either ran with or chatted up at previous expos.  Of course that also means that, after 3 or 4 races, Lara Bar free sample girls know that you're NOT grabbing 2 handfuls of samples for "your other friends who are in the bathroom".

I ran into John, who was running the half and reads my blog.  Check him out on his twitter account!

SMS James and myself

Last year James ran ALL (14?) of the Rock and Roll races

Sarah Stanley who is a pro mega-endurance athlete, mega-philanthropist, and mega-nice gal

Oh, and Kara Goucher who is just mega hot

(she gets blown up to large size)

ChicRunner who was working one of the booths as part of her race promoting job

Finally, there is THIS GUY.  Speechless.  Simply, speechless. He not only walked around the expo in this outfit, but also ran the entire race with it on as well (I saw him on the news).  I actually took this picture secretly while chatting with ChicRunner.

If you look closely, you can see all of his......"muscles"

Either that or he keeps his wallet in the front....in the middle

Finally, do you ever wonder who the people are behind the large corporate twitter accounts?  I usually assume they are one of two things: 

1. Robots

2. Computer nerds that drink lots of Mt Dew and live in their mom's basement

However, I know of a few people who are the women behind the twitter accounts (all women so far), and it all instances they are neither robots nor computer nerds.  Who knew!?  While I had met her before, I chatted up Maya the voice behind the @RunRocknRoll twitter account.  Check her out on twitter for tons of sweet deals on compeditor races or check her out on facebook (where I just posted a ridiculous picture of myself).

Maya from competitor and myself

Kara just happened to be in the background

Oh, and I guess someone told me that people actually ran a race today? 25,000 finishers for the full and the half?  Huh, how about that.  Congrats to all of the finishers!

Funny Foto Friday: Manly? Not so Manly

This week on twitter, I've gone back and forth with a few twitter buddies about plucking eyebrows.  (Tricia from Endurance isn't only Physical, Gene from Accountability and Stephanie from her twitter page (who needs to start a blog).)  Turns out, if I don't wax my eyebrows about every 4 weeks, I end up looking like cousin IT from Adam's family Bert from Sesame street:

Roommates people.
They are roommates

I've been doing it for 15 years or so of my 29 years of life so I don't give it a second thought.  However, some people might think that this is a bit less than manly.  If they only knew about the other man-scaping that I do.

In the spirit of all things manly, I give you a simple quiz:  Manly?  Not so manly?

Bacon Candle?  Manly

Wearing a kick-ass coat.  Manly (And possibly a little bit Ke$ha if he is also using the whiskey as toothpaste)

THIS "Guy"....Not so manly.  (He has to be a man because the boobs aren't fuzzed out - right?)

Happy Friday!!

Also, it isn't too late to vote for me for the Top Endurance Blog of the Year! I'm actually in second place and have been bouncing between first and second.  Hooray! http://www.everymantri.com/everyman_triathlon/2011/01/and-the-2010-top-ten-best-endurance-sports-blogs-are.html

Traveling Routine & A favor to ask....

First, the favor I suppose.....  I must have tricked someone with either a naked picture of myself (here, here, or here if you are interested.....perv) or possibly a crude poop joke or two because I was nominated as one of the "2010 Top Ten Best Endurance Sports Blogs".  Check the list out on EveryManTri.com.  There are some MEGA bloggers on there - Steve in a Speedo or DC Rainmaker to name a few.

So, if you would like, head over to http://www.everymantri.com/everyman_triathlon/2011/01/and-the-2010-top-ten-best-endurance-sports-blogs-are.html and click the little voter button by whichever blog you want.  If it is mine - cool.  If not, that is just fine too.  I'm honestly not in the same league as some of those bloggers and am just excited to be a part of the running.

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How many unread blogs I have right now. Ugg

As I was sitting around before my run on the toilet waiting for my coffee to kick in (if you know what that means, you're reading the right blog) I saw a post by Andrew at Running Man WannaBe.  He was tagged for the Stylish Blogger Award (I was too - by Rose! Hooray!)  One of his 7 things about him was as follows: "I get excited when Adam reads a month's worth of blog one evening and then pees on the corner posts".  Guilty.  (By the way, the run was 8 miles at 7:25 pace - very solid run)

I seem to be a bit of a binge blog reader as of late which I think is mostly due to the fact that I am now working in town.

For those of you that don't remember, I'm a traveling consultant.  I posted about it a bit a few months back.  I travel around to various clients every single week, Monday through Thursday.  EVERY.WEEK.  So, up until a few weeks ago, all of my running was done in and around hotels.  It took some getting used to - but after a while just like the herps it is all that I have ever known so it becomes the norm.

Now however, I'm at home!  Hooray!!  However, my habits have certainly changed.  Gone are my 2 hours a day of mindlessly surfing the internet in my underwear - only putting on pants frantically when room service arrives..... usually.  Instead, I do the family man thing.  Hang with the kiddo, make dinner, and take out the trash - the first two of course being pants optional.  It has been a life altering change - for the better.  However, it is different, and that takes some time.

Has anyone else experienced a change recently that threw them into a totally new routine?  New Job?  New kid? New poop schedule? New running partner?

But, I suppose it is all for the better.  This little guy (after spitting up and looking rather surprised at mom taking a picture of it) is worth it.